Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Cecil envy

My average air temp will be at least 75 degrees this summer and the ave. water temp is about 55 degrees. I think if I continue to run the system "as is" this summer that I'll have temps in the low 60's in the tank, because that's what I had last year. I'd prefer to have the water temps in the 70's all summer so I can get some better growth numbers. I can make the water warmer by decreasing the water flow, but I'm worried that these tanks are so souped up that I'll come back and I'll have a bubbling cauldron of algae and dead fish. I'd like water flow AND warmth without spending a fortune on electricity. Is it possible?

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Bruce, what was that you threw in?

Krill!!!!!

Sounds very "pirate-esque" to be using Krill.

Way too cool Bruce! Those of you that have the opportunity to experience your ponds and fish every day are truly blessed. I have at least 12 more years before I can move and enjoy full time.

For Summer temps, I'd figure 4 heaters/tank for about 30kWH per tank per day.

The last electric bill I could find (January) ran $0.041/kWH.

I think I'm more like $0.1/kWH. Could the discrepency be that great?!? If my power costs were as small as yours I'd be doing a lot more at my ponds.

I thought you said $0.01.

If asked without the chance to check a bill, I always say 11 cents/kWH for a nation-wide estimate. So 10 cents is very reasonable.

I didn't do any math - would my electric company lie to me and say I pay 4.1cents/kWH? :rolleyes:

Something dont sound right. I moved to Houston in the 70's partly due to cheap utilities. Now 16 cents /kwh. There are over 100 providers now with deregulation. 14-16 cents across the board. What a ripoff. A small house averages 2000kwh per month in summer. 300-400 is the norm. More than my house payment before it was paid off a few yrs. ago.

I just rechecked and it averages .088/kWH.

Not quite as bad as I thought. I was originally counting the extra fees on some of the bills to come to the ten cents per kWH.

Burger! Why so high?

I dont know, Bruce. I dont separate all the fees, from the 'base' costs. Money is money. I just divide the bill by the kwh used and get the true cost.

Good point. My fees are usually 10-15 dollars for each bill. That means my total is about .91/KwH

Bruce, no wonder you didnt consider the fees. Not much to them. My 'base' price is about .085/kwh.
The fuel surcharge is .07/kwh. ripoff.

From the original tank raised fish...

Cecil, I've got a long ways to go, buddy. But they survived the winter!



BTW, you can see one of Cecil's heron discouraging devices in the background. My Dad was very pleased. Eleven inches even, but I don't know the weight.

Dad also caught one that was a little over ten inches. In 16 months we've got growth from the biggest fish being 7.5 inches to where the biggest fish are around 11 inches. I guess that's about standard for fish that are continuously pellet fed. Still, I think that I'm benefitting from the fact that I started with the best of the best from my hatchery. The more I do this the more I'm convinced of the important role that genetics play in the whole deal.

Bruce,


That's great! I think my record is in jeopardy in a few years but I welcome it. You see if you don't recall most of my perch did not stay on pellets, and I believe I would have had consistently larger perch if they had. Hopefully starting this year having perch in a seperate pond by themselves will help.

If you don't remember I did move about 60 females to a pond by themselves last spring but they had been off pellets for so long they didn't have much interest in them. Now I will be putting 4 to 5 inch feed trained perch in a cage and keeping them there until I can sort the males from the females the following spring or later. Males will be eaten. Females will be liberated into that pond or another one.

I was pretty stunned to find out that my perch are feeding like mad right now. I threw out some Aquamax grower 600 and watched them feed for fifteen minutes solid. March 15th is definitely the earliest I've ever gotten to watch this. Those feed trained yellow perch are pretty cool.

nice perch!! what's yer water temp right now?

i can share that feeling now bruce. i had another great feeding this evening with my new BG....cool deal.

is that a beach chair in the water (in the pic above)? in march? in NE? curious......and a hose on stilts? one of yer nozzle sprayers/circulators?

I've only had open water for a week, but the water temps have soared into the mid-forties already.

I put that chair on the little makeshift dock so my Dad can leisurely fish on his own pond.

I still haven't fired up all of the horizontal circulators yet. You're looking at one that is still inactive. Later on I'll push it down in the clay bottom and turn it at just the right angle and presto--I'll have aeration.

Here's a photo of the new "Cecil Envy" tank. It's currently working really well. I just simply cut the top off of an chemical tank that I had been given by somebody and used spare PVC parts that I'd saved in my trash pile.

How big is that tank and how many pounds do you think it will support?

450 gallons and currently supporting 50 pounds of fish easily. I'd be surprised if the system got stressed at anything below 150 pounds of fish.

Big, Bruce, big. What all do you have in the tanks now? Are you going to steal another funeral canopy from the cemetery to put over top of the new tank this Winter?

Right now my goal is to put in one more big tank and equally distribute my CSBG broodstock between the two tanks. I have 94 "best fish" for next spring's reproduction and hate having them all in the same tank. One of the little tanks (150 gallons) will have my 77 best age-0's, another tank will have 250 redears that I'll attempt to feed train, and another will have about 270 age-0 CSBG that are the 95th to 98th percentile fish.

I've decided to stop placing the canopy over the fish. The benefit seems to be nominal compared to just increasing the water flow a tiny bit.

I've been trying unsuccessfully for 21 hours to find a better way to say this, not that it's news to anyone...







You got it bad.