Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site Please help newbie pond builder

For fish food, I believe you would be better off buying it. The decades of experience that the people at Optimal have in producing fish food for the aquaculture industry, now the pond owner market can't be duplicated in one person's lifetime.

As for aeration, the ponds consume O2 at night (any plankton, plants or organisms in the pond all consume O2 when there isn't sunlight) so the most critical time to aerate the pond is at night, especially the hours before sunrise. There are solar systems to purchase, but they are way more expensive than grid based systems. You will need batteries for aeration at night. Look and read a lot of threads in the section of aeration forums here, much has been posted already.