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Esa77 Offline OP
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Hi, I'm wondering about aeration time for a pond I just stocked with trout.

It's an older natural improved pond about 1/3 of an acre, roughly 130 long and 100 feet across, max depth in the middle is 6-7 feet.

I've been running a bottom diffuser aerator for 10 hours a night for almost 2 month now. Water temps are currently 62 surface, 58 bottom, recently dropped. Air temps have been high in the 50's and low in mid 30's for the past 5-6 days.

I'm wondering if with just stocking today 20 15-16" rainbow trout and about a dozen 10-12" brown trout, if I should change the aeration length as they adapt to the pond? Possibly making it shorter the first night and slowly increasing each night, like you're suppose to do when introducing air into a pond for the first time.. ?

Or am I better off just keeping the same aeration schedule that I've been running? It's kept the temps down but I'm also wondering about DO for the trout.. I do not have a meter.

Any quick advice is greatly appreciated, thanks!

smile

Last edited by Esa77; 09/22/20 09:31 PM.
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Right off the top of my head, I'd say keep your aeration schedule as it is, or run it 24/7.

Are there other fish in the pond? Do you have extensive submergent vegetation? Either of these two could increase the oxygen demand during the night.

I've had your numbers and sizes of trout in my only slightly smaller pond along with hundreds of LMB, sunfishes, YP, grass carp without any shortage of oxygen whatsoever, with similar water temps. And this is without aeration during our warmer months. We do have a trickle of fresh water running into the pond.

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Esa77 Offline OP
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Thanks very much, we also have a trickle of water running into the pond from a small creek after a very dry month.

There's a few smallmouth bass (self sustaining) in the pond up to about 12 inches and there's a moderate amount of submerged weeds.. I recently raked about 60% of it. There's no algae bloom and water is pretty clear, maybe a little brown.

I had a problem when I stocked the first batch of trout back in June that all died after introducing air and running it 24/7 right away during a hot month, so I'm a bit nervous how this one will go but the temps are much cooler this time.

Appreciate the advice, I will leave the aerator running on it's 10hr schedule from 11pm-9am for now and see how it goes

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The problem you had before was most likely due to mixing too much anoxic water with hydrogen sulfide in it with the rest of the pond water. I'd run the aeration 24/7. What was the water temp top to bottom when you first started up the system?


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3/4 to 1 1/4 ac pond LMB, SMB, PS, BG, RES, CC, YP, Bardello BG, (RBT & Blue Tilapia - seasonal).
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Thanks, when I first started the system back in June the water temps were 68 Bottom and 70 to 72 surface. Right after I stocked in June and introduced the aerator we had a very hot 10 days in the high 80s and the water temps rose to 80 surface and 76 bottom. After learning here I then went to running air only at night starting short and working my way to 10hrs a night. I’ve ran that since.

My concern right now with starting to run the aerator 24/7 was the temps would increase during the day and get to dangerous levels again, but maybe its low enough 58-62 where that may not happen? We have a week of low 70’s ahead with sun and lows of 50’s at night.

I’m wondering what the trade off is with more air 24/7 or trying to keep the water a little cooler by running air just at night.

Fish seem fine today but a few of the smaller browns are near the surface in the middle, big rainbows laying close to bottom in about 4ft water, swimming around, etc. Caught a few just now and they recovered fine.

If going to 24/7 is the best idea, should I slowly increase the aeration time or go right to 24/7? Or maybe run it like 18hrs a day, skipping the hottest parts of the day?

Last edited by Esa77; 09/23/20 12:25 PM.
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A NY 6-7ft deep pond without significant cold spring water inflow is very marginal summer trout habitat even for NY. Don't be surprised if you frequently have trout always struggling during Jul-August especially during global warming.


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Esa77 Offline OP
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Thanks, I learned that the hard way this summer, that's the reason i waited to restock until late september when bottom temps dropped to 58. Moving fwd I will be stocking in spring and fall, expecting to harvest or lose the fish by July.

Bottom temp today was up 2 degrees to 60, a few hot days ahead (75/55) but hopefully temps stay down with the colder nights.

I think I will gradually increase the aerator running time to 24hrs and monitor temps


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