The pond I live on is 8 acres and we recently had it surveyed. The guy said the bottom was mushy in more areas than it should be and it would be a good idea to make a bream spawning table. I'm thinking about making it 20 ft wide and 10ft from the bank.

I think some people use plastic on the muck with concrete blocks laying on the outer edges then put small 1/4" pebbles on top about 3" thick. The plastic is what concerns me.

The pond has 18 very nice homes around it and they wont like floating plastic pieces if it ever started to break away or rot. Our Home Owners Assoc rules are pretty strict as far as what to put in the pond but I think I could get their approval. Their main concern will be the plastic.

How do I calm their concerns? What type plastic should I use? Will it ever rot or float away? Does the table need to be in a shade? Am I going about it the right way?

Thanks!

a pond liner might be a good bet.
I guess it depends on what your budget is too?

http://www.pondliner.com/category/firestone_epdm_pond_liner?_vsrefdom=googleppc

Do you see some existing beds/colonies ?

I would try to renovate a few areas first. Use a rake to get rid of the muck in select areas 30 X 30 feet +- in 3 ft of water - then add sand and or gravel.

You can do a search for BG beds and there are lots of threads. Like

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=199269&page=1


See pics below.

How about that geotextile fabric -or whatever you call it- that is suppose to keep soil from coming thru. Does that stuff float by itself?

I use plastic kiddie wading pools filled with road gravel for my RES/BG spawning beds with success. Kiddie pools in the fall go very cheap and I can't imagine they'd degrade very quickly to pose a problem.

teeh, did you put these in an active spawning area, or did the BG find them? I haven't had good luck with mine, so I thinking about moving them to a spawning area they're already using.

jmed - two additional items. Look for active BG spawning areas historically or fresh ones this spring. Those are the areas of where to focus your initial efforts. Secondly look for the areas that did not have a very much bottom muck as noted by the survey. Those areas could be where the BG are possibly already spawning. Then expand or enhance those areas with the minimal muck.

Thanks, I have several areas that CNBG historically use, and I was going to move the gravel pools to the edges of those areas, and see if I get better results from them.

Thanks again.

Fire...we're talking a .25 acre pond, so the BG/RES found them as they couldn't miss them! I'm sure they're also spawning in the clay/silt, but they definitely used the pool beds, too. I can get up to two beds/pool, and also used the rubber feed tubs filled with coarse gravel with success. The are just about the perfect size for BG beds and are readily available at any farm supply store. I have never needed to worry about BG spawning up here though, I couldn't prevent them if I tried, so maybe your challenges are unique to a more Southern setting. Are you having problems witnessing BG recruitment?

teeh, it's weird. I'm seeing multiple beds with Tilapia, and multiple CNBG beds after the water drops in the fall. Both seem to nest in the clearer water that's Naiad heavy, and just wallow out a spot in the weeds. Neither are in the area I put the tubs out.

After you said this again, I'm inclined to think that I'm picking an area that's just not a natural roaming area of either.

I'll move them closer to the natural spawning areas, and see if they're used this year. If so, then I'll increase their numbers next year.

And you're right about the tubs, mine have been out for 6 years, and you can still see the mermaids.

Thanks, appreciate it.

jmed I'd be really cautions about what materials you propose to use due to the HOA.They all vary but sometimes the path of the least resistance is best taken here.I'd think things over really well before making a proposal.

Is this going to be just on your shoreline or throughout the pond?

Do they have any concerns about how it will look?I'm thinking round natural shapes might go over a little better.

In my opinion I'd go with bill's suggestion and maybe a little corrective stocking first due to the HOA involvement.

I believe that this is a discussion about small .25 ponds vs. a 11 acre lake and nothing to do about “unique to a more Southern setting”.
My small pond problems are overpopulation of CNBG - those things will spawn anywhere - and our ponds are only ~ 40 miles away from Al’s place.
George

Wow...thanks for all the responses! I'll try to answer the questions posed in the responses...

-A pond liner would be too expensive

-The kiddie pool would not fly with the HOA.

-I would do this at my shoreline only. I did notice some beds very close to the area I'm thinking about doing this to.

I'll look this spring to see if they are indeed spawning in the area I'm thinking about enhancing. I have a 2ft high wall at my shoreline so the blocks wouldn't show. If you go walking out my back door you walk through grass to a sea/pond wall then about 1 ft of water on the other side of the wall. And of course it gets deeper as you go out in the water. I think I could make it look very clean looking. If I use a plastic with nice looking pebble on top it would look fine (I hope).

The area I'm thinking about doing this too only gets minimal shade so that concerns me a little. I would make the spawning table about 20 ft wide by 6 feet out from the wall. The water depth would vary from 1 ft to 4 ft of water.

Thoughts?

Consider doing homework on microbial / bacterial additions in your case pelleted types on your mucky shoreline areas before you invest in liner and sand/gravel reconstruction. Be aware not all pelleted bacteria are the same - some good, some not so good. Kevin Ripp the Bug Man at Aquafix Inc advertises here and speaks at the Pond Boss Conferences. His pelleted bacteria formulations are proven muck eaters.

I have found that manual raking of beach areas with and without bacteria additions work wonders to reduce muck in shallow beach areas. Check into a Lake Rake and add a 3ft piece of 1/2" rebar rod for additional weight and raking - tilling benefits. Weekly or twice weekly raking does wonders for reducing muck in beach areas with sand or gravel substrates.

Here is a link that I found for Kevin Ripp's group Aquafix who is an advertiser here on PBoss.
http://www.teamaquafix.com/

Can you use water flow to wash the muck out of the area and into deeper water, exposing the orig. bottom of the pond in that area?

Semi-trash pump with you using the outflow as a sweeper hose, but underwater?

Motor on a boat?