Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Property Projects & Construction building a waterflow system

i have a 5 acre pond, average depth is about 5 feet. it's kind of stagnant, lots of floating green algae, water has uniform green bits of algae floating throughout. i have a few aerators, but not nearly as many as i should have.

i also have a 1 acre pond, 12 feet deep. it has a little island in the middle of it. when i built it, i installed this 'lazy river' type of system on the bottom which encircles the island. the water flow system i built looks like this:




anyway, the 1 acre pond also has a single 1/2 HP rocker aerator piped to 2 spots and it has beautiful clear water.

the 5 acre pond is pretty bad.

i'm guessing it's because one has moving water, and the other doesn't.

i'm thinking about building a big system for the 5 acre pond. i think it'll clear things up and really make it nice. i was wondering if anyone else has made a "moving water flow" type of system with their ponds.

Not me but welcome to Pond Boss

I am not an expert, but aeration versus algae is a frequent topic on Pond Boss.

I think the consensus is that aeration is NOT an effective deterrent to algae formation and growth.

I suspect the smaller pond being 12' deep has a much greater effect on your water quality.

Do you currently have valuable fish in the small pond? If not, then perhaps you could run an experiment and turn off your aeration in the small pond for a month. Observe the algal growth, and determine if the aeration is a significant factor.

Hopefully some of the experts will drop into your thread.

Good luck on improving the water quality of your big pond!

i don't have fish in the small pond, so i can experiment, but the weather is starting to cool and i don't think i have time to really see if i can get algae to grow.

so, you guys have never heard of anyone putting in a pump to circulate water in their pond before? i just don't have any idea if this is a normal thing to do or not.

This is Pond Boss, not Pond "middle manager". We welcome novel ideas and departures from normal!

Personally, I couldn't figure out how your "lazy river" effect was created. Do your water flow ejectors have directional nozzles?

There have been several good water circulation threads on the forum. I think from commercial scale down to people with tiny garden ponds with water falls.

I am NOT an expert, but I believe the consensus for overturning water is that diffuser aeration systems provide the most circulation for watt of electricity used. For water circulation in the same plane, then I suspect a water nozzle system with a centrifugal pump is probably the most efficient.

It will be interesting to observe the fish behaviors in your pond due to a preference for the lazy river area after you stock that pond!

yep, the water flow ejectors are just directional nozzles. for the small pond i use a pentair water pump, but for the big pond i'm thinking about using some kind of submersible.

i'll try searching around the forum to see what kind of circulation systems people have used.

Thanks for the clarification.

Do you observe any of your pond critters enjoying the lazy river?

Even if you can't scale up that project to your big pond, perhaps you could sink a brush pile (or similar structure) and make a lazy river around that. I suspect that would be a unique niche in your pond for whichever creatures find that particularly attractive.

Pre; I just knew someone else had done this. When doing a massive rebuild of a 1/4 acre mud hole ( couple dozen Koi from previous owner ) to a 1.8 Acre pond , less Koi , we buried an 1.25 HDPE electrical the length of the pond, well, ditch and labor were pd for. So, dropped in the ditch 2 more 1.25 lines, one from Water Well #1 , and for a circulation pump in 10' of water, 1HP. It moves water to the upper end of the pond and then between the pump pulling and excess water at top end, we have current the length of the pond. The discharge is about 1000.' from the pump and in a narrow channel, too narrow for diffusers to work efficiently. (30-35' wide and 250' long to the Pond opening up. This is prePondboss for me, It works, don't want to know monthly E costs, when water is pretty, most of time, I shut it off, if water gets cloudy, algae, just not pretty, then, I burn the cash and it pretty's up. Use it until new rains freshen the entire pond. It's actually off much more than on , that end of pond has 5 sidewall springs that run 24-7 ?280-320? days out of the year, none are big , probably 3-6 gpm each and that helps a lot, I think. Extended drought, I kick on that circulation. Hope that helps you, hope my explanation was understandable. God bless, good luck in your endeavors. Oh, WW #1, (Have 3, 2 240VAC , 1 Solar ) It and WW#2 run when we drop to minimum pool, that I wish to maintain . #1 flows into far west end and #2 flows into far east end. Solar , year round , into center of pond.