Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Water Quality

Rookie question here. Being new to pond management, but an old school aquarium nerd, I used an aquarium water test kit to test my pond water. PH apppears to be around 7.4, amonia, nitrite, and nitrate all are 0ppm. This is great corerect? I have aeration so the sample should be good as far as consistancy goes. If i was over feeding or had a nitrogen problem wouldn't that show up in the nitrite, and nitrate test???

Also I have a suspended clay particle issue after doing a sediment test. I have done the hay trick once, it was a pain in the arse, and had little to no effect. With frequent summer thunderstorms, I believe it is a never ending battle. It does clear up nicely late fall through early spring. Any recommendations??? I do have a vertex Air4 system that runs 24/7. Could it be not letting the pond settle out? If so how would you proceed? Obviously I need to keep aeration and prevent stratification.

Nitrogen will show up as some type of algal growth-generally.
Aeration does keep sediments in suspension. Heavy rains are something we can't stop, but good erosion protection in the form of heavy thatch grass cover will eliminate some of the sediment run-off. Getting your diffusers up off of the bottom a couple of feet will help keep them from drawing sediment off bottom as well.
If you don't have a heavy biomass of fish, shut the aerator off for several days and see what the visibility does.

Thanks Snipe! The entire watershed is wooded, so erosion control is impossible. How would you recommend lift up the aeration heads? Milk crates?

This is how I did it. This year is the 4th, and probably last, summer for it. The pvc pipe is getting brittle
and has broken in at least one place. I shouldn't have left it sitting on the pond dock to oxidize when
it wasn't in use. Lessons learned...

Look at doing an alum test in a jar to see if you can get the clay to precipitate out. I haven't heard of any turbidity issues due to suspended clay in ponds with aeration that have the "electricity" issues addressed with aluminum sulfate.