Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - New lake, aeration, Tannins, ice etc.

Hi all, I've been reading over the forum and the content is amazing thanks very much for all your help! That being said I can't seem to find some info, so here is my project and conditions.

I've had an old lake excavated down to a mix of clay and clay/gravel, pretty clean stuff that leaves no grey silt when messed with.

5 acres in size, kidney bean shaped.

average depth 7 feet, down to 10/12 in areas.

trickle stream in from upper ponds that I can control.

Some spring input

Water goes from cold to warm when swimming in it, not sure if it is spring action or just deeper colder water being churned by wave action.

DO testing shows 4ppm at 2 feet down and 7ppm at 6 inches down, 3 years ago before i excavated I tested the lake in the winter and was getting 3 to 4 ppm under the ice, 7.5 ph.

PH currently shows 7.5

Very little to almost no weeds.

I've introduced about 500 sunfish and a few thousand minnows to it and i can see the swimming around and hitting bugs etc.

I've refilled the lake after it was excavated from a massive upper pond that has lots of tannins in it, my new lake is very dark which I suspected would happen and also expect it to clear out after the first and second winter with fall rain/winter snow/spring melt off.. Before the lake was excavated it was crystal clear....but the otters blew the dam so it was time to rebuild everything.

So, that's the history and now I'm wondering about aeration. Because this lake is so new but with tannin rich pond water can I safely aerate it from no on? I'd like to start the process so I can keep the ice off part of it this winter for photosynthesis and to give what fish i have in there a helping hand.

And, should I place the diffusers at about half depth as to not turn over the depths in the winter?

Are the tannins going to be affected by the aeration and in turn affect the fish?

I have a 270W panel, large airpump, controller, diffusers etc.

Many thanks for your input!

Lou

Thanks for the info everyone. I just did a few samples yesterday, PH 7.8, DO 7ppm, water temps 26 at surface 22 at 2 feet under. The water mixes warm and cold all over the lake - hard to stay in a warm spot for long.

I put a go pro under the water in a clump of old vegetation that is now submerged and it is full of sunfish, I was worried that the wee sunfish i put in about an inch long would be dead but they are all over the place intermingled with the ones up to about 4 inches. The full grown sunfish travel the whole lake.

We have now put about 3000 minnows in the lake about half and half dace and FHM along with about 100 mud minnows, I wasnt seeing any of them in the big area until yesterday - the whole shoreline all around the lake is alive with new tiny minnows - seems that they have been busy....

One thing I notice in the underwater cam is the amount of plankton is crazy, giant waves of it in the water column.

I've just set up my solar aerator system to keep the ice from forming this winter in one end....ill post pics.

Cheers

There are multiple "tannin reports" on Pond Boss that are binary. Either, most of the fish died when the oak brush piles got flooded, or all of the fish appeared to do just fine.

I have personally caught LMB from tiny ponds with black water where the oak forest was encroaching on the shoreline so closely you could barely cast. Yet other people have reported that when their pond picked up a light stain they then suffered a large fish kill.

I suspect some aspect of the pond water chemistry affects the tannin molecules and renders them inert in terms of harming the fish in some of the cases. However, I have never read on Pond Boss (or elsewhere) what water factors are important in determining tannin toxicity. That would surely be a useful bit of information to have!

Rod, in those ponds where the tannin appeared suddenly and the fish died, the tannin could have disrupted the amount of sunlight getting to the plants in the pond. Enough could have died to create a low DO event and that's why the fish died. Up in the Northern part of the US there are heavily tannin stained waters and the fish do fine. Those lakes don't have high fertility, and don't have a high fish population either........

Ive made a quick fish and minnow vid for interest sake - everyone loves videos!