Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Weekly Observations

I had about 14" of snow on the pond, and the bottom 4" was slush. Drilling a hole, the top 1/2" of ice was cloudy, with the bottom 4"-5" of ice clear. A week later, the snow on the pond is gone, no more slush, but the whole ice column (still 5" or so) is cloudy. All the snow has been gone off of the pond for about 10 days, but there is still 4" of snow on the ground. I expect that to disappear by Sunday.

The holes that I drilled in the pond have re-frozen at a rate of 1/2" per day, but after they get to about 2" thick, that's where they stay.

Be carefull, that cloudy ice is not as strong as clear ice, snow and ice mixed together.

I don't think the circulator has much direct effect on the D.O. or the temperature. It provides and open area for light to get in and bad gases to escape. So in that sense it does contribute to the overall well being on the pond inhabitants.



I was also suprised that the ice was thicker again this week. I did observe that the snow pack has lessened considerably from the warm weather and the rain will really bring it down.



I concur on cloudy ice being structurely challenged compared to clear ice.

If you are running the circulator all the time I guarantee you it is effecting the DOs.

Updated Weekly

The ice is still building. D.O. has pretty much stabilized everywhere except the bottom 12-18 inches where it is still dropping.

All is well on Bremer Pond!!

If the bottom D.O. is 7.9, do you think the fish are riding higher in the water to take advantage of the higher D.O.'s? Or, is the bottom D.O. reading still so high that it doesn't make any difference?

They are looking for warm water except the pike who are looking for lunch. DO's are not a problem yet.

The bottom DO chart line is like the stock market chart. The rate of fall is slowing but if it doesn't stop soon there won't be enough left to fight over.

I don't think they probably know the difference. That is still a lot of D.O.


The bottom D.O. will be dropping for awhile yet, unless of course something changes.

The stock market analogy is a good one!

The fish have it a lot better than stock investors. All they have to do is invest a little energy to move up a foot or two to higher D.O.

We are dependent on other forces to increase our investments. The giant NP in our world is also very hard to run and hide from.

Dwight - "The giant NP in our world is also very hard to run and hide from."

Plus it can run at full speed in the cold water where most warmwater fish can't.

And, their food budget is limited to the fish on hand. When a fish deficit occurs they get thinner.

Winter doldrums? Ice build is slowing, temperatures and D.O. are stable.

Updated Weekly

Nothing like a little stability at good levels.

Dwight -- what was the lowest level for bottom DO last winter?

7.5

Your fish are mucho happy at that level!

Last year I was surprised, this year I kind of expect it though the snow cover was a bit of a worry.

Now I have to start thinking about trapping a Topeka Shiner for Bill Cody!

The D.O. is dropping because of the snow cover and a couple inches of cloudy ice on top that doesn’t let much sunlight through. The bottom D.O. is now at the worst case level from last winter. Ice thickness is within 2 inches of last winter's maximum.

It looks like this winter may be more difficult for the pond inhabitants than last year because of the extended period of snow cover.

Not much to worry about so far, anyway.

Updated Weekly

What properties of oxygen and/or water makes the D.O. almost twice as high at the surface than the bottom?

Cold water holds more dissolved oxygen that the warmer bottom water.

Less light penetrates the deep water thus depriving oxygen producing organisms of the light they need for photosynthesis.

Decaying matter on the bottom may be consuming oxygen as it is processed.

Fish prefer the warmer bottom water so they are using a lot of oxygen near the bottom.

Updated Weekly

Gained another inch of ice this week so we are currently 1 inch behind last years maximum. The 10 day forecast has overnight temperatures in the single digits and teens and daytime temps in the mid 20s maximum.

Water temperatures have been straight lining for 4 weeks now.

D.O. remains good.

Everyone here at Bremer Pond is ready for spring!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nice - those DO's are improving. Any clear ice ?

The ice pack is 22 inches thick of clear ice with three inches of white ice on top. On top of all that is 6-16 inches of hard snow. The open area the circulator provides is currently the only place where sun light can penetrate. That open area is probably about 2-3 percent of the pond surface area.

Even though very little direct sunlight can enter the pond I believe that the clear water allows significant refracted light to penetrate. That must be enough light or the D.O. would be considerably lower.

Yes but the groundwater could also be DO charged. I bet that circulator is doing a lot more than one might think.

I still plan to check the ground water D.O. this spring so that will remain a question.

During the open water season when the winds are calm the circulator will set up a ripple on the whole pond. I suppose that it could be slowly moving the water around under the ice during the winter.