Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions IceFishing

I am brand new to this site & will be buying an areation system soon.1/2 acre pond 8-10 ft deep.15 years old and getting mucky.my first question is--what to do about areation if you ice-fish?Or just not do it it the winter months??
Thanks

Aeration is really only needed in the Winter months if snow cover builds up thick enough on the ice to block sunlight from entering the pond, and persists for some time (1 day probably not a problem, 1 week I would be worrying).

Some PMs remove the snow from there iced over ponds, sometimes just in strips, to allow sunlight in for photosynthesis. Some practice minimal aeration to melt a hole through the ice and snow, allowing air exchange with the atmosphere. Either method will suffice to prevent a low O2 winterkill.

Aerating too much in the Winter (constantly running a deep water airstone/diffuser) can be hard on fish (especially warmer water species close to the edge of their range, such as RES in Ohio) by supercooling the pond water and denying fish a relatively warm 39 deg F refuge at the bottom of the pond. Minimal aerator use or moving the bubble source to shallow water helps prevent this.

If you haven't seen it yet, check out the archive thread Aeration Simplified.

To sum it up wrt icefishing, Winterkill can be prevented with little or no ice disturbance.

NYRFRX -- further north than you, we actually can ice fish close to the holes in the ice from the aerators. The ice doesn't gradually thin out away from the hole. It's close to "standard" thickness very close to the opening. Of course, standard for us is perhaps 15 inches in the "warm" winters, and as much as 30+ in the hard winters.

I'm also not advocating a lack of safety concern. It's a huge concern to have an open hole in the ice during the winter -- be it kids, dogs, or adults. Safety first, always.

Hope this helps!

nyrfrx, Welcome to Pond Boss.Theo gives you some great winter aeration information.In a small pond also be sure when attempting to open up a small area in the ice with bottom diffused aeration that you understand that the bubbles will "trail off" in an uncontrolled fashion until the hole is realized.This can create thin ice in unpredicted areas.In a pond that has an age of 15 years and if no supplemental aeration has been done in the past and ice fishing is wanted consider cutting a hole in the ice and stuffing a bale of straw in it. It will refreeze solid around the bale and the 15 year old pond can breathe all winter. Be sure to double twine the bale as the strings may come apart from the water weight. Also run two doll rods through it at the ice line so the rods are on top of the ice and supporting it. This works well in small ponds especially in Ohio. Older ponds can have a higher demand for oxygen than newer (5 year or less) ponds.They can also have some gasses that would be beneficial to let vent off from under the ice.All of this may of been covered in the links Theo provided, (thanks Theo)

I don't remember ever seeing that hay bale through the ice trick mentioned before, Ted.

I suspect plastic twine would be a lot better than sisal.

Thanks very much.Very interesting here

I shut off my aerator once it gets cold enough for the pond to freeze solid enough for ice-fishing. Then tell the wife that I have to go drill holes in the pond to let air in so the fish don't die and that I need to catch some to make sure they holes are effective.

BRILLIANT!

Since your pond is only 15 yrs old, and if if does not receive a lot of tree leaves in the fall, and you are able to reguarly remove about 20%-30% of the deeper snow cover (>4") you will not need to aerate in the winter. For a pond of 1/2 acre and before the snow lies on the ice longer than 2-3 weeks remove several strips each 3'-4' wide across the pond this will allow enough light to enter the pond for the phytoplankton to create enough oxygen to keep fish from suffocating. When greater than 4"-6" of snow lies on a frozen pond longer than 4 weeks one needs to becomce concerned about loss of dissolved oxygen especially in the deeper depths. Whenever you are able to catch fish very close to the bottom while ice fishing, the dissolved oxygen is still adequate for fish survival.

In your opinion how long would it take to go from enough DO to allow catching fish near the bottom to winter kill assuming snow > 4" and no removal. How much would drilling a few holes (3 to 4) ice fishing sized in a 1/2 acre pond help with DO concerns.

WAG are ok as are well thought out opinions.

Other options in addition to aeration (like Ted's hay trick) would be helpful.

Message was enhanced by Cody Oct 31.
ewest asks "how long would it take to go from enough DO to allow catching fish near the bottom to winter kill assuming snow > 4" and no removal." It depends on the pond depth. But if pond was 8-10 ft deep my best guess would be about 5-10 more days. I think in many cases the DO loss gradually works its way up from the bottom toward the top. The fish gradually move higher into the water column as DO is lost from the bottom toward the surface. In winter under ice cover the water is typically pretty clear. The more cloudy the water, usually the more rapid the DO loss from bottom to top will occur due to additional biochemical oxygen demand from more cloudy water in the entire water column. Thus the clarity of the water will have a big affect on how long the DO will last until the DO in water near the surface (upper 2-3ft) finally drops below 1-3 ppm(mg/L) - in many cases the killing concentration at cold temps of 39F (depending on species of fish).

ewest's 2nd question was ""How much would drilling a few holes (3 to 4) ice fishing sized in a 1/2 acre pond help with DO concerns.""

Diffusion of oxygen from the air into water is so very, very slow that the amount of DO that could diffuse into a real small surface area of water of a 6" diameter ice hole (28sqin)would be IMO an almost unmeasurable amount especially if measuring it a foot or two away from the hole under the ice.

In many cases an ice skim usually reforms relatively quickly in the open ice hole which stops any additional oxygen transfer. Any small amount of oxygen that might transfer into the water has to gradually work its way down through the 6" diameter column of water of the ice hole thickness (4"-18") and without currents this could take days to get a small amount of DO into water directly below the ice layer even 2 ft deep.

One of my limnology books says that it will take 6.7 days for the DO to increase 1 ppm at a depth of just one inch deep when relying solely on diffusion of oxygen from the air through the surface tension of the water into quiet unagitated water. Thus if the hole in ice 6" thick could be kept open, it would take 40 days for an increase of 1ppm DO to reach the small area of water under 6" of ice at the hole. I think the biggest benefit of any measurable increased DO from boring a hole through the ice is that it allows light to readily reach a small area of water near the hole. This stimulates phytoplankton to produce oxygen in the area surrounding the ice hole.

I continually keep preaching that removing snow for phytoplankton photosynthesis that is suspended throughout the water column or any green rooted plant or filamentous algae which receives sunlight, results in production of dissolved oxygen where ever the plants receive light at the 1% incident surface level. This results in much more oxygenation of the water column of the pond/lake compared to a small 4"-8" diameter briefly open water hole in the ice. And since water under ice cover is usually clear and most of the ice thickness is clear as glass any light making it into the water penetrates relatively deeply into the pond. Light into very clear water during winter often penetrates to the bottom if depths are less than 20 ft. In these cases, DO levels can rise rapidly if no snow cover stops light penetration through ice. The top layer of ice is often cloudy (frozen slush) which reduces the amount of light that penetrates into the water thus more snow needs to be removed in these cases where cloudy top ice is present.

Thanks Bill. Just about what I thought. If you guys don't have shallow water aeration you best keep the snow (at least some of it) off the pond.

Sorry for the hyjack but I gotta tell this funny story about my winter aeration. I had turned my aerator off for a few days in the fall, the pond froze over to about 2 inches thick and very clear ice. Clear ice is the strongest ice. I thought it would be cool to see how long it would take my aerator to melt a hole in 2 inches of ice so I turned it back on at about noon one day. As I went about other chores I kept an eye on the pond. At first I could clearly see bubbles and rising water gushing up against the underside of the ice. But even after several hours the ice had not melted through but instead began to lift up off the water as a huge air bubble was trapped under it. I figured this would last a short while until the ice cracked. Hours later the ice had not cracked and the bubble under the ice had expanded almost all the way to shore. I figured this would last until the bubble hit shore and the air would leak out around the edges. At about 10:00pm the ice in the entire pond was now lifted off the water about 2 feet in the middle, my pressure gauge showed an extra 5 psi under the ice. The whole thing was one giant bubble. I figured this would crack any minute. I wanted to be there when it cracked so I stood on the dock until midnight watching. It still hadn't cracked so I got impatient and got the .22 rifle. One shot out into the center and the whole thing blew into a million pieces. I got soaking wet standing on the dock and ice flew 50 feet up on shore. I went into the house and informed my wife that I blew up the pond.

Only in the North Country are such stories an integral part of life!!

Easily one of the best, and funniest stories I've read on this forum.

If you're from Texas reading that, you almost just have to be shakin' your head...

bz, LMAO, that's funny as heck. I'm sure using .22 was easier than digging a rock out from under the snow. Only a Northerner would know that. It sounds like one of those "hold my beer and watch this" moments.

Bill, I had the same thoughts as you about the holes not doing much for air transfer but couldn't have put it so eloquently. Drilling holes usually allows some water to soak an area much larger than the hole itself, I expect allowing considerably more light to pentration when there's a little snow cover. Fortunately for me, it's pretty windy at my place and snow rarely sits on my pond very long.

Glad you like the story guys. Ever since I've waited for that kind of clear ice to form again just so I can try again. But conditions haven't been right again since. Sure wish I had taken video. I bet I could win Funniest Home Videos with that one.

bz, Interesting story. Too bad you did not get a photograph of the swollen ice cap. The correct ice thickness, barometric pressure, and proper air temperature no doubt played important parts for the experience. Ice firmly frozen to the bank helped hold the icy air bubble intact.

hilarious bz, thanks for hijacking!!!!

BZ, thats a real funny story, I can't wait to try it. Also when the ice blew-up did any fish float up from the concussion ?

Wow BZ! I wish I could have seen that.