This is a timely thread. I hosted an ice skating/bonfire/dog sledding event last weekend and cleared the pond of snow down to essentially glare ice (cloudy, not clear this year). Although my motivation to do this was for ice skating, it wasn't lost on me that the extra sunlight should give the DO a boost. I use a 40hp tractor with a front mounted snowblower, then drop the back blade to skim off the remainder.

In retrospect, I suppose I could have taken a sample and analyzed it for DO before and after. Unfortunately, the big snow storm that hit the Right Coast laid down another 15" of snow within 48 hours of clearing it so it's dark down there again. After reading this thread, I'll get back out there on the tractor this weekend to clear a path around the shore for skating, but I doubt I'll clear the whole pond again this year. A 12' wide path around the shore edge will hopefully be adequate to keep some O2 production during these cold months. If I remember to, I'll auger a hole to get a sample to test my DO currently.

For what it's worth, I added 750 pounds of ag salt to the pond about a month ago. I didn't do it quite as suggested by Rod, although that thought went through my mind. The pond already was pretty locked in ice for the season, but there is an inflow and outflow that are running. I've never tested the volume, but I suspect it is 25-50 GPM. It flows quickly enough that it didn't freeze even in our -10F temps. Anyways, I poured the ag salt in a small pool area at the inflow and allowed the current to dissolve it. I checked a week later and it was all gone.

My motivation to do so was a water test I had done by Texas A&M that showed my salinity was 0.031 ppt (optimal range 0.5-3ppt). They suggested "150-200 lbs of non-iodized stock salt per acre foot of water to get them into the optimal range for fish". That would be about 3,000 lbs of salt total. I bought all that the ag store had, figuring something was better than nothing. I'll send off another sample, however I wonder if it will all just wash out eventually given that I have a constant flow of water going through. I suppose the results of the next sample should help answer that.