About 4 years ago I built a One acre pond 12 foot deep with a concrete sea wall on one side and ripraped the dam on the other side. The sea wall side starts at 4 feet deep for about 8 feet out then drops off 12 feet deep. This pond is about 100 feet from my house and supplies the heating and cooling to my house and shop thru geothermal. There is over 3000 feet of tubing that goes to my house and 4000 feet to my shop. I designed it so all the rain from the house, shop, driveways go into the pond underground thru 8 inch pipes and those pipes house the 2" lines back to the shop and house. It is extremely efficient.
When I stocked it with CC,RE,LB,and some HSB I also installed an aerator system and an auto feeder. After 3 years of giving CC away I am still overrun with CC of all sizes from 8 to 10 lbs to thousands of CC minnows.
I was told I apparently made an excellent spanning bed for CC. How may times do CC span each year? It seems like every channel cat is full of eggs. How do I bring this under control?
The pond stays full and has a backup well to keep it full because it is the heating and cooling to my house and shop. The coldest it gets in the winter at the bottom is 45 degrees according to the geothermal gauges.
Any Ideas would be appreciated. The water on top at times just swarms with thousands of minnows all over. What problems can occur if I dont bring this under control?
I would guess that the CC are spawning in the riprap. They are naturally cavity spawners. If you covered the riprap with dirt, it might at least slow them down (get advice from someone more competent before doing this). I'm surprised that the CC are able to reproduce effectively with LMB in the pond, I would think that LMB would hit the small cc quite hard. Maybe remove as may large CC as possible + reduce feeding + stock more LMB?
Could you give us a quick rundown of the geothermal system? That seems pretty interesting.
Ed, how many LMB did you stock? And how many HSB? Those two predators should do a pretty good job of keeping fry/fingerlings in check I would think. I'm curious, have you caught any of those and how big are they?
Could you give us a quick rundown of the geothermal system? That seems pretty interesting. [/quote]
This might be an interesting document for you http://www.geothermal-biz.com/GSBW.pdf its old and there has been a lot off developement since, but basics are basics
ED you ever catch bass? I doubt based on yoru infromation you have many in the pond. Easy situation to correct stock more bass. THis will put an end to survivial of channel catfish babys.
What do I say about cc? Just a matter of time before they take over. Especially IF THEY CAN REPRODUCE! Make sure if you do restock LMB they are big enough to avoid being CC food. Not only would I add large LMB, I'd start trotlining out those adults.
I put in about 25 LMB when I first stocked it. A year later I put in about 25 HSB. There has been about 10 LMB and about 15 plus HSB cought. They ranged from 2 to 6 lbs. Have not cought any this year!!!!
I read the other Geo articles referanced. Not sure I agreed with all that was stated. I researched it for about 3 years before building a new house 4 years ago. I have 5 acres with a 1 acre pond built for Geothermal heating and cooling. It works very well. We have 6 tons in the house and 10 tons in the shop. there is over 300 feet of 3/4 PE 3408 tubing per ton and is manifold together separately for each system. The home unit we had subcontracted out and I built the shop system. I only use the shop unit for heating because we put in radiant heat in the shop floor when we built it. Our heating bill is about $300 a month in the winter and about $140 total a month for cooling and all the electric we use.
I have an aeration system in the pond with the tubing and never had a problem as stated in the other blogs. If the tubing is anchored properly it will not float. We do have two aeration points in the pond. One in the middle and the other beside the dock in 4 foot of water. In the winter I shut of the one in the middle and let the shallow one run to keep the pond from freezing over. Water temp at the bottom is a good 40 plus degrees.
The tubing is tied into coils where apparently the CC span. If the eggs drop down the larger fish will not be able to get to the eggs. (did not know this when building and installing the tubing.
It sounds like I need to add more LMB and or HSB. I guess I need to buy some large ones. How large do I need to have them to survive and how many would you put in? There is a lot of small RE and HBG in the pond also.
When I get a chance I will post photos of the pond, the coil system and the geo systems in the house and shop. I will be glad to share whatever information I have on the systems. They do work very well, but you need someone experienced to calculate the system and pumping size to have an efficent system.
I read the other Geo articles referanced. Not sure I agreed with all that was stated. I researched it for about 3 years before building a new house 4 years ago. I have 5 acres with a 1 acre pond built for Geothermal heating and cooling. It works very well. We have 6 tons in the house and 10 tons in the shop. there is over 300 feet of 3/4 PE 3408 tubing per ton and is manifold together separately for each system. The home unit we had subcontracted out and I built the shop system. I only use the shop unit for heating because we put in radiant heat in the shop floor when we built it. Our heating bill is about $300 a month in the winter and about $140 total a month for cooling and all the electric we use.
I have an aeration system in the pond with the tubing and never had a problem as stated in the other blogs. If the tubing is anchored properly it will not float. We do have two aeration points in the pond. One in the middle and the other beside the dock in 4 foot of water. In the winter I shut of the one in the middle and let the shallow one run to keep the pond from freezing over. Water temp at the bottom is a good 40 plus degrees.
The tubing is tied into coils where apparently the CC span. If the eggs drop down the larger fish will not be able to get to the eggs. (did not know this when building and installing the tubing.
It sounds like I need to add more LMB and or HSB. I guess I need to buy some large ones. How large do I need to have them to survive and how many would you put in? There is a lot of small RE and HBG in the pond also.
When I get a chance I will post photos of the pond, the coil system and the geo systems in the house and shop. I will be glad to share whatever information I have on the systems. They do work very well, but you need someone experienced to calculate the system and pumping size to have an efficent system.
Share your doubts about where it all started, then again dosen't matter to me. Unfortenatly there is a big loby (political) arguing against geothermal energi. It's clearly a environementel friendly (sustaiable) alternativ, wich makes some X? against it. Here in Norway I see (glimse) a funny or weird aliance, politcans (environemental friendly?) argue against small privat run or operated geothermal projects. Try to put restricstions, registrations and limit them in the most peculary and odd ways. How can that be ? Well my conclution (for now) it is wery hard to put tax on a self sustained,comunity/home, wether it comes to energy and or food production. So in a way the odd aliance right/left wing politcans walk hand in hand with oil/hydro/wind/any... producer including giant food producers/importers/distrbuters. And some how these aliances manage yo keep us (the people/voters/consumers) buisie agreeing with one side or another, instead off exploring and utieleasing this and other opertunieties. Anyhow I'll add another link on the subject even iff it's a bit off the heading off thread, it fits the developement?
Its a bit more pinpoint towards small housholds and more up to date, still old (2008) in this field, enormues developement here worldwide.
I'll throw upp another link as well, its a spinoff but still related? or opertunety to pond management. Maybe it should have been posted under RAS? Good reading (basics) and links to get/dig deeper iff interested.
Ed with those bass being that big I think you have capacity to stock more bass. As I said this is an easy fix and you will have a bonus of more big bass to catch.
PF I have NEVER seen channel catifsh recuirtment in a small pond in presence of decent bass population. It just does nto happen. Easy fish to manage due to this put in what you plan to keep and be done.
I've seen cc's ruin many ponds, and many of the fish farms I deal with say the same thing. Just what I have seen and dealt with. Even in larger body of water, cc's get to 20lb plus, and just take no prisoners. They just seem to be a better adapted apex predator that outperform lmb. The big cc eat a lot more lmb babies than the lmb eating cc babies. How was it stated on the trophy pond? The cc were put in by mistake. I don't make that mistake.
ED D 's pond situation is similiar to mine. However, I have sizable LMB too (18" plus) and haven't seen very many small fish. The catfish, I believe, have overcome my pond--they feed constant and they are HUGE! I have seen smaller ones, so I know conditions are right for reproducing. I'm getting someone very soon to come fish out some CC as my hubby's "Catch and Release" doesn't work to keep things in check (and honestly, I'm not too good at the fish catching thing).
PS...Someone told me to take gallon jugs, put string and hook with bait to catch CC and then go out in a boat and get them??? Have any of you done that one?
It has been 10 years sense i posted and the issue was over stocked channel cat. the story still exists. attached are recent photos i took after dipping a plastic coffee can into the water where the water was black with small fish photo attached. I put 100 ten inch bass in the pont 2 years ago and now when we catch the bass they are about 8 or 9 lbs each and we put them back unless the hook is to deep. the 1 acre 12' deep pond is still full of channel cat and when we try to fish we catch the mostly about 10 to 14 inches long I have set up a netting system this year and will be catching them and putting them in a 5' x 12 holding net to get read of them. I have used a throw net and take 1000,s of them out. Missouri DNR again told me it has to be the geothermal tubing in the bottom of the pond that causes them to spawn several times a year. Getting ready to wash 6 tons of gypsum off a barge i built to clear the water. I have two aerators that run all the time in the pond except when i put copper sulfate in to kill the algae.
what can i put in the pond to cause the vegetation at the bottom to decay or just leave it alone. I also have a few bullfrogs but i would like to have more. not sure tadpoles would survive.
my wife told me it has almost been 5 years when i put the bass in. it is old age can't remember. i am not happy with all of the spawning and all of the 1000's of CC every year. if they are Gambusia where do they come from. there were 10's of 1000"s of them in a large area. i have had it many times but it seams to get bigger. I see the other fish swarm them each time. I only have a 1 acre pond.
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