I read on some archived posts that well water has no oxygen (DO).
I'm drilling a new well for my new home construction in about a week. I was told that the well needs to run for about 48 hours or more before it can be hooked to the pressure tank/house.
My pond is about 1 acre and is only about 5' deep at the 12' foot end--total area is about 20% water.
I haven't put in any fish yet--no minnows, BG's, etc.

If there are no fish in the pond, will it hurt to run the well water into it without running it into a "filtering" or areation process? Will the pond and well water "mix" to develop or create good oxygen levels?

I saw where one of you (Cecil, I think) had a series of buckets that the well water ran through to "create" the DO level that was acceptable in his ponds.

The fact you have no fish in the pond then I would say go for it. Unless you plan on putting fish in it immediatly then it will have time to mix and bring up the O2 levels by surface action. You could spray it in the air and allow it to slash into the pond which will help and is the way the I feed about 4000 gallons into my small 1/3 acre pond. Been doing it for several years with no problems.

Bob

If you don't mind me saying, this is a subject that I have quite a bit of experience in.

First of all, pond water receives virtually NO oxygen from bubbles coming from an aerator. Pond water DOES receive oxygen from photosynthetic plant activity and also from atmospheric oxygen exchange at the pond's surface. In other words, the greater the surface area at which water meets air, the more oxygen diffuses into the water. An aerator facilitates this process by allowing more water to meet the atmosphere by surface agitation. Well water, although anoxic as it comes from the ground, can quickly be oxygenated by mixing or agitating as it meet the water. You can buy yourself a two-dollar sweeper nozzle at Home Depot and spray 4 gpm directly at three concrete blocks placed in series at the pond's edge. We've tested this water and it is already at 5ppm by the time it hits the pond. All six of my ponds are filled with well water and I've never had a DO problem.

This process is helpful in intensive fish culture, and may make you feel better about your pond, but in reality you can go ahead and add your well water and you will almost immediately have algae (and wind action) which will provide adequate oxygenation.

Thanks, Guys. I appreciate the input. I thought it would be o.k. to add the well water, especially since my fish aren't in yet.

This well water should fill my pond in the 48 hour plus window.

How long after the well water is introduced can I add the fish population? Or, what level of O2 is acceptable in order to put the forage fish in?

Thanks.
gb

Even with fish I'm sure you would be fine. I aerate my well water because my pond is quite small and is a "flow through pond." If i was running the same water directly into my .62 acre pond I would not be concerned. By the time the well water would diffuse into the rest of the pond it would be fine.

If it's cool where you are at I would not worry about D.O. However you should get at least 5 ppm.

I don't know if this is a concern for you or not but one of the reason new wells need to be run for so long before the are hooked up is the massive quantiy of chlorine or bleach that is placed in a new well to sanitize it from the drilling. This water is not fit to drink and would hinder microbes. I beleive the sunlight would neutralize this but I wouldn't run it into my pond if I had any creatures I cared about in there.

Adding the clorine or bleach must not be a widespread practice as my well driller did not do that for my household well or my aquaculture well.

Yet another bit of info I would have never known if not for the internet. My household well had to be run for a couple days after it was drilled to clear out the chlorine smell.

This was 10 years ago and maybe new methods have been devised.