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by buck dog |
buck dog |
I am in a aeration dilema. I have 2 1/2 yr old pond of 1.1 acres max depth 20 ft avg depth probably 12ft made by damning up a ravine. I heavily stocked it 1200bg, 400 redears, 400 bg hybrids, 300 lg mouth bass, 75 cat fish, 15 grass carp. the pond gets fertilized and the fish are all fed, lots of the bass eat pellets too. the fish have grown rapidly 16 in bass, 8-9 inch gills, lg catfish etc. I keep algae at bay but had a nasty attack of Niaad weed, i eradicated it well in 3 partial tx with diquat. for my purposes my pond is doing very well. It is tree lined and will eventually get mucked up. Should I just leave well enough alone or aerate??? Aeration will be a project as will have to run 400ft of electric plus costs of system. Thus I am torn 50/50 on the decision. Any thought on the issue will be greatly appreciated!
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by ewest |
ewest |
UPDATE on aerators, water temperature, fish feeding activities: 1. ...stripers feeding, gusto gone, but still seemingly in numbers; 2...caught largest yet 21 inch striper, 7 inches wide, nearly 2 inches thick, ... will they reach 10+ pounds in three years? 3.... can the large stripers catch and eat these large shiners? 1. HSB will feed at much lower temps than LMB/BG. Studies show HSB feeding at 40 F +-. Use better quality food (high % proteins and lower % carbs) if possible. 2. HSB can reach 10 lbs. especially with good quality feed -- at 3 yrs possibly but for sure by 5 yrs. 3. 6 lb + HSB can eat 7-8 inch shiners without issue.
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1 member likes this |
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by buck dog |
buck dog |
setter guy your pond seems very similar to mine and i am indeed in no rush to spend a few thousand for an aeration system if its not really needed?? And in fact turning over the water with the aeration might result in an inadvertant fish kill? I have a old 1/2 acre pond on the property aka 20plus yrs old that has never been aerated but is significantly shallower max depth 11ft and have never had a fish kill. also same as you ponds dont freeze over most yrs for very long some yrs never. Just not convinced and would really be scared of spending lots of time and money then turn on the system for even the start of 15 minutes and blast up some fish toxic gases or de oxygenated water from the bottom and kill lots of fish in a perfectly fine ecosystem. just seems risky to me. I understand stratification of lakes and ponds and turnover and those are natural for bodies of water. BG and LB arent going 20 ft to bottom of a spring fed pond anyhow so it is kinda moot to say there needs to be plenty of dissolved oxygen at 20 ft or not. bacteria still can breakdown material be it aerobic or anaerobic. So i guess i am still not sold on aeration being the end all to prevent a fish kill, but agree it could help prevent or it could cause a fish kill too
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by esshup |
esshup |
Following along. FYI, my pond is 7 yrs old now. One ac, surrounded by trees, so I get the leaves. I run a feeder, but not heavily. I don’t think my pond is as heavily stocked as the OP because I lost a lot when original stocking took place. I’m getting some gunk on the bottom, both from soil coming in, but mostly from leaves. Pond will freeze over, but not for long. (3 to 4 weeks).
So no fish kills yet. OP you may have some time to decide. I’m too far from the barn for running air or electric. Considering solar for aeration, but haven’t pulled the trigger yet. Nope, you can bury poly line to the pond. I'd use 1 1/4" dia to compensate for the length of run and to minimize any chance of water condensing and plugging the line due to your soil topography. Solar will need sun all day long, How many trees do you want to cut down to get sun to the panels? Batteries will be needed to run the compressor at night. I'll bet you it will cost you way more $$ to run solar than to run a line back there.
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by Tony K |
Tony K |
essup, If I may come at this from another angle, I debated between solar or running air line. I ended up going solar, It opens up much more options for us at the pond- night lights, dc bugslapper, underwater green light, air pump, radio, etc. Just wanted to offer another option to consider for those on the fence.
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by esshup |
esshup |
The compressors are no noisier than someone talking in a room. Add sound deadening material and they are even quieter. Putting it away from the house a bit will help even more.
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1 member likes this |
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