Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - My first fish kill

I had a feeling it was coming because of all the excess plant life in the pond. But I can't say it was the only reason I found 16 HSB dead and floating over the past two days. Most were the larger HSB in the pond with some going up to 7 or 8 lbs. So here is what I think happened. First off about 70% of the pond has vegetation in it which I have been told will lower DO at night. I increased the aeration run time from 3 hrs to 4.5 hrs running it only during night and early morning and we had 3 days of heavy rains with most every morning till noon where it was cloudy. Looking back I wished I had not run the aeration at all and almost did not run it because of all the vegetation. I ran it with a very slow start up and the fish died when I increased the run times. The system had run for a week @ 3 hrs per night but when I increased run time to 4.5 hrs the fish died. I think it was a combination of low DO due to plants but when adding the diffusers run times to the Pond it brought up dead water reducing the DO even more and it also increased the water temps. One thing I noticed this summer is the water temps were much cooler than other summers due to shading from the plants. So. Plants, aeration and water temperature along several cloudy days killed of the fish. I have only found one dead lmb about two weeks ago, it was in the 4lb range. No CNBG or RES have been seen dead and or floating. This morning the fish were actively feeding. Highflyer and I had a conversation a few weeks back about the numbers of HSB in the pond. He thought I had too many per acre and I can't rule this out either. I continue to run the diffusers @ 4.5 hrs but no plans on increasing run times.

I would suggest that anyone who has Bushy Pondweed (Southern Naiad) you need to get rid of it as soon as you first see it in the pond. In my pond it is a very aggressive growing pondweed and grew so fast I did not realize how fast it can take over a pond. Seemed like it had taken over in just a couple of weeks. You can't kill it off in the summer because treatment can kill the fish so it's pretty much mechanical removal and I'm not so sure you can keep up with it's growth. you can kill it off in very early spring using a contact herbicide. And maybe treat it in late Nov or early Dec will see if that works. Ok, I'm through venting.

I am sorry to hear about the bad news. Here is take home message, in my opinion.

Diffused air systems are not all they are hyped up to be. Many of my clients have had fish kills even with diffused air systems in place. Many have killed their fish by creating turn-over. Once you get these systems going, don't use a timer, run em 24/7 through the growing season.

Pond more than 10' deep? Run a surface aerator in addition to the diffused air system.

Pond less than 10' deep? Run a good surface aerator and forget about diffused air.

Nothing can take the place of a good surface aerator. If you have lots of pondweeds then stay away from units with a bottom screen that may get clogged up and require lots of maintenance.

This advise is for Tracy direct: Get yourself a 2HP paddlewheel from AES for $1321 and be done with it for good:

https://pentairaes.com/paddlewheel-aerators-for-aquaculture-waste-water.html

Get an extra replacement motor just in case, so you'll have it when you need it.

Those don't come with power cable, so you need to supply that yourself. You will be off the races, and hopefully won't have to worry about this happening again.

It sure is frustrating to watch as an industry steers pond owners towards towards ineffective, high maintenance, and expensive products, while there are more efficient and effective solutions hidden in plain sight.

Dragonfly Naiads are painful, probably what you have. they'll make you bleed..:-))

Steve, the reason why I'm interested in the solar is for exactly what you brought up. Elec Co Ops are expensive when it comes to electric bills. I also understand that A good hatchery, like Overton's should make enough to cover electrical expenses where a private pond owner may not be able to justify the expense. But on the other hand if you want a 3 acre pond that will support more than a couple of double digit lmb the cost to do so is not cheap. And a fish kill will cost you some money also. Considering what it cost to grow out some DD lmb. You are looking at the price of the lmb genetics, forage fish, grass carp, herbicides, daily supplemental feeding the forage fish, shock surveys, aeration and time and labor (effort) just to mention a few cost and if you want to do this in a short period of time, there will be supplemental forage fish stocking, or the cost for a forage fish pond with more supplemental feeding. Hobbies are not cheap!