Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions Aeration questions.

I, not knowing better, diffuse aerated a 30 year old 1/3 acre,10' deep pond and killed all of the fish with Hydrogen sulfide and o2 deprivation. I have now gone through the slow start and worked up to 24/7 aeration and have run that for at least a month now. Water temp is about 70 degrees down to at least 5'. o2 levels test at 4 to 5 PPM daytime and 3 to 4 PPM mornings. We have been putting bluegill and bass in for two weeks now, and all was good. Last night we had a power outage starting at 4 AM. I left the pump plugged in when I had to leave in the morning (to go fishing). Power came on around 8:45 and I got home at 11:00. I went to the pond with more fish and the smell was horrible, just like the first time I ran it. I immediately shut it off and am now wondering if if just over two hours of that will hurt the fish. I was surprised at the smell after only not quite 5 hours of off time. Is that normal? should I always do the 15 minuets then more the next day every time we have a power loss, or the pump is off for a short time? It really shocked me as I have recently rowed out over it and it was stink free. o2 level right now was 5 PPM. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am pretty worried right now.

Update!!! It turns out that a septic truck was transferring waste from one truck to another on the next acreage, go figure. I walked down to check the pond and smelled that blowing right over my bubbles and thought I had killed the fish again. Started aeration the next morning, no smell, all is good, fish are happy.

It surprises me that such a short downtime would cause a fish kill, but my pond being only 3 years old has never developed a stink either. My pond is shut of every day from mid morning to late evening, but once again...it's a young pond.

All things considered, it would be safer to bring it back up slow rather than all at once I would think given this recent fish kill. Hopefully someone with old pond experience will chime in soon.

How many pounds of fish do you think you have in the pond?

The down time sure brought up the big stink again. We have just started to re-stock it. About 29 small to medium Bluegill and 10 or so small to 10" bass. I was just down there and the bluegill are feeding, so I have hope. I guess I'll just start aeration again tomorrow with 15 minutes and see how much stink I get.