Welcome to Pond Boss!

Lots of semi-complicated questions in your post above.

Yes, the plant materials in your lake will generate a small amount of organic "muck" on the bottom of your pond. IMO, it is far important to keep all of the OTHER organic debris out of your pond.

What is the water source for your lake? Is it a small, seasonal creek? Is it just surface water runoff from the watershed above the pond? The organics from those sources are far easier to control than the ones that actually exist within the life cycle inside your pond. Keep all of those leaves, pine needles, grass cuttings, etc. out of your pond.

The other thing to exclude from your pond are "fertilizers", either natural or man-made. Are there any fertilized agricultural fields in your watershed? Any livestock animals?

You also need to identify the submerged vegetation that is getting out of hand. Read some of the posts in the identifying plants sub-forum. If you can't identify your plant, then you will learn how to send proper pictures to Pond Boss to aid in the identification. One you know the exact plant types, there are plenty of experts on the forum that can help with your control/eradication.

Another option is to plant some beneficial plants to take up some of the fertilizer in your pond and deny it to the undesirable plants. There are some types of submerged plants, and some emergent shoreline plants good for that duty.

Pond dyes may also be beneficial in retarding the growth of submerged nuisance plants and filamentous algae.


As regards your aeration questions - there are multiple experts on that topic in the forum that can help you with that.

You are correct the aeration brings up anoxic water from the bottom of the pond into the zone where your fish are living. However, that is only true at the startup of aeration. That is why you start your system using baby steps.

You can put the aeration diffusers on stands to keep them off of the bottom. The concept of a thermal refuge at the bottom of the pond does sound attractive for "cold water" species such as you have stocked. However, in practice the fish will not go into the cooler but anoxic water at the bottom of the pond during peak summer. They will prefer slightly warmer, but well oxygenated water.

In addition to keeping your fish happy, the aerators will serve the dual purpose of keeping some of the fine organic debris suspended in the aerated water column. This will allow aerobic bacteria to break down the organic material. This should serve to significantly reduce your muck accumulation rate on the bottom of your pond.

Off topic: I like the fish species in your new pond, but you do not appear to have any species that will provide long-term forage for your fish at the top of the food chain. Did you just list your predator fish? If not, you may need to start a new thread about balance for your pond, otherwise your main species may experience very slow growth.

Congratulations on your new pond!