Getting closer to implementing my barrels for structure idea. We finally got the Vertex aerators going on both lakes and they are each turning over 1X per day.

I came across a winery looking to offload a bunch of discards (food-grade plastic 55 gallon barrels, steel wine barrel racks (~40#), etc, etc). My buddy brought me 1/2 dozen 59 gallon Oak winebarrels yesterday. I'm going to sink a plastic and oak barrel together on a steel wine rack also putting a good amount of sand / gravel on the side and see how they do over time (side by side comparison). Out here it is not a problem to get the barrels (there are hundreds of wineries within a 1 hour drive), it is just a matter of seeing how much good they will do. The barrel racks are such that you can stack them and I will likely stack 2 and 2 barrels (kind of a PondBoss meets Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window). All will be secured with a nylon rope. Max depth on our lakes is 14' and I will sink singles in the 8-10' depth and double stacks in the 12-14' depths.

We are also looking to cut a number of winebarrels in half and introduce Lilypads to our lakes in about 4' of water. This will be for shade and cover.

I enjoyed the article on creating structure in last month's PondBoss mag. I will be building some of the PVC/drainpipe trees and sinking them.

I'm going back for more winery discards today.