Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - Your biggest mistake.

Hello.

The first time I make a pond the second year I put 100 Rainbow trout, I give them pellets all the summer, at the Autumn they were big and fat, but in Winter I let the ice cover all the pond with snow, I didn't put aerator and I didn't make a hole in the ice for the gaz to escape.

So in the spring, Surprise all the fish was dead.

After I bought some books and I find Pond Boss.

And you, what is your biggest mistake in your pond

A+

Consider that a larger pond takes longer to get problems but when those problems arise it takes a lot more money to fix those problems - sometimes it becomes cost prohibitive. Keep in mind that pond chemicals are expensive. It does not take big water to grow big fish. It takes better, wiser management to grow big fish, not big water.

As a lake management consultant, and owner of a lake management company, I get to see, first hand, many mistakes by pond owners. The biggest one, by far, is "You don't know what you don't know."
Every one has great intentions. Build the best lake on the planet, or have a nice pond, pristine water, and soothing. Whatever the mission. Mistakes are often made because that landowner hasn't completely thought through their goals, and then have a good enough understanding of their resources (money, dirt, knowledge), and then how to put those things together with a well-designed plan. I can't tell you how many times I've looked at a leaky pond...because something wasn't taken care of during construction. People commonly go over-budget with construction and try to "make it up" by scrimping on their fish stocking plan. Habitat is a big one. People think about their top end fish, but not the forage fish which feed them. The majority of "mistakes" could be prevented with just a little bit more knowledge. But, the problem with that circles back to "we don't know what we don't know."
One thing I've learned during the last 4 decades of this stuff is that we never know enough (including me). But, with the resources available in today's world, knowledge should be the least of our worries.

Like a lot of folks, I have made my share of mistakes.
I am a "do it yourself" kind of guy, so I have made mistakes doing a lot of different things, and building a pond started a whole new list. For starters, I was told after I dug my pond for the first time, a half acre would cost so much, not sure how much, but lets say $5,000. So I built it myself, remember I said first time, and only spent about $7,000. Felt like it was too small, so I enlarged it, another $7,000. Now I got my wife to agree, we need to enlarge it again, and make it deeper, so I rented a bigger excavator, and a larger bulldozer. Not going to say how much this time, but I CAN say, I did it MYSELF, every dollars worth. Lesson 1, doing it yourself can get costly.
Then I planted trees so close to the shore, that I could not get my mower safely between the tree and the water. Lesson 2, plant anything close to the water far enough to give your mower at least two passes.
Thought I would raise some tilapia over one winter. Built a greenhouse out of plastic, bought some 300 gallon tanks, several pumps and aerators, and added 4 females and 2 males. Babies came in quick, had to add more aeration and pumps. Added 60 gallon electric water heater and 1000 watt lights to keep water and air warm, maybe too warm. Then electric bills started coming in. Normal for this time of year was about $300-$400 for property. Dec $900, Jan $1200, Feb $2500. Wife called and said I was going to have to sell my new boat. Me, the boat, and the tilapia made it to spring, but not by much. Lesson 3, visit Todd Overton in the spring for Tilapia, a lot cheaper then raising them myself, at least for now, or until she forgets how much I spent.
PS when the power goes out, and you have two tanks full of tilapia, you PANIC, especially when you are at work. Good reason for a big generator.
Loved every minute of it!!