Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat New build

bob,

There have been multiple threads on the forum where people killed fish or had a failure to thrive after the initial pond fill-up with numerous oak trees in the pond.

There have also been people replying in those threads, that they had oaks in their ponds, but did not observe any problems.

Therefore, I would speculate that oaks MIGHT be a problem! But since we know oaks CAN be a problem, I would definitely err on the side of caution.

In addition to the absolute concentrations of tannins in the pond water, the local chemistry of your water and pond soil probably also makes a difference?

Perhaps get your FHMs in the pond now that the oaks are covered and observe their ongoing survival.

In my experience with oak forest ponds, tannin-rich pond water has a characteristic look. The waters that I have seen, are quite clear, but stained various shades of brown. Like weak tea to very strong tea.

If you are worried, you might be able to flush some tannins now that your stumps are submerged. If you are experiencing sufficient rainfall to fill your pond in the desired time frame, you could let out some water now. Maybe drain so the top of the stumps are exposed, and then let the rain submerge them again.

P.S. In the tannins/fish kill threads, I do not recall anyone mentioning any problems with any tree types other than oaks.