Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions Newly rehab pond aeration and management

Hi , I have a recently (in the last year) rehabilitated pond in western Oregon. The pond is spring fed and stays relatively cold all year, never above 70F. The pond base is primarily river rock. The main part of the pond is 60’ wide by 200’ long is roughly 12’ deep at the deepest point. There are a lot of trees (both conifers and deciduous) so over time it will debris from those trees. The pond was shallower prior to rehab but has always been very clear. The ultimate goal is to have this be a stocked rainbow trout pond that is good for swimming and recreation. Since it is clear right now, I want to keep it clear and keep the fish alive, and I understand that an aerator system will help. What advice would you give me on implementing a system and system design? The pond is 20’ from the house so power is no problem.

With regard to stocking and food chain, I have stocked the pond with 200 6-8” trout and plan on having this be a trout pond. During the rehab I discovered the pond had a ton of bull frogs and a school of Red side shiners. Any advice on food chain would would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome to Pond Boss!

We do have some trout experts and also some aeration experts. I am neither, so hopefully they will drop into your thread!

You say your pond is spring-fed. Does it ever get enough rain or snow run-off to flow water over your dam? That is my main concern. If so, then you probably need to work on your pond outflow design to pass water and retain your trout.

If you have that in place, then making some investments of time and money such that your trout will thrive sounds like a good plan to me!

Good luck on your pond improvement project.

Thanks FishinRod
The pond has a culvert in place to protect from overflow. Thanks for the reply.

Kirrb:

I hope you like swimming in cold water, the trout need water that is no more than 70°F to live in. Warmer than that and they usually croak unless steps are taken to ensure O2 levels are higher than usual. That might mean running one or more "volcano" type agitators to keep O2 levels up over 7.0 mg/l.

Thanks esshup
Yes we are going to have to swim in colder water, and unfortunately there isn’t really much I can do to
Change that because the water coming up from the multiple springs stays pretty cold. Do you have any advice about what would be a good aeration system?r

In a 7/8 acre pond we were able to keep Golden Rainbow Trout alive up to 80°F water temp by running both a Vertex HF3 system with 4 diffusers (3/4 hp motor) Plus an Otterbine High Volume pond agitator.

Otterbine

[video:youtube][/video]

Trout in 80 degree water is awesome, esshup!

I don’t think my water will get to 80, but that looks like a sweet system. I really just want to keep the water clear, and from what I understand aeration is the right way to do that. Am I correct? Also, if the water stays cold, how much aeration is needed?

The only answer to your question that I know won't cause you problems is to have enough aeration so the O2 levels never drop below 7 mg/l, even at night.

Aeration won't "keep the water clear" but managing the nutrients in the pond will.

The only way I know to do both at the same time is to use the aeration system that Natural Lake Biosciences has. It will inject O2 below the thermocline and it can also inject alum to mitigate the P in the water. You can adjust the amount of alum to strip more P, which will give you clearer water.