Hi, I'm wondering about aeration time for a pond I just stocked with trout.
It's an older natural improved pond about 1/3 of an acre, roughly 130 long and 100 feet across, max depth in the middle is 6-7 feet.
I've been running a bottom diffuser aerator for 10 hours a night for almost 2 month now. Water temps are currently 62 surface, 58 bottom, recently dropped. Air temps have been high in the 50's and low in mid 30's for the past 5-6 days.
I'm wondering if with just stocking today 20 15-16" rainbow trout and about a dozen 10-12" brown trout, if I should change the aeration length as they adapt to the pond? Possibly making it shorter the first night and slowly increasing each night, like you're suppose to do when introducing air into a pond for the first time.. ?
Or am I better off just keeping the same aeration schedule that I've been running? It's kept the temps down but I'm also wondering about DO for the trout.. I do not have a meter.
Any quick advice is greatly appreciated, thanks!