Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction Getting serious about this little pond

Hi Pond Boss denizens. Such a great forum you have here.

We have a small pond appr. 85' x 45', average 4.5' deep, 7' at the deepest end. Holds well, water is fairly clear. Too many fish, because a neighbor put in about 25 bluegill a couple of years ago. Holy cow do they multiply fast! (We put in some LMB to predate on them.)

Getting ready to add aeration. I have a linear pump that will deliver 6 cfm, pressure output .43 mpa, which I have to use for the time being. I know that's a large air flow.

Here's what I'd like to do: Power one diffuser, and also create surface agitation since it is a small pond. Plan to do this with a manifold fitting at the bank rather than bury two supply tubes. Supply tubing from the pump will be buried, appr. 125' between pump and water.

Since I'm completely a noob at this, I have no idea if the pump I have will accomplish this, nor what modifications I might have to make so I'm not over-killing it.

Have tried to cobble together bits of info from the archives here to fit my scenario (and have learned a LOT in that process), but haven't seen exactly the same set-up discussed. Any guidance as to what basic "plumbing" I need to do would be greatly appreciated. Don't want to just wing it and perhaps cause more problems. TIA!

For your supply airline of 125ft you can use either 5/8" or 3/4" ID irrigation tubing. Since you are in freezing winter conditions I would build your manifold with galvanized parts 1/4"or 3/8 ID. On each outlet use a gas line brass ball valve not plastic. Each airline in pond can be 5/8" ID (aka 1/2" black poly pipe used for irrigation tubing). I would enclose your manifold in some sort of shelter or in a 5 gal bucket buried pond side. Lift the lid to adjust the air volumes.

Many thanks, Bill Cody! That's exactly what I needed to know. We'll get this operation started as soon as the weather fairs up a little.

Worried now about my fish, as there is 2" of ice on the pond and 3" of crusted snow on top of that. Abnormal and sustained low temps here on the Ohio R, so haven't seen such solid ice cover before.

A new pond will not winterkill nearly as fast as an old weedy muck bottom pond.

I hope my newer pond will be spared, so the expensive large yellow perch do not die. I have less optimism for my older pond. We have had snow over ice for a long time now. Longer than I can ever remember in the past.

RAH- In our average winter, small waters go months under heavy snow load without much trouble, I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised in the spring. It does seem that ponds exist in part to give us things to worry about though!

I had a fish kill a number of years back in the older pond after a period of snow covered ice, but it was not this cold, so maybe the water under the ice is colder this time. Some of each species survived though, so it came back just fine (actually better because it had too many LMB and CC before the winter kill). I originally stocked it based on the hatcheries recommendations and before discovering this site. We will see...

No one should even *dig* before discovering this site. :-)

Update:

Got the aerator installed and running. Put it together the way Bill Cody discussed earlier. Works great! Got a horrible algae bloom (was well under way before aeration started), and we're still fighting that. It feels like I have fished out HUNDREDS of pounds of the disgusting stuff. Ever see "The Trouble With Tribbles" episode of Star Trek reruns? Well, FA is tribbles on steroids. Crikey! Every rake full pulled out produces 5 more rakes full. Finally caved and put in small amounts of granular Cutrine at intervals. That stuff does what it says it will do, and it doesn't take much -I used far less than the instructions indicated. But be prepared to remove the dead crap from the surface. It's still dying off, so it appears I'll be shoveling a while longer.

A lot of work, an ugly mess, and not a little stress. This is what happens when one doesn't properly set up and maintain his/her pond (particularly a smaller pond).

With corrections made, I think in time my pond will find its new -hopefully healthier- normal. Aeration is critical; if you're thinking of building a pond, it needs to be part of the plan.

Anyway, many thanks to the contributors here. Special thanks to Bill Cody for all his help/info behind the scenes. Y'all are the best!

If you still have an algae problem in a few weeks, look into stocking Tilapia. They eat the algae.