All of the Fish Died in our Pond, Again!!!
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ส.ค. 2023
- We have a 3.5 acre pond that we just stocked this spring. And now all the fish have died off, Again.
Buy T-Shirts and Hoodies on Our Website:
www.countryviewacreshomestead...
Our Amazon Shop full of great Homesteading items:
www.amazon.com/shop/countryvi...
TYM Tractors: tym.world/en-us/
The Tractors we use are the
TYM 2515 - 24 Horsepower compact tractor
TYM T654 - 67 horsepower compact utility Tractor
J.I. Case 730 (1961)
Allis Chalmers D17 Series 1 (1959)
E-mail us at: countryviewacreshomestead@gmail.com
Send Letters to:
Country View Acres
P.O. Box 469
Robinson, IL 62454
Our TH-cam Channel: / countryviewacres
Our Facebook page: / countryviewacreshomestead
Our Instagram Page: / country_view_acres
We live in southeastern Illinois on a 41 acre homestead. We just finished building our log cabin in 2018. Now we are focused on trying to grow our own food and raise livestock. Follow us on our journey we continue to develop our homestead and farm, while becoming more self sufficient.
Any links provided above may be affiliate links which earn us a small commission.
#pond #aeration #fish
Duckweed and algae problems are usually from excessive nutrient issues. Check where your run offs coming into the pond are coming from. You could be getting excessive nutrients from hog or cattle farms or just run off from fertilizers from the farm fields.
This would be my guess as well.
That's right
When algae in the pond dies and sinks to the bottom it uses up oxygen when it decays and this lack of oxygen is what kills the fish. Your aerator is nowhere near big enough for a pond of your size. You really need to hire an expert and measure the nitrogen and phosphorus levels in the water to see why there is so much algae, you have nutrients getting into that water somehow and excessive nutrients cause excessive algae growth which is the root of all your problems.
Id guess fertilizer run off
Yeah, that's why my suggestion last year was to harvest and compost the duckweed. I figure it would be like harvesting a hay field without fertilizing it. I wasn't of the impression that the pond was fed from somewhere, though. If it is, this is hopeless.
Time for a professional consult.
That's my recommendation as well.
He needs to leave it alone
That's what I was thinking too.
We all are on the same page. This is not something a pond specialist hasn't seen. I don't think it'll be cheap but ponds aren't. Good luck Evan love your videos.
💯
As a twenty year pond owner I’ll throw in my two cents. My ponds are 7 & 40 acres. Your fish kill is defiantly not caused by your aeration system. In fact, you should have it running 24/7 to eliminate the stratification in your pond. It’s obvious by the duckweed that you have too many nutrients in your pond. The decaying vegetation off gassing is killing the fish. Running the aeration system 24/7 will help remove the gas from your water, but you really need to take care of the root of the problem which is the duckweed/vegetation caused by the high nutrients. Long term solution would be to use bacteria (example; Pond Block sold at TSC) and run your aerator. For immediate results you can use a pond company to kill off the duckweed, but this will shock your pond and cause more destructive off-gassing and kill any remaining fish. I don’t know, but suspect your pond has allot of farm runoff, so you’ll need to keep dosing it with the bacteria through the year (2-3 times) to keep it under control. For your pond I recommend using a pond dye too which will inhibit the plant growth in the future. For now, don’t worry about the fish until you can get your pond under control. There is also no need to stock the high rates recommended. I’ve dealt with total fish kills multiple times and small stock numbers repopulate a pond quickly. I’ve had 4ld bass within 3 years, add minnows to your restocking and use a 1/2 to 1 acre recommendation. I fought the same pond battle as you for years and employed a very good pond management company $3,600 - $8,000 annually. My problems were not solved with the pond management company due to the high cost, which I couldn’t afford $12,000 or justify. I added self management with 24/7 aeration and 3-4 annual bacteria treatments and pond dye. My pond had to much vegetation and off gassing prior. It took two years to totally solve the offgassing, but now I spend about $600 annually on self treating the pond plus my electric for the aeration and my house has a beautiful 7 acre pond view finally (6 years and counting).
If you're going to use electricity, I would build a small wetland filter on the side of the pond that can help air rate the water and it will build up a huge biological filter at the same time. You can create like a small cascading waterfall back to the main pond.
That is an excellent recommendation. On a sidebar…. The people that owned the pond before as we all have seen and they have experienced, put trash everywhere. I would NOT be surprised they put waste or trash in the pond itself or possibly on edge somewhere. Get a fish sonar and see what you can see on bottom and test the water. You need to know what you have causing the issue and what you need to balanced it. What beneficial bacteria you need as he said.
I am a certified scuba diver with 75+ dives. In rescue training we were taught “grid search”. Map your pond into grids and use sonar etc to discover what lies below. It likely has no visibility for a diver. Hell; I would not be surprised if there was a body or two down there the way those people were.
Yup, stop guessing and consult an expert.
This comment nailed it.
Evan, you are trying and learning. I love that you don’t ‘hide’ your mistakes. You own them.
I think he does need to call a professional company, lab tests etc
We live in Illinois as well and have a farm pond. We run our our aerator 24/7 365. We had fish kills when we did not run them continually because there was so much sediment buildup on the bottom that as the leaves and stuff decomposed it basically became methane gas. I would encourage you to continually run them. Also we had a very bad duckweed problem the last several years. What we noticed is the overflow pipe that the water exits out of the pond was not working properly... once that was fixed anytime it rains now the duckweed flows out of the overflow pipe and we have literally had zero duckweed this year.
These have been only on during the day for 3 to 4 months. That isn't the cause or it would have happened earlier It was because the aerator broke apart. And a stream of continuous air was stirring up the bottom of the pond.
@CountryViewAcres You certainly could be accurate with the sediment being stirred up. However right now on one of my aerators it has been snapped off for about a year I just haven't pulled the line to replace the end and we have a lot of muck as well. I'm certainly no expert. Herman Brothers Pond Management in Central Illinois does a really good job and they travel to a lot of states if you were to ever want a second opinion. I really enjoy your channel I've been binge-watching a lot of your videos.
@morecowbell4u
(Great handle)
The underlying problem is always going to be too much soil nutrients in the wrong place. That’s going to take science to create farming fertilizers that have a stop-action or something… so they don’t continue to fertilize growth where they aren’t supposed to.
Also, this guy doesn’t really seem all that motivated to really get ahead of the problem…. More video content perhaps ?🤔
I think I found EXACTLY what you're looking for!!! A company called KLM Ponds did a video over a year ago that talks about what likely happened to your pond. It's a video about over aeration of ponds and how you should only aerate at night. Also need to get the excessive duckweed under control with skimming it off regularly. youtube.com/@klmponds @CountryViewAcres
This is what my neighbor did:
Tie a fishnet to the end of the boat and row . Have 1 person at the shore holding the other end of the net and collect the duckweed that way. Physicly remove all the collected duckweed from the net in to buckets before going on a duckweed fishnet hunt again.🙂
Glad I clicked on this. I never knew you had to worry much about ponds.
If you want to drag the pond. A hose full of water with pool noodles around it might work a lot better.
That is what I was also thinking.
i commented the same thing. Should have arrowed done a little more.
@@sams568 I'm sorry am I supposed to care that you commented the same thing already?
Fish nets.
He’s not really being very earnest about solving the problems…. meanwhile the little lake is getting worse + worse. Eventually just a slimy swamp.
Sorry to hear about this but I think that your aerators need to be on 24/7 all year round .
Hey Evan, I think your county extension office would be a great place to start on knocking out the pond issues. They can help you solve this economically instead of fighting it.
Grass carp will not control a duckweed problem unfortunately. As others have said Evan, it’s an excessive nutrient issue from run off. You should have been running the pond aeration 24 / 7 since. Duckweed is caused from excessive nutrients. 😢
LOL I like Rebecca's attitude. IE Nothing's happening until that snake pit is mowed and if the zero turn goes in, so be it.
During calm, hot days, the pond develops temperature layers called “stratification.” The layer of water at the surface is exposed to the sun and warms quickly. This warm layer weighs less than the cool water below, so these layers do not mix. Surface layers contain high levels of oxygen produced by the phytoplankton. The cooler bottom layers are cut off from the surface layers and their sources of oxygen, so oxygen levels drop over time because of normal biological processes. In fact, these deep waters can actually develop an “oxygen demand,” which is like having negative oxygen levels.
Try your County Agent, Fish and Game Commission,or possibly a vet school in a university near you. Praying you get an answer. Don't be afraid to ask for help! Love your channel!
As long as the surface is covered in duck weed, it would seem that you’re spitting into the wind.
The other culprit in many other similar situations is over-fertilizing the grass or fields within the drainage system that then runs off into the pond.
Aquarium owner here, I've never had a fishkill from duckweed. Even with 3" of duckweed on my 90 or 150 gallon tank, even with all but one of my filters down, never had it happen. The most common fishkill for aquariums tend to be PH crashes. I'd test the water for that first and foremost. I'd also aggressively skim off half the pond; Duckweed is great for pulling nitrates out of water, as well as many other contaminants.
Next most common is toxic algae blooms. This is POSSIBLE with that much duckweed, but unlikely.
Maybe there’s a difference between a pond and an aquarium.
You comment that you have always had at least one filter operating. Most ponds never have any filters operating.
Do you also have an air bubbler? That’s really the crucial difference because the increased vegetation consumes the dissolved oxygen in the water thereby suffocating the fish. Try turning off all the aquarium equipment and see how your fish do.
I've got rainbow trout in my farm pond, and I'd be devastated to find them all belly up. Man that sucks, sorry to see what happened there. My big problem is trying to keep it cool enough in the summer months. I use it for yard irrigation so I'm constantly pumping water out and putting fresh cool stuff in from the irrigation district.
Pool noodles duct taped together with a rope ran through all of them might work to drag the duck weed out.
slide them over that garden hose!
Maybe this can help you out, Ive had a similar problem of duckweed, in my pond up in Wisconsin. I bought 3-30 ft, minnow seine nets, tied them together ,my wife on one end , me on the other, and slowly dragged the nets across the pond. You wouldnt believe how much duck weed we pulled out, of the pond. I then bought a Koenders wind powered windmill, and thats been working for us since 2003
I did this method too but I couldn’t cure it without chemicals. The duckweed would spread back out in a few days for me. I do agree on opening up the pond though with a wind source! It blows it to the other side
I saw a video a while back ...a young farmer who was using the duck weed to supplement his pigs feed.He was told his pork was very high in omega threes and other nutrients. An idea to keep the plant matter from mucking up the pond and feeding livestock free food . If you have lemons make lemonade.
The heavy bloom could be from high nutrient content from runoff from farm land. I would have water tested.
A water test should be real easy.
Evan, ponder over this suggestion: build a float to suspend the aerator below it so the aerator is not sitting on the bottom; attach an anchor (a large rock or some scrap metal) to the float so it does not wander off.
I hope your pond will, sooner rather than later, give the two of you the pleasure of hours of fishing.
I like this idea, build sort of a diamond shaped cage in which to place the aerator in the middle. At the bottom of the diamond attach an anchor of some sort and at the top put a buoyancy device to keep the "diamond" pulled upright. Then attach your rope to the top of the diamond, along with the buoy, with the rope attached to the floating duck to keep the rope at the surface. The anchor, the diamond cage, the buoyancy device would all sink close to the bottom where you need the oxygen but stay out of the silt.
I doubt very much that one aerator malfunctioning is the culprit.
You have way too much organic matter in that pond due probably to nitrogen runoff of fields that feed it.
You’re probably going to have to resort to chemicals.
Also get those aerators off the bottom, suspend them at least 2 feet off the bottom.
You might get a mechanical surface skimmer that floats on the surface of the pond and connects to a pump that drawa water and duckweed off the surface. The pump discharge is into a land basin with a screened discharge back to the pond. The duckweed stays behind in the basin and is periodically scooped out with a shovel or the tractor's bucket, ending up in the compost pile.
That’s a lot of compost.
He did that last year? 5 gallon bucket with a lip cut out for the intake, pumped onto the.shore, used some square bales as a filter. He got a loader or bucket or two's worth. Composted most.
Have you tried beneficial bacteria?
Beneficial bacteria comes in liquid or pellets or blocks for ponds. It can help eat up all the organic matter which in turn deprives algae of needed nutrients and clears up the water while also reducing the amount of muck at the bottom of the pond.
I assure you there's already beneficial bacteria in that pond, and what they do is convert ammonia to nitrates, which plants then consume.
Just so you know, duckweed is an excellent protein source for livestock animals. So if you can skim it off you can give it to your cows/pigs.
I think he tried that, they did not eat it, but the pigs ate a little.
Yeah, you have to mix it into the pig feed with other things, the farmer who uses duckweed for his pigs mixes it with milk, alfalfa, and different grains. But chickens, quail and ducks, surprise, love it as is.
Another fish kill is a hard one. Sorry for your loss. The fountain idea is a good idea with coloured lights to give it a night time display. The fish will love it too with the added oxygen in the water.
Coloured lights would be sacrilege. It’s the countryside and they moved there because they enjoyed camping and nature and wanted to live in natural surroundings.
A fountain will clog, with that much algea/duck weed, and will be a maintenance headache!
I work in wastewater treatment where we deal with nutrients. Specifically ammonia and nitrate. Nitrification/Denitrification. Of course it's similiar but different. I don't think aeration alone will help. You probably have excess Nitrate (NO3) from whatever flow is going into the pond. My suggestion is to control your nutrient loading into the pond, if you can do that. If not maybe a constructed wetland to treat water going into the pond. Wetland vegetation will consume the nitrogen. Or figure out a way to denitrify the NO3. We do that in wastewater by having Anoxic zones. But we are using activated sludge....
I did too for 20 yrs....lots of algae/duckweed on our secondary clarifiers in the summer when plant flows were low and the weather was hot and sunny. Phosphate and nitrate concentrations increased with lower water dilution and caused algae blooms which causes low D.O. levels. Surface sprayers were used to clear the overflow weirs and regular cleaning with brushes until higher flows resumed.....
Appreciate your honesty. Sorry to hear your hard work has gone sour.
May be cheaper to consult wit a pond/lake management consultant.
That can test the water and give you real solutions to correct management of the pond so your fish will flourish.
Sorry for the loss and good luck.
From your neighbors
We have lived on our place 33 years. We have a 3 acre pond that has always been clear enough to see the bottom. Until one of the big Mega farmers started farming the land across the road from our place . Applying tons of fertilizer and airplane spray on his crops. Now are pond is covered in duck weed and all the fish are dead. The run off from his field goes right in our pond. Says it is not his fault.( Can't do a thing.)
So sorry this happened to you. It must be frustrating beyond. Enough to make one feel like moving.
The struggle can be real don’t give up my friend thanks for showing we are all learning at the same time.
That’s so sad, you both love to fish, you need to do whatever it takes. So sorry. Love you guys.
So sorry to hear that! I wish you good luck!
Evan you need to get a cpl fountains that work just off the surface of the water. ….. the filter is directly beneath the fountain so it doesn’t disturb the silt on the bottom
Well that's a shame that you're having issues with the pond. I sure hope you can get it fixed, the pond sure does show case your place. Good luck with it and I hope you have a wonderful weekend.😮
Third time's a charm!! You sure have given the pond a ton of attention..........and it can be sooo pretty!! Good Luck!
Your frustration is so warranted, I can only imagine. I hope you get it figured out, I'm sure you will actually. Good luck.
If you look at some commercial fisheries they have a paddle wheel flipping water in the ponds for the aeration . Duckweed grows that well because there is no surface movement so it thrives as it loves stagnant water.
I’m so sorry guys I know you’ve tried really hard to solve this problem . Yep I think a fountain is the way to go I’m into fly fishing and one of my local lakes uses a fountain type of system in the lake to help.
Awesome video, thank you.
Use some of the duck weed in your pig and chicken feed. Mix it in, it's filled with beneficial nutrients. You can skim some off daily to add to feed and start bringing that amount down.
There must be some sort of run off issue causing algae blooms. Our area is BAD for blue green algae and fish kills, and I think its one of the reason grass carp are so prolific. I would bet your carp are fine.
Just a thought: if you have a fish farm near you check what they use to air rate their ponds or maybe google. 😊❤. Love your vids
That's a shame Evan. Sorry to hear this. I live in a lake community with 1 big lake and 5 smaller lake. All our small lakes have been closed this summer due to bad outbreak of blue-geen algae. Once a lake gets these bad elements its a battle to get rid of. Good luck in your fight.
Hey Evan. Love the videos. Makes me miss growing up on a farm. Could you block your pond overflow pipe until the water level gets higher and then release it so the duckweed flows out? Just a thought!
Oh man I really feel for you both it’s no joke I’d feel sick not just losing the fish but the expense. I really hope you find a way to solve the duck weed issue Evan
Our pond used to get covered in duckweed also and the fix was to stop fertilizing our lawn along with aeration, it never gets covered anymore although there is a little along the far edge sometimes. Even the small amount of chemical fertilizer on a lawn migrates very fast to the lowest point which was our pond.
Even like i said before my friend had the same problem , so he put in a fountain and hall is great more oxygen in the wather .Hope you dont loose all your fish
Looks like you will have to get in a flat bottom boat or a skamp or kiack and take a fine hole dip net and skim the top of the pond when it gets hot in late spring and fall until winter comes back unfortunately. Hope you figure it out! Pile the duck weed up somewhere for compost! Keep your head up!
I lived on a lake in northern WI that had weed problems. You need to be carefully when mowing the lawn so that the clippings don't get into the water. Also don't fertilize or put any chemicals on the lawn. They wanted us to have a grass called no mow, this is real thin blades of grass and shouldn't be mowed. A border around the pond can act as a filter. The fertility of the run off going into the pond is the source of your problems. You can make a floating barrier to coral up the duck weed using 2x4 fasten them together with something tough but flexible, heavy canvas, old fire hose sections. Look into what the cranberry harvesters use.
Positioned at the far end of the pond setup 2 wheels 2 meters big with a light chain banding them with rakes custom made to scoop up pond weeds and dump onto land powered by a motor that runs all day. Every so often use tractor to remove pile of weed from under dumping area.
I used pool noodles but the noodles alone set to high and are to light to drag a large amount of duck weed to shore ! I cut 4 in lengths of rebar and pushed inside the noodle to weight it down along with the rope
Get a jet ski and run it around for a few hours, I know it might sound stupid but it will sort of aeriate but the duckweed will all go to the banks as you make waves. Then you can rake it off the waters edge.
I used a product called Clipper Herbicide to rid my pond of water meal (similar to duckweed). It took all summer but it never came back. Killing it could cause a lot of O2 loss. Stirred up silt causes algal blooms on the organics in the silt, depleting the O2
I do think that shutting off the aerators is not a good idea I think they should be going 24 hours a day
If you remember the very first time you had issues with the pond I mentioned to purchase a 1/3 horse power sump pump put the pump on the water and let the pvc 11/4 schedule 40 exstend about ten ft in the air that would put enough oxygen in the water to supply the fish in the pond. When I put mine in I got creative I pit a cap on top and drilled 1/4 inch holes in it and boy did it spray. The way way your pumps are now are not putting oxygen in the water you need turbulence mixed with air. Hope again this helps.
So sorry about your pond and the fish. Hope and pray for a solution for your problem. 😢💕🙏
So many things can cause fish kills. Definitely run the aeration as much as you can. The top 18" or so of the pond is prob 25 degrees hotter than the layer underneath it. I used a duck weed killer on our small pond from lake restoration and it worked great. I wish you good luck!
Suggestion get some of them foam noodle things link them together and make a floating boom to round up bloom
Evan , maybe if you could find a way to suspend the aerators so They are or about 4 or 5 feet below the surface of the pond it would bring up cool water from below to mix with warm water on top , I would take the diffusers off and put short length of pipe to help aerate the water . Good luck with whatever you do
Oh no.😢 I'm so sorry this happened again
Just started watching the video.
It was hilarious watching you row the boat at fast-forward speed!
It would seem as though some barley straw bales are in order, anchored close to the shore. Consult with your extension office to determine the correct number based on size of pond. You'll be amazed at the results, work great in our neck of the woods.
Dang. Tough hit. Sorry to hear this. Keep after it. Your place is beautiful. Good Luck.
Sorry to hear about your fish... try some barley straw if you can get it put the bales in the water to help clear that water.. nylon rope is also very good at floating. We cleared our old pond with the gloating rope and drag with the tractor worked a treat.. stay safe .
One time at Disney World, I noticed their aeration system was just under the surface 2-3 inches, nowhere near the bottom. The boom idea will work. You just need to build it right.
Try lengths of 4x2 timber connected with short lengths of rope, a rope each end and a steady pull will get it near the bank then lift the duckweed out with a leaf rake. Have shifted tonnes like this.
I'd recommend testing your water. I'm willing to bet your nitrite levels are high. If that's the case, there's not much you can do on a pond this size. Pray for a lot of rain.
The only way we got rid of the duck weed we waited until the wind blew it to one side of the pond and sprayed it with roundup we did it just a little at a time with small amounts of roundup and dye and its gone now and haven't had it for years
I m so Sorry for your loss. Keep trying Something will work eventually
Thanks for video 😎
Ponds don’t normally need an aerator. Take them out of your pond. You originally got the aerators to kill the duckweed, it didn’t work. The fish were fine before the use of the aerators.
I had a cousin that put a fountain in there pond. It came with a solar panel to run it in the day. Needed a secondary power source to run at night. They only ran at night when they were outside. Otherwise just sun runs it.
The thing about crap is they can come to the top of the water and breath air with out being under the water and if you use a pool noodles on a rope with a little bit of fishing weights to hold them down could work or even run the water hoses through the noodles
The aerator could be kicking up H2S from the bottom muck. As the health of the pond improves, there will be less of that.
For the duckweed... You should build a skimmer and compost that pondweed for your garden. Make a better version of that hose and you could clear it in chunks. Pull it to a prepared spot on shore with a mesh conveyor at the bottom of a V shaped bay. The conveyor would strain it and load it into a truck or bin without hassle, just keep pulling in the boom to keep feeding it in.. Dump it in piles to compost down a bit or spread it on the garden in the fall.
Keep ur head up champ, u be fishin in no time.
Alligar diuron 80 Does wonders on duckweed but would not use if still watering the garden with the pond water. Can be found and at farm stores cheaper then online.
So sad that this happened again....keeping my fingers crossed you can get ahead of this problem...
Suggestion floating solar powered water fountains that spray pond water into a umbrella like spray
Or possibly a floating raft with solar powered fountains advantage would also provide fish hiding spot if located close to middel and or a swimming
try putting floatation and weight on the bottom aerators to bring them up off of the very bottom but still deep in the pond.
The dairy industry uses slurry, (liquid manure) to enrich grass pastures. In order to prevent a crust forming on top of the holding tanks they use an aerator from mid tank level to break up the crust, it also keeps the crust away. A version of that type of system might work for you. A high energy pump with hundreds if not thousands of air outlets all facing up. It’s similar to what you have; however, the outlets are not concentrated and are over a much larger area the entire pond. The method is to cover all the pond at the same time not just small areas. Instead of breaking the crust it would oxygenate. Using pressure washing gear could reduce cost.
One time I had a round bale speared with the tractor and raised up high to pull the spoiled bottom off of it for the compost pile. When I yanked the wet part, out dropped a big snake like you have, a northern water snake. It was quite the start! I leaned over with my hands on my knees checking it out and when I straightened up another big snake was coming out between the layers of the bale and going back into another layer in the bale just above my head. I grabbed the U it made and flung it thinking of how "fun" it would have been if it had dropped on my head.
I had a similar looking pond 2 years ago- I put in 10 grass carp and 30 lbs of Tilapia, they took about 2 months to clear it - this year our pond is perfect- haven't added any new fish to it
I'm so sorry about your pond problems.
Good luck 🍀
Wow! What a Disappointment!! I'm So Sorry!! I think your right about having fountains instead!! Have a Great Weekend!! 🙂🌻
Having the same issues on our pond which is 1 acre. it's an older pond which has deep silt and muck. Weve been removing the duckweed manually and have added a fountain and aeration . One thing you could do is lime the lake with fine calcium carbonate ,this helps to reduce silt and that in turn reduces nitrates which the duckweed feeds on. Run the aerator 24/7. Its a massive learning curve and we are going through all this at the same timr so really look forward to your videos!
Thick silt and muck would tend to suggest PH crash or toxic algae bloom to me. (Certain bottom dwelling anaerobic bacteria excrete acids as waste. You can have a very rapid increase in acidity if those bacteria "bloom")
Sorry to hear the fish got killed off again. Good luck in resolving the issue.
Fountain is a great idea
The hose was a great idea, now if U could attaché a wire chicken fencing. Or old fencing. that sticks in the water a few inches to act as a rake might work. . Attache the fencing with plastic ties . Just an idea
That dirt on the aerator is actually beneficial bacteria, you need more places for it to thrive.
I found you because i have a big duckweed problem in a pond that was used as water storage for a wineyard
Evan your pond is about twice the size of ours but we added about a 4 ft extension to our overflow pipe waiting about three weeks took it off and it got rid of about eighty percent of ours but our pond only filled up about 3 in
There are mechanical duckweed skimmers.
I believe that they are a version of an oil skimmer adapted to remove duckweed.
Watch cleaning rivers of garbage with interceptors ,if you make a bouy system like they have across the rivers and around the great ocean garabe patch that may work for your pond ,you could rope together pool noodles ,or maybe weighted pool noodles like floating log rafts to skim the pond❤❤❤❤
I had a similar problem with my pond. I found Tilapia good for eating duck weed. But I also bought some blue food dye called Blue Sea. I'd tried copper sulphate and biological treatments but neither of them worked. The blue food die worked really well.
Your neighbor fields are doing pretty good look how healthy the crops are .
You may 2 of the Koenders windmill, considering the size of your pond. The windmill, even works great at preventing winter kill. My pond is just about an acre in area.
Over at “Life Self Contained” installed a solar pontoon pump and it cleaned up that situation. Just an idea, good luck!
There are pond advisors who will come out and test your pond in different ways, then advise you the best way to get the results you want. If you had a severe illness you would not ask the local plumber how to cure it, so why not get a pro onto the problem.
@jonquinn…
That’s what several are telling him “Get serious and get an expert!, or two!”
But then, he couldn’t keep making videos about his pond problem if he actually fixed it, could he?
Evan I just saw a video using silt fencing to skim the top of the water. Not expensive at all.
Love your channel and your transparency!
As others have stated, duckweed and algae are a symptom of the problem, not a problem by themselves. Removing the duckweed will help reduce residual nutrients, but reducing nutrient inflow is the only way to prevent recurrence. I’d hold off on replacing fish until the nutrients stabilize and the duckweed is gone for good. BTW, harvest the duckweed for your compost pile? Great fertilizer if balanced with some leaves, straw, etc. all the best!
The way we did it. Is use your trolling motor to send it all to the pipe. Works great and really easy