James - A 10'x10'x10'deep pond will be like a big box buried in your back yard. Esentially you are talking about somesort of backyard lily pond. 10 ft deep is very deep for a pond that has 10'x10' surface size. I do not even know if this is physically possible if the basin is dug from soil. It will essentially be similar to a hole dug for a grave. Vertical sides will want to cave-in or slough slide due the consistancy and behavior of even very good clay soil when flooded with water.
Unless you have exceptionally good clay soil you will need a "rubber" liner to keep the pond from excessively leaking. A quality rubber liner that is not fish toxic will probably consume a good part of your $400 budget. Note cheap rubber roofing material can be toxic to fish. In my opinion and realistically, the deepest you can expect to have a pond that is only 10'x10' is 3-4 ft deep.
In a couple cases, I have seen very small ponds with trout raised in a very small area such as 10'x10' and smaller - both ponds were cement basin ponds. However for this to succeed the water cannot get higher than 68F, 20C. The small ponds that I saw were successful ONLY because they had either spring or well water CONSTANTLY flowing through them, similar to what Cecil Baird does with his trout pond. For you raise trout, you will also have to do something similar to this. Flowing well-spring water not only provides cool temperatures essential for trout, but flowing water flushes nutrients and waste materials out of the very small volume of water the fish live in. Filtration will not be acceptable to maintain healthy trout and stay in your budget.
Your other option is to build the 3-4ft deep lily pond and stock it with 5-10 BG, all the same sex - preferably males in the 5"-8" size range. Stocking 5-10 adult BG will reqire good water filtration that includes very good biofiltration AND good mechanical filtration. The larger the filter the better. You cannot have too much water filtration when raising fish in a small water body. This will depleate your budget. Trying to maintain a predator fish in a very small pond will keep you constantly busy finding food or depleating your budget buying food for one to two 8"-12" bass - not practical for your situation. Bgill that you train to eat pelleted fish food will be much easier, cheaper, less time consuming and easier to raise. Maintaining these fish in the 4 ft deep pond during your harsh Ontario cold winters will be pretty difficult, but maybe not impossible. I would plan to eat the fish at the end of each year and restock every spring.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 09/02/07 08:30 PM.
