Waterloo:
I have trout in Norther Michigan and gone through one failure (all died) four years ago, to a great success in 2006 and still going. The trout are up to 20" and thriving. My pond is also 1/3 acre and more shallow than yours.
you mentioned you had 55 gpm??? Is that true? IF so, 55 gpm = 3,300 gph and 79,200 gallons per day, more than enough to raise trout. Seems your calculation on this may have been a bit optimistic? I have a combined 30 gpm (both wells combined (one artesian and one pumped) and that is barely enough to do the trick during the summer
The secret weapon for trout if you don't have a small spring fed river flowing into your pond (one guy I know has a 500 gpm artesian well (read river) feeding his commercial trout operation, is a thermostat on your aerator.
ACF Greenhouse sells a RANCO brand 220 volt thermostat- I have on my aerator. Consider this temp scenario
85 - day temp / 60 night temp
92 day temp / 68 night temp
87 day temp / 72 night temp
With this kind of high / low daily temp, you don't want to aerate 24/7. It will simply cook your pond unless back to point #1- you have a HUGE cold well feeding the pond or a spring fed river flowing in etc.
If you have the thermostat cut the aerator OFF when it hits about 70, then you protect the pond from convection over-heating. In Norther Michign, we are blessed with 2/3 of summer nights are cool (60 or lower), so the aerator runs all night if it dips below my setting of 65 and cools th epond off. Some nights when it drops as low as 40 (even in July) it will cool a 70 degree pond by a full 2 degrees. Not sure how cool your nights are, but it's a thought.
