Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Muddy water Fish Choices Mini-Pond Water Hose Filled

For your goals and tiny 0.6ac pond DO NOT PUT BLUEGILL IN. They will cause too many carrying capacity problems and fish balance problems in this tiny pond. Go with my plan first - minnows, tilapia, and HSB. Then if you are dissatisfied, you can always at a later date add some bluegill. Once you put in bluegill you are stuck with them and you cannot get them out to where they are not reproducing and causing fish balance issues. BG are a good fish BUT NOT for your pond goals and tiny pond. I can't help you any more if you put in bluegill. Go to those that told you to put them in for the help.

If Overtons again ask you to put bluegill in - ask them if you are unhappy with them will they come and get every last one out for you. Of coarse the answer will be no. If you decide you want more panfish for kids to catch just add more tilapia when you buy them in spring. After many years of experience stocking and managing fish,,,,, the customized plan of tilapia - HSB combination will be a very good fishery for your goals in this tiny 2700 sqft pond. Regularly feed these fish and they grow fast and will give all of you lots of enjoyment. Don't forget to get a small amount of appropriate size of fish food, not a whole bag, when you buy your fish. A bag of 40 -50 lbs of fish food is way too much for your tiny pond. It will spoil before you use all of it. Ask for the higher protein food even for the tilapia. Better quality food causes less manure waste, fewer algae / plant problems, and grows your fish faster.

If Overtons will not sell you less than 50 bs of fish food, I will send you some high quality pellets.

The muddy water could be affecting the minnows feeding on pellets. Have you tried crushing / pulverizing some of the pellets for the smaller minnows?.
I would turn off your aerator for 7-14 days and see if this gradually and slowly helps clear the pond. Continually mixing the sediment laden water tends to keep it more turbid and does not let it settle out as quickly. Historically the pond has proven that it will allow your sediment / soil composition creating murky water to become clear. Not running the aerator until the pond clears should not hurt the minnows nor tilapia.

+1

HSB are like LMB. They'll eat anything that fits in their mouth.

Well, it's DO OVER time. In the fall, I went to Overtons and bought some beautiful HSB. The pond was extremely low, so my husband filled it to the brim. and we were excited to start fishing. The next day, all the minnows and HSB were dead. We decided that chlorine had killed the fish. Big lesson learned.

Fast forward to now. We treated the pond with Soilfloc and grass surrounds the pond. Success!

Wednesday, we put 5 lbs of fathead minnows in the pond. Mid March, we plan to put in about 12 HSB. Mid April, we plan to put in some talipia.

Will our timeline work? It's not too late to change it, so suggestions are great.

The pond holds water very well. So now I have a BIG question. There will be occasional times we will need to top off the pond, even if it's only for evaporation. Will small amounts of chlorine hurt the fish? I could add API Pond Neutralizer. I've also researched filters we could attach to the water hose that is good for 45,000 gallons. Has anybody ever used one of these filters?

Your stocking timeline will work depending...The FHM's will not last very long ( a season and a half). I believe you are feeding the HSB pellets, so it's not a big deal really. FHM's like to have a full season or so by themselves to "do their thing" and create a pond full of forage (free natural food source). You need to stock large enough Tilapia so that your growing HSB don't eat them.

Have you estimated how much chlorinated water was added to the pond? What percentage of city water to pond water did it calculate too? I ask to help understand how long the filter would last. Make sure the filter removes chlorine. I bet that would be tough thing to get out at a water flow that would suit your needs. IDK.

I would bet that 3 things may have contributed to your fish loss. Water temp change, reduction of dissolved oxygen, and the introduction of chlorine The chlorine being the biggest suspect (and likely the only reason) if you are using city water to top the pond off. Fish don't like it one bit. I am sure that they can stand a little, but do not know how much. The safe answer is to remove the chlorine before putting the water into the pond. Chlorine will leave the water given about 24 hours given the surface area to breath. Adding small amounts of chlorinated city water daily MIGHT be the way to attempt keeping the pond full without de-chlorinator. That would be an experiment risking the fish, however. This is still not healthy for the fish even if it does not kill them. Chlorine = Bad for fish.

Other options would be...

Dig a well and use well water,

Let the make-up water sit in open top vessels, like watering troughs, for a couple of days before releasing into the pond,

Using the troughs to de-chlorinate the city water before releasing it into the pond, or

A filter may be an option, but sounds expensive long term at the size you would need to condition evaporated volumes of water daily. It would be interesting to look into though.

My 2¢

You could also use this: https://pentairaes.com/cloram-xr-water-conditioner.html

You can calculate how much water you are adding from the hose and add the appropriate amount to the pond.

The top 2-3ft of pond water is close to 1/2 the total volume. Hopefully the Soilfloc will reduce most of the leakage and water loss will be due mostly to evaporation. Chlorinated water creates numerous trihalomethanes ((chloroform, bromoform, bromodichloromethane, and dibromochloromethane) especially when it come in contact with associated in surface or natural waters. Trihalomethanes (THMs) are the result of a reaction between the chlorine used for disinfecting tap water and react with natural organic matter in the water. The more organics and chlorine in the water the more trihalomethanes that are formed. Trihalomehanes are stable in the environment, are bioacumulative, and can become a health related problem when lots of them are formed. Read about problems with trihalomethane on the web. One option is to first pump the water into an upground swimming pool allow the chlorine to dissipate then add it to the pond. The other option that I like is to dig some sort of well and use that water for pond filling. Lots of pond owners use well water to keep ponds full.


An interesting read:
https://www.cdc.gov/biomonitoring/THM-DBP_BiomonitoringSummary.html

Thank you, esshup!

Our pond froze over during that Texas freeze a few weeks ago. It thawed about the time all the snow melted.

The minnows I put in just before the freeze are doing fine and I even see tiny little ones.

Before the freeze, the water was nice and clear. Now it is pea soup.

Is this a spring turnover? New pond syndrome? Will it correct itself or do I need to add a chemical? If so, what?

I had planned on getting a few HSB when they are available. Then a couple or more tilapia later. Can I still?

When we put Soilfloc in the pond, we took out the aerator. Should we put it back?

Thank you for your help!