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WBJ, how did the pond turn out for fishing this past summer? Did you get a chance to test the water as far as fish are concerned? Did you catch any? Ever see those Brooky's after stocking?
Do not judge me by the politicians in my City, State or Federal Government.
Tracy
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Tracy - fishing was great this summer. The fish were big, healthy and fought REALLY well. I took DO readings this summer and oxygen levels were very good. I had the grass blade bloom come on again only it was even stronger than the year before. I think this might be due to us moving all five diffusers to new locations and stirring up more nutrients. I did not for 100% certainty see any of the stocked brookies. The problem is it is very difficult to differentiate between and brookie and a splake, but the stocked brookies should have been smaller than the splake. I didn't catch anything small enough that I thought it might have been one of the brookies. I also did not see any YOY brook trout so assuming either no spawn or no YOY survived the water conditions through winter.
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This will be interesting to watch.
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This will be interesting to watch. Yeah no doubt!! Although I would much prefer predictable instead of interesting! LOL
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This will be interesting to watch. Yeah no doubt!! Although I would much prefer predictable instead of interesting! LOL LOL. I have my thoughts but I'll keep them to myself until the Spring when we KNOW.
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This will be interesting to watch. Yeah no doubt!! Although I would much prefer predictable instead of interesting! LOL LOL. I have my thoughts but I'll keep them to myself until the Spring when we KNOW. Oh whatever man! Come on now with them!! I'll be bored all winter anyway! On an interesting note, I am back to open water. No ice at all. May get an extra three weeks of open water versus last year to start this winter.
Last edited by wbuffetjr; 11/04/20 12:48 PM.
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This will be interesting to watch. Yeah no doubt!! Although I would much prefer predictable instead of interesting! LOL LOL. I have my thoughts but I'll keep them to myself until the Spring when we KNOW. Oh whatever man! Come on now with them!! I'll be bored all winter anyway! On an interesting note, I am back to open water. No ice at all. May get an extra three weeks of open water versus last year to start this winter. LOL, nope my lips are zipped until the Spring. Glad that you have open water. I hope we get some moisture before the ponds here freeze solid!!
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[quote=wbuffetjr][quote=esshup][quote=wbuffetjr][quote=esshup]
LOL, nope my lips are zipped until the Spring. Glad that you have open water. I hope we get some moisture before the ponds here freeze solid!! Booo! Here's part of my problem. I am having success with what I am doing. Maybe not 100%, but significant success. That makes me reluctant to make any large changes. I think the safe route is small incremental improvements.
Last edited by wbuffetjr; 11/05/20 09:36 AM.
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[quote=wbuffetjr][quote=esshup][quote=wbuffetjr][quote=esshup]
LOL, nope my lips are zipped until the Spring. Glad that you have open water. I hope we get some moisture before the ponds here freeze solid!! Booo! Here's part of my problem. I am having success with what I am doing. Maybe not 100%, but significant success. That makes me reluctant to make any large changes. I think the safe route is small incremental improvements. As long as you are having success, I agree. But if you still have a doming problem this year, then I will unzip my lips. I'd love to see water temp profiles from under the ice to the bottom of the pond in the deepest part of the pond in say February. O2 profiles too, about every 2-3 feet.
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[quote=wbuffetjr][quote=esshup][quote=wbuffetjr][quote=esshup][quote=wbuffetjr][quote=esshup] As long as you are having success, I agree. But if you still have a doming problem this year, then I will unzip my lips. I'd love to see water temp profiles from under the ice to the bottom of the pond in the deepest part of the pond in say February. O2 profiles too, about every 2-3 feet. If I still have doming at EVERY diffuser I will be shocked, but we will see. I have gotten that data over the last couple years. The water seems fully mixed - water temp is consistent top to bottom. DO has just been gone.
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[quote=wbuffetjr][quote=esshup][quote=wbuffetjr][quote=esshup][quote=wbuffetjr][quote=esshup] As long as you are having success, I agree. But if you still have a doming problem this year, then I will unzip my lips. I'd love to see water temp profiles from under the ice to the bottom of the pond in the deepest part of the pond in say February. O2 profiles too, about every 2-3 feet. If I still have doming at EVERY diffuser I will be shocked, but we will see. I have gotten that data over the last couple years. The water seems fully mixed - water temp is consistent top to bottom. DO has just been gone. I believe the doming issues are the culprit of that. Aeration is mixing the water, but not enough of the water is contacting air that has a lot of O2 because of the dome. Allow fresh air get to the surface of the water and you will see the O2 levels go up.
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[quote=wbuffetjr][quote=esshup][quote=wbuffetjr][quote=esshup][quote=wbuffetjr][quote=esshup] As long as you are having success, I agree. But if you still have a doming problem this year, then I will unzip my lips. I'd love to see water temp profiles from under the ice to the bottom of the pond in the deepest part of the pond in say February. O2 profiles too, about every 2-3 feet. If I still have doming at EVERY diffuser I will be shocked, but we will see. I have gotten that data over the last couple years. The water seems fully mixed - water temp is consistent top to bottom. DO has just been gone. I believe the doming issues are the culprit of that. Aeration is mixing the water, but not enough of the water is contacting air that has a lot of O2 because of the dome. Allow fresh air get to the surface of the water and you will see the O2 levels go up. Agreed 100%!! At least I finally know exactly what I am fighting.
Last edited by wbuffetjr; 11/07/20 06:30 AM.
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Last year ice came on 10.21.2019 We are doing significantly better than that this year.
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The only thing missing is a big Bull Elk in the foreground. LOL
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Some initial results are in. Of course not saying this is conclusive, just interesting. A couple storms blew in and put down 12"-18" of snow. Solar panels snowed over and power went down for 2.5 - 3 days. The only aeration came from the windmill and it appeared to keep a hole open the entire time. The power came back on at some point this morning and so the pumps started running. The online system hasn't updated yet so I cannot tell how long the pumps have been running. BUT......BUT..... here's what we can see. The close open hole is from the windmill. The open hole further back is the only diffuser that has a pipe installed next to it! Now, I am sure the other holes will open up tomorrow, but I find it VERY interesting that the only diffuser with a metal pipe is the only one that's open at this point. If the other holes eventually open, this hole opened MUCH faster. This is a dual vertex diffuser in ~12' of water. There is another dual vertex diffuser in the foreground of the pic in ~10' of water that tries to hog all the air because it is shallower with a MUCH shorter run of airline and it shows ZERO signs of life. May have this doming thing whipped!!!
Last edited by wbuffetjr; 11/22/20 08:37 AM.
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Was the windmill able to keep the domes from forming in the past?
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Was the windmill able to keep the domes from forming in the past? No. Every single winter so far the windmill has not been able to keep a hole open the entire winter. At times it has gone months with no hole open. That does tend to start to happen further into winter though. This summer we did move the windmill diffuser much closer to a boulder that sticks out of the water as a test for this winter.
Last edited by wbuffetjr; 11/13/20 08:09 AM.
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BIG holes so far! Quad hole goes all the way to shore. That should disrupt any dome I am thinking. Hard to see the single hole to the far right in the shadows. Bottom of the first inning though.
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Koenders windmill hole starting to struggle - not sure why. Solar aeration holes still killing it! Good bit of snow supposed to come tonight and tomorrow.
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Which one of the 3 big holes seen in the picture have a metal pipe in the middle? I can't make out the pipes
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Which one of the 3 big holes seen in the picture have a metal pipe in the middle? I can't make out the pipes The far back left hole just past the peninsula.
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Snow came in. Got at least 8", maybe more. Power cut off at 9:30am MST. So pumps only ran for about one hour this morning. Will be interesting to see what happens with the holes tomorrow.
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Got a total of about 14" of snow. Windmill hole is just a wet spot now. Other holes have shrunk, but still present. In the past, in my best years, I haven't been able to keep holes open past about the third week of December so that is the real test. No snow in the forecast at all. So far we are 83% of normal snowfall and 118% of last years snowfall. Pretty sure those are either moose or elk tracks in the snow.
Last edited by wbuffetjr; 11/28/20 10:23 AM.
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Koenders doesn't put out enough air to have any wave action. The Koenders that I am familiar with (both electric and windmill) only put out less than 2 cfm, and they are closer to 1 cfm. It doesn't help that they furnish 3/8" tubing for the system.
Had problems with the 3/8" tubing freezing up under ground too, so the alcohol anti-freeze tanks are mandatory. Never had a problem freezing with buried 1" Poly pipe.
One customer had us trench in replacement 1" poly. Then this year we switched to a Gast 0523 rotary vane to replace 2 of the Koenders electric compressors. Half the electric cost, roughly 3x the air output and it really shows at the diffusers.
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Scott,
I would bet a stack that the windmill domes over. My unit is a double compressor. This is directly from Koenders "At 1 ft of depth you will get 3 cfm...at 10' about 2.5 etc." I replaced the 3/8" line they provide with 5/8" line. The tower sits in about 1' of water and my airline goes straight down into deeper water. As far as I know mine has never frozen up. It will make a wet spot here and there throughout the winter. I am almost positive it is struggling due to doming. We moved it closer to shore and near a boulder that sticks out of the water. Will see if that improves its' performance this year. If the pipe works then next year it'll get a pipe and we will watch yet another experiment. Oh isn't learning so much FUN!!
Last edited by wbuffetjr; 11/30/20 06:23 AM.
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