Pond Girl, here is my take on your CC stocking in your size pond.I would stock up to 100 (per acre) with other fish in a non feeding situation,unless you plan on harvesting on a regular basis then perhaps 200 per acre, feeding in small ponds as GW eludes to can cause problems from both digested and undigested nutrients.A small pond is a lot easier to manage without supplemental feeding, (feed a few for fun is not as much of a problem.) Stock 1500 per acre in ponds over an acre with a supplemental feeding program in a CC only pond and up to 7000 per acre for the experts doing it commercially.The later two programs would be harvested on a regular basis with DO monitoring equipment.My comment on duckweed was to get one thinking about altering a natural condition, Not a problem taking DW out but those nutrients will be there for something else to take avantage of, perhaps something not as invasive as DW.All water bodies have the POTENTIAL to pull more DO than a system can supply thus one could say that any aeration system has the "potential" to be undersized. In the situation of Donnie Castle any system in my opinion would of been undersized for as Cary put it "The Potential"as when a bloom starts to go south it happens faster than aeration can supply DO.A backup plan is fine but I would consider pulling some CC out when it is feasible (fish fry)Your water looks turbid and that normally does not lead to planktonic algae, that many CC may keep things stirred up but that also lowers DO levels, its all about balance and I dont want to see your situation get out of balance.We have had 5 situations of fish kills in ponds under 1 acre in the last 2 weeks and two of them had Kasco surface aerators which do a fine job, In all situations the fish stocking was heavy and created a demand that outweighed the supply,then you start over.
