I'm a freshwater ecologist and lake manager over here in the UK and I think the main take away from this is that before you go spending big money on anything you need to spend the money on testing equipment. If your water is already oxygen saturated then you're just wasting energy running the pumps, if you wait until the fish start gasping it's already too late. Some bits like dissolved oxygen meters (essential for any lake owner) are kind of expensive but still under $1000, other things like nitrate/pH test kits are dirt cheap and can be picked up for under $20. Lakes are always a balance, if you change one thing then you're going to change something else and knowing the risks is important. In terms of getting rid of your silt deposits (muck) I'd recommend calcium carbonate (chalk) dust but before that you need to check the pH range relative to temperature and nitrate concentration. The organic muck on the bottom will be on the acidic side and the bacteria that breaks it down prefers it closer to neutral, it also requires oxygen because it is aerobic (take in oxygen, expels carbon dioxide) so if natural O2 levels are low this is not a good idea. Chalk is slightly alkaline so will gradually raise the pH away from acidic and then towards neutral before potentially going into alkaline. If the habitat isn't within an acceptable pH/O2 range then adding "helpful" bacteria is a waste of time and money, it'd be like trying to raise cows in a desert. The process of adding chalk to buffer the pH is best done in sections (check pH, do half an acre, check pH again in a few days, wait, check again until it levels off) to avoid pH shock and is to be done in the autumn and spring when the water is cool, the O2 demand is low and the natural saturation is high. It is also very important to check nitrate/ammonia levels because as pH increases the much less toxic ammonium (NH4+) will turn into the far more toxic form, ammonia (NH3). If ammonia/ammonium levels are high in general you really should look at increasing the amounts of vegetation you have in and around the lake because they will absorb and process it naturally. Algae might not look great but it's hands down the fastest way to get rid of excess nutrients in the pond and as long as you monitor the oxygen to balance their consumption it'll do great. You should really look at the cause of the ammonia build up, sometimes it's too much stock and/or bad feed/feeding practices, sometimes it's runoff from fertilised fields/grass. One of the other side effects of silt build up is that below a certain depth there is no oxygen available and this is where the anaerobic bacteria lives, they process the silt in the same way as the aerobic bacteria but produce nasty byproducts such as methane and sulphates which can build up in pockets below the silt. If you ever see bubbles coming up regularly where the deeper silt sits this is generally the cause and while a slow trickle is manageable a big, sudden release can kill an area within minutes. From the looks of it the bubbler style aerators might have caused a big release of toxic material and that's what killed your fish. Personally I prefer paddle wheel style aerators for this reason, they add O2 and add flow without causing too much interference with the silt.
I've spent the last several weeks, gleaming information that you compiled here. The last area I am currently searching/researchering is the PH balance portion of your dissertation here. I had read some people use lime (I'm in the states) & perhaps that is similar or the same as the chalk you referenced as your preferred method. I've only had fish about 90 days now. Pond is relatively new. Built new 1/4 acre pond in June '21. About 8ft @ deepest area. Let it build an ecosystem thru all of '22, & learned some weed/vegetation control. Bought our 1st fish in mid April of '23. A bit shocked as it appears we have least 2 species that spawned offspring in the first 60 days. The fish supplier said we would likely see a fall spawn for 1 species this yr, the Bluegill. Clearly they had made beds & successfully hatched fry. I believe the other was the Fathead Minnows we put in as forage/food, for the other breeds of fish. We didn't expect gases or over feeding symptoms quite so soon, but appears to have created them, in about 10/11 weeks, it seems. I am planning to purchase a solar aerator this week, as I have been researching them for about 10 days, & have a prominent manufacturer who happens to only be about 40 minutes away. I believe everything is new enough that diffuser aeration should be ok, with the exercising of caution not to gas the fish. It will not run in the dark at all since it's solar & w/o battery's. For now anyway. Getting power to the new pond would require going a long distance & under both concrete and an asphalt driveway, which I'm not willing to do right now. We are also currently trying to find the best plants/vegetation for our area & situation. The wife prefers a very clear & clean pond for her own pleasure, but is on board with the needs of the aquatic life & a proper balance for all the animals in the area, in & out of water. I have had to relocate 6 snapping turtles, (who found the new ecosystem quite appealing, especially for the large bull frogs, as they rapidly flourished & or relocated from neighbor ponds, just as turtlesdid rapidly). They have been hard on the new small stocked fish as well as the natural frog population thus far. We have found dead Catfish w/bites out of them, that are clearly the snappers doing. Anyway, just want to say thanks for reminding me & reinforcing all the stuff I had ran across, but didn't necessarily retain or fully grasp until being reminded by your post. I would like a paddle wheel aerator, but just don't have the time right now, or the solar wattage to pull it off. Perhaps you should have your own channel to speak to your area of expertise? Thks & regards
@@Mountain_Valley_Sky As mentioned previously I'd highly recommend getting testing equipment before starting to mess with the parameters. You might not need supplemental oxygen and as long as the pH range is relatively stable (it will naturally drift with water temp/time of day but only a bit) and within acceptable parameters I'd leave it alone. As the pond is only a few years old you're unlikely to have organic silt build up and you risk starting a seesaw effect where it's swinging from one extreme to the other rather than finding its own balance. As for fish population you need to consider what you want from the pond, the biomass of the water is determined by the food sources available but smaller, faster breeding species will fill this void faster than trying to maintain a low population of large fish. I'm not super familiar with north american species so I'd be unable to give precise advice on this aspect. As an example the desirable species in my waters are carp (the bigger the better), in order to give our carp the best chance of growing at their maximum rate we need to net the lakes every 2 years in order to thin out the less desirable populations of roach/rudd/bream and juvenile carp. In simplified terms - by taking out a ton of nuisance fish we make a ton of resources available for the carp we want to feed.
@@DjDolHaus86 yes, that is good advice. Thank you. I will pursue equipment. The 02 meter will be a big stretch, unless I purchase something of inferior quality.
@@Mountain_Valley_Sky it's better than spending a pile of money on a pump set up that you might not need. Check the second hand market, you never know what you might find. In the meantime there are a few things you can do to improve the natural oxygen saturation such as cutting down trees/bushes on the prevailing wind side of the lake and removing lilies if present. If there is a stream running into the lake clean up the course by removing snags and obstructions so it runs faster and maybe use stones to add a riffle before it enter the lake. Agitated water has greater surface area and oxygen transfer relies on surface contact, a lake with a wind ripple has 2-4 times the surface area of a still pond. When you begin testing all parameters you need to build as accurate a picture as possible so test before first light, midday, last light and at night if possible, make notes if weather conditions including temperature and rainfall. By doing this throughout the year you can build up a much more useful picture of what's going on and then you make good decisions on if and what to change. The concern is that you might get a pH/nitrogen spike or similar and panic without realising that it was just because there was heavy rain or some other natural cause and it'll even out in a couple of days. You might find there are things you can do to reduce the severity of these spikes passively by planting buffer plants around the perimeter rather than panic buying a pallet load of lime and dumping it in which could cause massive shock to the fish resulting in a sudden death event. I've seen some pretty bad things done with the best of intentions when sitting back and letting it sort itself out would have done far less damage.
Wow! Thanks so much. I don't think we need an aeration system at all. I am sold on grass carp though. I really appreciation you letting us know. Sorry for your loss.
I watched this because I'm looking at adding an aeration system. Thanks for letting everyone know about the possibility of the ammonia issue. For other who are looking to install aeration systems, I am looking at and would recommend looking into a windmill aeration system. For that size pond it would be about the same cost for installation but no power or solar are required. This cuts out electric cost or messing with solar.
Aeration causes the built up muck to be digested by the aerobic bacteria in the water . This causes the muck to outgas , the outgassing releases from the surface water of the lake but before the gases escape into the atmosphere the gases build up in the water depending upon water temperatures . So essentially you ' gassed ' your existing fish populations . Eventually your lake will re-normalize and gain a new balance with continuous aeration over time . Eventually restocking your fish populations will be effective in a faster way , assuming some of your various fish species did survive this initial purge they would rebuild their populations slowly over time without restocking . Even when you have an aquarium , anything you introduce needs to be done in a slow and consistent manner , there are processes , You just can't ' shock ' the system without negative consequences . Moderation is key to success in every endeavor .
So I have an old lake and looking into doing this. Should I do the short intervals of introduction of this into the pond? Will that give the gas time to escape that builds up? Mine is about 3-4 acres as well.
Good video. Good message. Yeah whoever sold you this aerator should have gone through this aspect of introducing air gradually, especially in an older pond with fish, and in warm weather. This is so basic and fundamental that I have to wonder how much these guys actually knew about what they were doing. I mean it's mentioned in every aeration manual I've ever seen, and certainly is noted in the Airmax systems. Page 8 in the Airmax manual for reference. Best of luck with your pond from here on out.
It also just blows my mind, (I can't remember if I mentioned it in this video) because they are the ones who installed it and started it for us, and they never gave us any sort of paperwork to go with it. The good news is that not all the fish died. I've been catching lots of survivors, and I'm using this opportunity to introduce new species to the lake for hopefully a better fishery in the future.
@@redneckofftherange3008 its good to hear things are going well for you. The aeration can really support fish and keep them healthy but that introduction phase is really important. I can't really explain why they didn't do this properly or at least tell you about it. Maybe some new, inexperienced installers that didn't get the training or something. The fact that your sharing your story though will save somebody some trouble down the road...I'm sure of that.
I’m sorry for your loss…. Our pond turned over years ago and we lost all ours…. I’m doing research now on pond aerators so that doesn’t happen again…. The pros should of know about the break in period to an established pond and helpfully they follow thru with replacing
man that is horrible. sorry you went through that and thank you for spreading the word. I have an old pond and have thought of adding an areator and would have done the same thing
Hey great video lots of useful information! As someone who has been a lake manager in FL for the last 10 years and who has probably installed 50 of those Airmax air systems your standing next to. the lake flipping or creating toxic gas is not common (in my area) at all again, it is still something that can happen but you're probably that 1 in 1000 that it happened to. Wich is why even the company that installed it was a bit shocked. it's good to hear that the company is making it right, hopefully there sticking with Airmax and using there Muck away product. I've used it on a few sites the last couple years and have gotten good results.
There are gases trapped in the muck and releasing it too quickly can kill the poor fish. The people advising you didn't have the knowledge they needed to safely add aeration. Mentioning ammonia makes me think they read about aquarium water cycling after the fact and guessed that was the problem. I know about cycling but adding aeration to my pond was a completely different beast and I might have made the same mistake without the guidance of the folks who sold me the equipment that I installed. They answered questions that I wouldn't have known to ask. I was told about the trapped gasses and advised to start slowly at only 20 mins a day. I'm sorry you had that experience and I hope the company you used sought to learn more about the business they have decided to be in. Sounds like they didn't have any experts on board to educate their staff. Thanks for your video. You may saved others from the same situation. I researched a ton before finally putting in the aeration and I didn't read anywhere about trapped gasses. When I first added pond dye after putting in aeration I could see all the different layers and colors of the water turning over. It was different depending on the depth of the water in specific areas. The dye helped cool down my water temp and quickly cut down the algae overgrowth that was over taking my pond. I have a 1/2 acre pond that's18 feet in the deepest areas. It had catfish when I moved in but I think I'm down to one now. I need a camera out there to find out who is taking the fish. Something strong, I'm sure.
I have a 3 acre very old abandoned for decades pond filled with fish. It is fed by a spring fed creek 1/2 a mile away almost year round, and probably this year due to the amount of water, and the Caldor fire burned most of the water sucking pines and cedars. I ran some aeration last year, dyi, and didn't have that problem. I noticed nothing changing, but this year I'll be at it again. We have a nice flow, and the run off from the fire and following huge storms turned it brown from the red dirt. However, it only takes over a week for the visibility to be crystal clear, so I'm thinking "amonia" or other toxins would flush rather fast. Very frustrating fixing an old pond, that is for sure.
I'd imagine having a creek flowing through your pond would give you some of the benefits of an aeration system and that could be why you didn't have the problems we had. Yes it is very frustrating having to fix it after a fish kill. The fishery that installed the system gave us bluegill, redear, hybrid bluegill, and minnows so far. I used my own money to add some yellow perch, golden shiners, and albino catfish just to add some new types of fish. This fall they will bring us largemouth, black crappie, and channel catfish. I might also add some walleye and hybrid bass for a more diverse fishery, but we will see how these perch do this year before making that decision. I just like catching a variety of fish, and I think this would be the best time to add something new.
The creek is what probably keeping your lake stable with no maintenance, Under heavy rains and when that creeks flowing hard into it that will stir up the silt and help push it out the other end keeping anerobic bacteria that will produce highly toxic gases like hydrogen sulphide to a minimum, on lake with no real water supply its a bit different, silt just builds up and builds up ontil you need to dredge it.
Could it be the hydrogen sulfide ( highly toxic to the fish) in the muck that accumulate and settled over the years and then got disturbed and circulated to the water column due to the force of bottom aeration?
That is highly doubtful. Usually these sudden die offs from aerators happen because the much lower oxygen water layer at the bottom of the lake is mixed into the water column and the fish die of suffocation.
Bubblers are not aerators. They are circulators. Oxygen is absorbed at the surface, taking longer than for bubbles to rise. An easy mistake when placing the air-stones is to put them too deep. Warmer surface waters hold less oxygen and fish like to be able to reach cooler deep water that holds more. By circulating to full depth that cooler water mixes with the warmer above and dilutes the avg oxygen above. Set the air-stones at ~1/2 depth to avoid stirring up muck and hydrogen sulfide released by it. Added bacteria will take care of muck eventually but not in one season.
@@godzilla2k26 Not much will increase temps anywhere. Warm water will stay on top and hold the least oxygen. Circulation will homogenize mid-depth & up waters, while the coolest & most oxy-rich can remain on the bottom vs be diluted in the warmest weather. We don't want to warm up the whole pond and deny fish refuge in hot weather by de-stratifying natural temp zones. Hope this helps.
John I just fell victim to a fish kill in my pond. What you stated about aerarators is on point. I need to make adjustments with mine prior to restocking. Thanks for the info
Old lake = stable lake. From the dead fish clearly it was pretty healthy, at least in the way that matters to most people. Thanks for passing on a heads up to aeration on an established body of water. Sounds like the company is taking care of you. Hopefully they will do better by their customers (on the front side) in the future.
Unfortunately it seems like they are turning their backs on us. Their story keeps changing and we are not pleased. Will do update videos when it is all said and done.
I ran across this phenomenon as we just built a 1/4 acre fish pond, & are very close to purchasing & installing aeration this coming week. We just put our starter fish in n April of '23. Pond built in June '21. Sorry to hear the aeration vendor is not appearing to follow thru with the original compensation. I'm beyond shocked as a supplier & installer that they were not aware of disturbing the water quality to a level that can Essentially suffocate the fish. Either with toxic games, or just churning up bottom settled debris, to a (possible) level of degraded water & O2 quality, that's sorta like a human trying to breathe in the midst of a bad forest fire. I've seen others who have had fish kills from new aeration in old ponds, & it appears that in most cases, some fish do survive in the ponds that are a couple acres or more. Yet it appears yours was probably the worst I have heard of in all my research and past. Some people will do a fish audit & shock the water (hiring professionals) & determine what species are left, & what sizes. I'm sure that event was very disheartening. It's difficult to see 1 or 2 large fish dead from some event. Seeing hundreds die would be terrible when you can do nothing to help them. Hope it all can be sorted out. Good luck & thanks for sharing this unfortunate experience.
I wonder what the problem was exactly. I've heard that the aeration rapidly changes the temperature of the lake. First, by pumping in air. Second, by mixing the various depths of the lake. So whatever natural temperature differences the lake had at various depths is more uniform.
I'm no expert, but I think a number of things all happen at once to make this kind of fish kill happen. A dramatic shift in oxygen, ammonia, silt, and of course temperature changes. All I know is I hope I never have to go through that again.
I use an air lift system to slowly mix water. Six 12 foot pvc tubes “3 inch” with barbs and air lines placed around 24 inches from the top and the bottom pieces of pipe cut at a 45 degree angle. I introduce air pressure which causes a siphon effect and the water flows out of the elbows on top of the pipes. It is a slow process but slowly blends the water from 12 feet deep to the surface which allows for more oxygen rich water. Only bad part is the long airline going to the airlift
Having a professional, certified installer install system they should known need to cycles 30 min day 1 1 hr day 2, 2hr day 3 etc. Double each day till at 24hrs then let it run constantly. Leave on to long to start you let off toxic gas causing fish kill
Wow, sorry that happened to you and thanks a million for for heads up. I want to add add areation to an acre pond, thats 70 years old, and has 3 feet of muck in bottom. Had i just tossed in aerators, would have killed everything as well! Has the water clarity improved overall with the areation? As for the grass carp, they are not supposed to be able to reproduce, sooo that's an interesting one! Good luck on your repopulation. Hope it goes well. I wondered about crappie andmybe adding sone to my pond. Where r u located?
When I bought mine, it came with directions that told me to slowly introduce oxygen. Also, I'd think common sense would tell you, pushing toxic fumes to the surface and oxygen being pushed to the bottom would cause death to fish. They need to breathe. If you're the same guy from another channel I watched the company wasn't in any danger from being sued, the guy literally admitted fault and stated he forgot to turn the aerator off. I'm glad the company helped yall out. But no one needs to beware of an aeration kit. It's simple to install and operate. Made my water much better than it was. Looking forward to swimming next year. Best of luck.
This company installed this system, started it without us being there and told us to just let it run with no other instructions or even a manual. So yes it is 100% their fault.
That would only be common sense to someone who is educated about the subject. As a seasoned aquarium hobbyist it is common sense to me now. But it hasnt always been.
@@josephmorin8941 does not excuse the fact that they told us to just let it run when that was not the proper procedure. Especially considering they started it without us being there. 100 percent their fault for the situation.
I empathise with you. That's an awful situation. So sorry to hear. Certainly, aeration in established water bodies should be done gently at first especially in summer. I think most of your more experienced water management viewers will tell us that water stratifies (separates into layers) in walmer weather especially, meaning whole layers of water can have totally different chemical composition. Deeper layers nearer the silt at the bottom can contain much higher levels of ammonia than water layers nearer the surface. Fish simply avoid the toxic layers until, of course, an aeration system on the bottom is introduced which forces destratification of the layers and forces toxins up the water column too quickly, killing livestock. I wonder whether this may have contributed to the losses.
The good news is not everything died, and we are currently restocking to have a better fishery than we ever had before. Trying to make lemonade out of lemons with this tragedy.
Could you please tell me how far you had to run electric power and what size wire and breaker you used. I need to run about maybe 1000 -1500 feet of wire and I don't know that much about wire size and length of running. Also what pump did you use and the amp draw of the pump.
I don't know exactly how far it was, but it was probably at least 200 feet from the barn to the compressor. We used 10ga wire and a 30 amp 220 breaker. I'm not sure what pump is used for the system. We bought the whole system through a pond management company and they installed it for us. What are you running wire for? A similar system?
Have a 3 acre a LEAST 80 year old lake on my property. Pretty deep still too. Would love to have an aeration system and the edge dug to keep weeds down.
There are definitely benefits to an aeration system. Just be sure to adapt it to your lake. Nothing worse than watching all of your fish die and not being able to save them.
Hi, what happened was unfortunate. Your aeration system was/is not properly sized, and additional diffusers and SCFM (airflow) are key to preventing fish kills like what you experienced. The fish died due to a rapid change in water temperature coupled with a decrease in dissolved oxygen due to dead zones that were created by installing too few diffusers. Starting a system up in the middle of summer needs to be done carefully to prevent the rapid change in temperature and DO. (4 hours first day, 8 hours second day, 12 hours the third day, and 24 hours thereafter.) Pond and lake systems less than 10 acres / 10 million gallons in size should be designed to provide a fluid turnover rate of 8-12 times per day. 1 fluid turnover rate is the time it takes to mix the equivalent of the water volume a single time. I recommend installing diffusers throughout the entire pond and concentrating them in the deepest water. Air will seek the point of least resistance, so it’s important to determine if additional compressors or valving / gating or air is required to evenly distribute the atmospheric air to each diffuser. It is a common misconception that the diffusers main purpose is to provide dissolved oxygen. 90% of oxygen added via lake and pond aeration comes via surface re-aeration where cooler bottom water comes into contact with the atmosphere. The cooler water sits at the surface momentarily before finding its way back to the bottom of the water column. As you noted the water column is now completely homogenized from top to bottom and future fish kills are unlikely unless the aeration system is shut off for a couple of days or longer. Sludge is a concern for older ponds, and applications of beneficial bacteria (aka bio augmentation) is a proven method to reduce the organic fraction of the sludge layer. There are tons of products available, and I only recommend purchasing sludge reducing bacteria products that are manufactured with strains of bacillus bacteria with a decent shelf life. I am a water and wastewater expert, and CEO of Air Diffusion Systems. I’d be happy to help you with evaluating your 3 acre lake, if you are interested. Feel free to reach out to me @ tom@airdiffusion.com.
The bottom of a pond has material that degrades over time. In the process, it produces Methane (CH4). It sounds like your aerator accelerated the release of high concentrations of CH4 into the water... One solution is to add a flotation device to the aerator so it remains close to the surface. Fountains are a much better way to introduce oxygen to the pond plus it reduces the accumulation of Duckweed.
Now that it is up and running we have found some live fish of all species except catfish. Currently working on getting new fish in the lake and probably going to have to take out some big fish. I'd still say about 90% of all fish life has died though, but the good news is it doesn't seem to be a problem anymore. Just in the beginning.
Hey Dude, thanks for the video. Super helpful. Do you mind if I ask, did the grass eating carp help clean the pond up, and was that in conjunction with 'muck remover'?
So the grass carp were put in by my grandfather many years ago when the lake was basically all moss and cattails. I'm not sure of the exact number that was put in. I've heard 9, 11, and 15. I know we counted 23 dead and there is at least 1 still alive, plus some have died in the past, so clearly they reproduced at some point. As far as did they help, yes they did eventually clear up the lake of moss and cattails. I suggest not getting too many to start out with. We are going to get a few to put back in, but I'm gonna say a maximum of 6, which is 2 per acre, plus whatever is still alive. You don't want to eliminate the plant life. You just want to control it. Eliminating it can cause a whole mess of problems. As far as the muck biotics go, they do not kill off plant life. They just eat away at the muck at the bottom of the lake. I have not seen a real difference, but we have only put 3 treatments in so far. It takes years to get it all I think.
Dang that hurts. Sorry man! I just installed the same aeration unit for my HOA pond. Slowly ramped the time to now 12 hours per day. We are about to get grass carp and bluegill/hybrid bluegill installed to help control the coontail weeds in the water.
Grass carp are invasive and escape and will ruin the rest of country that is not full of stinky brown and green swamp water that actually have great tasting fish instead of bottom feeders
A fountain is safer. You canmake one just using your pvc coming into pond bank and make different heads and patterns. We use a centrifuge pump and we have different dyi heads/pattererns. Or just pushing water across the TOP works. NEVER stir up the bottom. As you and others have found. 😢
You need to do your research on how an aquarium is brought to maturity. The pond is the same thing just bigger. The bubbles are not adding much oxygen to the water as you think. Just as it does not for aquariums. The bubbles create turbulence at the surface and water movement. The surface is broken by the bubbles letting harmful gassed to escape intern making the ecosystem healthier for fish and and your benefit all bacteria. Basically you supercharged the nitrification cycle. It created ammonia spike which is deadly for your fish. Next you will get a spike in nitrites which is deadly as well but not quite as bad. Then you end up with nitrates that that are used up by plants and algae. This whole process is called the nitrification cycle. Keep in mind your oxygen and gas exchange happens at the surface. Not by a few bubbles in a large pond. Hope this helps. Questions welcome. Sorry this was so long.
From the look of it, I have the exact same aerator. I bought it directly from the manufacturer and they provide literature with it that explains the introduction much as you did in this video. Whoever did the installation for you did you a horrible disservice.
Yes somebody dropped the ball. We should have been given a manual regardless of who installed it. Also since they are the ones who installed it and started it up, that information should have been relayed to us, but it was started when we were not even present and they gave us no other instructions other than to just let it run. A lot of people have been saying this is all our fault for not being educated on the subject, but we were just following what the supposed professionals told us to do, and they didn't even make sure we were present when it was first started. So I really don't understand how anyone can say this was our fault.
Sorry for your lost. You have too much organic material at the bottom and the air pump dissolve it back in to the water column. Most probably, you had also gas (metano) bubbles, inside the organic material, and they break up. Very common in old freshwater aquariums, with low maintenance. Nitrogen turns into ammonia, which is poison. For the future, you need some kind of filtration to decompose ammonia to less harmless nitrites and nitrates. A simple bog filter, only with gravel and aquatic plants, 10% ou 15% the surface of the lake would work fine, I think, should be enough to maintain the lake clean and safe for the live stock. A constant flow of fresh water would be very important also, if possible. But, first, I would clean as much organic material as possible with a submersible pump. Great fertilizer for plants and trees. My two cents.
You could use our Oxypro technology that releases oxygen on demand at the molecular level. Weve done sludge studies and oxygen studies to share if you're interested .
i've been studying aeration as I plan to add it to my lake to help reduce muck and algae as I add other products to help with that. In my research I saw several people talk about how to introduce aeration. Sorry you didn't see that. Sucks that your fish died.
That's what happens when you trust the "professionals" that install it. You would think that when they installed it and started it that they would give some sort of instructions if it was necessary to slowly introduce the system. Last fall they stocked bluegill, hybrid bluegill, redear, and minnows for us. In a couple weeks I am picking up some yellow perch, albino catfish, and golden shiners to add to the lake, and then in the fall they are going to stock some largemouth, crappie, channel cats, and grass carp. I'm debating on whether or not I want to add walleye and/or hybrid bass next year. I'm a big fan of catching a variety of fish, but I want to see how this first wave of new species takes off before adding more.
I know when the carp were originally put in the lake was basically all moss and cattails. I was always told they only put in like 9, but clearly we removed way more than 9 dead ones, plus at least 1 survived. We are supposed to be getting 8 more. I think that will be plenty. You just want to control the vegetation, not eliminate it all together.
Did you ever get the water tested? I doubt the sudden die off was caused by toxicity. It is far more likely the fish were killed by lack of oxygen. Lakes and ponds stratify in summer with low oxygen levels at the bottom. When you turned on the aerators it pushed the very low oxygen water from the bottom into the water column and suffocated the fish. You're not the first who has experienced this problem. Aerators should never be turned on all at once and run all day in a pond especially during summer. You're best to do it gradually in the early spring and then once on leave them on.
The fishery/pond management company that installed it never acted like the water needed to be tested. I think it was brought up once, but it was never done. I know for a fact we are not the first people to have this problem. The company who installed it and fired it up (without us being present) should have known the danger to the fish and informed us of what could happen. They never mentioned it to us. We were just told to let it run.
@@redneckofftherange3008 I had a typo, I meant to say you're not the first. These kinds of die offs have happened many, many times before which is why it's so well known in the pond management industry not to just turn on aerators in old ponds especially in Summer without doing it slowly and carefully. Country View Acres experienced what you did except he did it to himself and wiped out his pond including some huge, mature fish. KLM Ponds did a video about what happened to you and your pond and why it shouldn't have happened given the company should have known better (see his vid 2000 dead fish....). IMHO the company should replace all your fish with ones the same size and age as what you had before their incompetence killed them. I wonder about whether you tested the water after the kill to see if it was toxins. Did they tell you that was the cause? If so, they are not telling the truth. It's likely it had nothing to do with water quality and everything to do with low oxygen suffocating the fish.
@@snappingbear They mentioned testing it after, but never did. They did stock 3-4 inch bluegill, hybrid bluegill, and redear sunfish, plus 30 pounds of minnows and 8 grass carp about 8-10 inches long. Just waiting on them to stock the bass, crappie, and catfish in the fall.
@@redneckofftherange3008 If your goal is big bass you might not want to stock crappie. They are direct competitors with bass. Catfish are too when older. I look forward to watching your videos about how the pond recovers.
@@snappingbear We have had crappie for a long time, and there are still quite a few in there. We are not concerned with catching monster bass. I have other places to go fish if that is what I'm after. I honestly prefer catching a variety of fish, but my favorite is catfish.
We didn't stock them. Any grass carp that were in there were stocked by my grandparents. I only ever heard they stocked 9, but maybe they put in more. There was a point in time where the entire lake was filled with moss. The carp definitely cleaned it up, but it took years.
Cool, that's a different way to kill off everything in an old pond to restock. Instead of using chemicals. I have stunted crappie and huge bowfin and probably 2' of muck over 1/2 my one acre pond.
@@redneckofftherange3008 It was never stocked. I imagine they crawled in. It's been a swamp for 30 years created by a logging road. I dredged 3/4 of it to around 8' to 10' and now cleaning muck from shallows. I'm going to stock, hopefully starting next spring. Bowfin and crappie are native but I don't want them in my pond. I have a river bordering land that has plenty of crappie. ( I love to catch and eat them) I have a new aeration system. It probably wouldn't kill the bowfin. They gulp air.
On OUR wrong? THEY installed it, THEY fired it up without us being there, THEY gave us ZERO paperwork and basically ZERO instruction on how to properly use the system. Even after all the fish died (which took less than a day) they told us that we didn't do anything wrong, meaning that we didn't do anything different from what they tell any of their other customers. So please tell me how this was OUR wrong? We had this thing professionally installed so that it was done right and look what happened. This is not a case of buying an aerator on Amazon and installing it ourselves. We trusted these people to do it right, and they clearly did not.
No idea where you are or pond depth but being the 4th July the water was probably warm. You may have caused the water to invert too quickly. I doubt you killed every fish in 3 acre pond
What do you mean what's up with the gun? I didn't realize I had to justify to strangers on the internet my right to carry a gun on my own property. Also I prefer cross draw because having the holster on the right side of my body interferes with the seat belts on the lawn mower and tractor.
We let the company install it and fire it up and they just let it run and told us to just let it run. You would think the company installing the system would know better, especially if they are also a fishery.
An aeration system has plenty of benefits to a pond, but unless it is introduced properly, you end up with the problem we had. Old ponds with little to no maintenance eventually will have problems. Some of them being significant problems. Our lake was heading in that direction, but we were misinformed when the system was installed and we ended up doing the very thing we were trying to prevent.
They need to be sued happening to too many peoples ponds on TH-cam, they need their instructions to be clearer, it would have helped if you filmed when they came out so to have what they said on film. They destroyed your pond and killed your fish I see that as a disastrous and violent product to your wildlife
Yeah you gotta be careful when adding one. I'm using this as an opportunity to add new types of fish to the lake though. Trying to make lemonade out of lemons.
Yeah that’s a disaster. You need too add lots of pond product as well. Over time it would have cleaned up decades of muck. Plus. Most importantly putting those aerators not at the deepest parts is the most important part. Essentially you stirred up all the organic matter at the bottom. It’s a common mistake. Sorry for the headache. At least you didn’t have psychopath like I have dumping chemicals in mine. Anyways hope it worked out.
I didn't realize you could read a video. Also everything we saw and read was all positive stuff. Nothing warned of anything like this happening, and as stated in the video, the company we purchased it from installed it and fired it up and gave us no real instructions on letting the lake adapt to it. They also never gave us any sort of manual.
This is exactly what I'm thinking 👍 I too have a pond that is 50 plus years old. Never had a fountain, aerator nothing. Even gets low in the summer. Never ever had any fish to die for any reason.
Ammonia; shmoo-onia. I know exactly what happened. The deeper the lake, the more intense of a thermocline you have, which is a bottom layer of colder water separated from the warmer top layer. The warm water temperature above stays at the top, and the colder water drops and this phenomenon stays in place all Summer. Please note that all Summer, while the bottom water is stuck in place, there is no oxygen there. And no fish. They would quickly die down there. Fish simply avoid this anoxic environment, which is why they were trying to get out of your lake before suffocating. Ouch. I am so sorry. Very tragic. Then, in the Spring and Fall, when the air temperature matches the water temp, you have a "turning over", a blending of the entire water table. But this happens much more gently than an extreme, mechanical blending, like what the aeration did to your pond. Your fish kill occurred when the mechanical mixing brought up tremendous volumes of putrid, anoxic, muddy water and mixed with the good stuff. All at 1 time. There was a sudden jump in hungry lifeforms, previously in suspended animation down under, that sprang into activity when surfacing to a warm, oxygenated environment. And, yes; if you had started out the aeration regimen with baby steps, this could have been avoided. Before I let you know how aeration really works, I would like to warn everybody of another thing that causes a fish kill; way more often than by starting up aeration (way more)- Spraying for weeds! Oh boy, if I had a nickel. When the band-aid brigade comes to spray for weeds and don't do it in baby steps, all the dead algae and other plants are suddenly consumed by microscopic animals, and plants, that deplete the oxygen during the feast. Yes, even some water plants use oxygen. (Oh yeah, even if these chemo-bots from the 19th Century do not kill your fish, the dead weeds sink and gradually fill up your pond with muck; not exactly a fix, huh?) Back to aeration effect. The good invisible friends are the phytoplankton. If you also count the ocean, thanks for our oxygen! Phytoplankton is what keeps your ponds and lakes full of life. The bacteria that break down the muck; dead animals and plants...need oxygen. All the animals you see like fish; larvae, etc. need it, too. The urban myth is that the bubbles in aeration equipment infuses oxygen into the water. Not accurate; sorry. It happens on a very small scale, and mostly by accident, when the bubble pops on the surface. I noticed your compressor on the shore was an AirMax unit? They are bodaciously good, if you happened to get 1 that is not defective! They had to come out? Shock! Yeah, I said it. But they do have efficient units that use less energy and all the hardware and hoses are best in the business. But would you believe that even higher up folks at AirMax have this misconception of how aeration actually works? So, anyway! Aeration mixes the entire water table, creating a larger environment for phytoplankton. They still don't have light down there, but the larger life-friendly volume increases the mass of them and its production of oxygen. This is why the air diffusers must be in all the deepest parts of your lake; and the deeper the water, the better and more it mixes. And yes, the fish get a bigger home! Now they have the run of the pond. Once after organically cleaning up a lake, we hired a scuba diver to go down to the bottom; 30 feet. Bass and other species swimming around and smiling gill to gill! BTW, bass pass out faster from anoxia than most freshwater fish. The next critical step impacting aeration is increasing the good bacteria. With beneficial bacteria added to the water, nutrients that clog a lake and feed the weeds are gobbled up and vaporized. Same thing with the muck. If you drop solid tablets to the bottom, the muck will literally be consumed, now that you have increased the oxygen down there. The nitrates and nitrites will transform into nitrogen gas and vent out of water with no smell! This water will become an organic refuge for humans, wildlife, pets/stock, fish. Hey! With no excess nutrients to feed the weeds, I guess you will have to fire your chemical dude and spend the money on electricity and natural bacteria. Remember, with aeration and extra bacteria, you are simply accelerating the natural processes that already exist. Speeding up the system. With a very fast (expensive) regimen, we once removed 3 feet of muck off the bottom a 2 acre pond in 4 years! Finally, and if you now understand this concept, aerating the wrong way will do more harm than good. A pond that is only turning part of the water is just polluting the pond with all the crud coming up. Aeration should be able to mix the entire body several times per day, so make sure the install is appropriate. Well, again; so sorry for your loss. But I would not give up on your parent's new system, especially if the manufacturer is working with you. Remember, every treatment, though costly, is naturally preserving and restoring your family lake, which is priceless. Thanks for sharing.
good info. I used to raise tropical fish back in the day, so I totally understand balancing a tank, It takes time! We recently purchased a property with a 40-Year-Old 100x60 ft pond 15 feet deep. About 2 ft of muck total. I currently have an 80-gallon per minute Ejector pump in a wire cage, pumping surface water to circulate The pond, It also aerates. I have no trouble with surface algae at all, some green algae, though. Got tons of fish, minnows, bluegill, tadpoles, frogs, and a couple of huge carp. If I add aeration, I should also do a muck remover in conjunction, correct?
I'm a freshwater ecologist and lake manager over here in the UK and I think the main take away from this is that before you go spending big money on anything you need to spend the money on testing equipment. If your water is already oxygen saturated then you're just wasting energy running the pumps, if you wait until the fish start gasping it's already too late. Some bits like dissolved oxygen meters (essential for any lake owner) are kind of expensive but still under $1000, other things like nitrate/pH test kits are dirt cheap and can be picked up for under $20. Lakes are always a balance, if you change one thing then you're going to change something else and knowing the risks is important.
In terms of getting rid of your silt deposits (muck) I'd recommend calcium carbonate (chalk) dust but before that you need to check the pH range relative to temperature and nitrate concentration. The organic muck on the bottom will be on the acidic side and the bacteria that breaks it down prefers it closer to neutral, it also requires oxygen because it is aerobic (take in oxygen, expels carbon dioxide) so if natural O2 levels are low this is not a good idea. Chalk is slightly alkaline so will gradually raise the pH away from acidic and then towards neutral before potentially going into alkaline. If the habitat isn't within an acceptable pH/O2 range then adding "helpful" bacteria is a waste of time and money, it'd be like trying to raise cows in a desert.
The process of adding chalk to buffer the pH is best done in sections (check pH, do half an acre, check pH again in a few days, wait, check again until it levels off) to avoid pH shock and is to be done in the autumn and spring when the water is cool, the O2 demand is low and the natural saturation is high. It is also very important to check nitrate/ammonia levels because as pH increases the much less toxic ammonium (NH4+) will turn into the far more toxic form, ammonia (NH3). If ammonia/ammonium levels are high in general you really should look at increasing the amounts of vegetation you have in and around the lake because they will absorb and process it naturally. Algae might not look great but it's hands down the fastest way to get rid of excess nutrients in the pond and as long as you monitor the oxygen to balance their consumption it'll do great. You should really look at the cause of the ammonia build up, sometimes it's too much stock and/or bad feed/feeding practices, sometimes it's runoff from fertilised fields/grass.
One of the other side effects of silt build up is that below a certain depth there is no oxygen available and this is where the anaerobic bacteria lives, they process the silt in the same way as the aerobic bacteria but produce nasty byproducts such as methane and sulphates which can build up in pockets below the silt. If you ever see bubbles coming up regularly where the deeper silt sits this is generally the cause and while a slow trickle is manageable a big, sudden release can kill an area within minutes. From the looks of it the bubbler style aerators might have caused a big release of toxic material and that's what killed your fish. Personally I prefer paddle wheel style aerators for this reason, they add O2 and add flow without causing too much interference with the silt.
You should publish a book! I've learned more about pond/lake water health in the 5 minutes of reading this than I've known my whole life
I've spent the last several weeks, gleaming information that you compiled here. The last area I am currently searching/researchering is the PH balance portion of your dissertation here. I had read some people use lime (I'm in the states) & perhaps that is similar or the same as the chalk you referenced as your preferred method.
I've only had fish about 90 days now.
Pond is relatively new. Built new 1/4 acre pond in June '21. About 8ft @ deepest area. Let it build an ecosystem thru all of '22, & learned some weed/vegetation control.
Bought our 1st fish in mid April of '23.
A bit shocked as it appears we have least 2 species that spawned offspring in the first 60 days. The fish supplier said we would likely see a fall spawn for 1 species this yr, the Bluegill. Clearly they had made beds & successfully hatched fry. I believe the other was the Fathead Minnows we put in as forage/food, for the other breeds of fish. We didn't expect gases or over feeding symptoms quite so soon, but appears to have created them, in about 10/11 weeks, it seems. I am planning to purchase a solar aerator this week, as I have been researching them for about 10 days, & have a prominent manufacturer who happens to only be about 40 minutes away. I believe everything is new enough that diffuser aeration should be ok, with the exercising of caution not to gas the fish. It will not run in the dark at all since it's solar & w/o battery's. For now anyway. Getting power to the new pond would require going a long distance & under both concrete and an asphalt driveway, which I'm not willing to do right now. We are also currently trying to find the best plants/vegetation for our area & situation. The wife prefers a very clear & clean pond for her own pleasure, but is on board with the needs of the aquatic life & a proper balance for all the animals in the area, in & out of water. I have had to relocate 6 snapping turtles, (who found the new ecosystem quite appealing, especially for the large bull frogs, as they rapidly flourished & or relocated from neighbor ponds, just as turtlesdid rapidly).
They have been hard on the new small stocked fish as well as the natural frog population thus far. We have found dead Catfish w/bites out of them, that are clearly the snappers doing.
Anyway, just want to say thanks for reminding me & reinforcing all the stuff I had ran across, but didn't necessarily retain or fully grasp until being reminded by your post. I would like a paddle wheel aerator, but just don't have the time right now, or the solar wattage to pull it off.
Perhaps you should have your own channel to speak to your area of expertise? Thks & regards
@@Mountain_Valley_Sky As mentioned previously I'd highly recommend getting testing equipment before starting to mess with the parameters. You might not need supplemental oxygen and as long as the pH range is relatively stable (it will naturally drift with water temp/time of day but only a bit) and within acceptable parameters I'd leave it alone. As the pond is only a few years old you're unlikely to have organic silt build up and you risk starting a seesaw effect where it's swinging from one extreme to the other rather than finding its own balance.
As for fish population you need to consider what you want from the pond, the biomass of the water is determined by the food sources available but smaller, faster breeding species will fill this void faster than trying to maintain a low population of large fish. I'm not super familiar with north american species so I'd be unable to give precise advice on this aspect. As an example the desirable species in my waters are carp (the bigger the better), in order to give our carp the best chance of growing at their maximum rate we need to net the lakes every 2 years in order to thin out the less desirable populations of roach/rudd/bream and juvenile carp. In simplified terms - by taking out a ton of nuisance fish we make a ton of resources available for the carp we want to feed.
@@DjDolHaus86 yes, that is good advice. Thank you. I will pursue equipment. The 02 meter will be a big stretch, unless I purchase something of inferior quality.
@@Mountain_Valley_Sky it's better than spending a pile of money on a pump set up that you might not need. Check the second hand market, you never know what you might find. In the meantime there are a few things you can do to improve the natural oxygen saturation such as cutting down trees/bushes on the prevailing wind side of the lake and removing lilies if present. If there is a stream running into the lake clean up the course by removing snags and obstructions so it runs faster and maybe use stones to add a riffle before it enter the lake. Agitated water has greater surface area and oxygen transfer relies on surface contact, a lake with a wind ripple has 2-4 times the surface area of a still pond. When you begin testing all parameters you need to build as accurate a picture as possible so test before first light, midday, last light and at night if possible, make notes if weather conditions including temperature and rainfall. By doing this throughout the year you can build up a much more useful picture of what's going on and then you make good decisions on if and what to change. The concern is that you might get a pH/nitrogen spike or similar and panic without realising that it was just because there was heavy rain or some other natural cause and it'll even out in a couple of days. You might find there are things you can do to reduce the severity of these spikes passively by planting buffer plants around the perimeter rather than panic buying a pallet load of lime and dumping it in which could cause massive shock to the fish resulting in a sudden death event. I've seen some pretty bad things done with the best of intentions when sitting back and letting it sort itself out would have done far less damage.
Thanks for the heads up, never would have thought of that.
Yeah just don't want others to make the same mistake. It takes quite an emotional toll on you.
Wow! Thanks so much. I don't think we need an aeration system at all. I am sold on grass carp though. I really appreciation you letting us know. Sorry for your loss.
I watched this because I'm looking at adding an aeration system. Thanks for letting everyone know about the possibility of the ammonia issue. For other who are looking to install aeration systems, I am looking at and would recommend looking into a windmill aeration system. For that size pond it would be about the same cost for installation but no power or solar are required. This cuts out electric cost or messing with solar.
Aeration causes the built up muck to be digested by the aerobic bacteria in the water . This causes the muck to outgas , the outgassing releases from the surface water of the lake but before the gases escape into the atmosphere the gases build up in the water depending upon water temperatures . So essentially you ' gassed ' your existing fish populations . Eventually your lake will re-normalize and gain a new balance with continuous aeration over time . Eventually restocking your fish populations will be effective in a faster way , assuming some of your various fish species did survive this initial purge they would rebuild their populations slowly over time without restocking . Even when you have an aquarium , anything you introduce needs to be done in a slow and consistent manner , there are processes , You just can't ' shock ' the system without negative consequences . Moderation is key to success in every endeavor .
Tell that to the company who installed and started the system without us being there and giving us no instructions.
So I have an old lake and looking into doing this. Should I do the short intervals of introduction of this into the pond? Will that give the gas time to escape that builds up? Mine is about 3-4 acres as well.
This is a very helpful and informative video. Thanks for posting.
Good video. Good message. Yeah whoever sold you this aerator should have gone through this aspect of introducing air gradually, especially in an older pond with fish, and in warm weather. This is so basic and fundamental that I have to wonder how much these guys actually knew about what they were doing. I mean it's mentioned in every aeration manual I've ever seen, and certainly is noted in the Airmax systems. Page 8 in the Airmax manual for reference. Best of luck with your pond from here on out.
It also just blows my mind, (I can't remember if I mentioned it in this video) because they are the ones who installed it and started it for us, and they never gave us any sort of paperwork to go with it. The good news is that not all the fish died. I've been catching lots of survivors, and I'm using this opportunity to introduce new species to the lake for hopefully a better fishery in the future.
@@redneckofftherange3008 its good to hear things are going well for you. The aeration can really support fish and keep them healthy but that introduction phase is really important. I can't really explain why they didn't do this properly or at least tell you about it. Maybe some new, inexperienced installers that didn't get the training or something. The fact that your sharing your story though will save somebody some trouble down the road...I'm sure of that.
I’m sorry for your loss…. Our pond turned over years ago and we lost all ours…. I’m doing research now on pond aerators so that doesn’t happen again…. The pros should of know about the break in period to an established pond and helpfully they follow thru with replacing
man that is horrible. sorry you went through that and thank you for spreading the word. I have an old pond and have thought of adding an areator and would have done the same thing
Hey great video lots of useful information! As someone who has been a lake manager in FL for the last 10 years and who has probably installed 50 of those Airmax air systems your standing next to. the lake flipping or creating toxic gas is not common (in my area) at all again, it is still something that can happen but you're probably that 1 in 1000 that it happened to. Wich is why even the company that installed it was a bit shocked.
it's good to hear that the company is making it right, hopefully there sticking with Airmax and using there Muck away product. I've used it on a few sites the last couple years and have gotten good results.
There are gases trapped in the muck and releasing it too quickly can kill the poor fish. The people advising you didn't have the knowledge they needed to safely add aeration. Mentioning ammonia makes me think they read about aquarium water cycling after the fact and guessed that was the problem. I know about cycling but adding aeration to my pond was a completely different beast and I might have made the same mistake without the guidance of the folks who sold me the equipment that I installed. They answered questions that I wouldn't have known to ask. I was told about the trapped gasses and advised to start slowly at only 20 mins a day.
I'm sorry you had that experience and I hope the company you used sought to learn more about the business they have decided to be in. Sounds like they didn't have any experts on board to educate their staff.
Thanks for your video. You may saved others from the same situation. I researched a ton before finally putting in the aeration and I didn't read anywhere about trapped gasses. When I first added pond dye after putting in aeration I could see all the different layers and colors of the water turning over. It was different depending on the depth of the water in specific areas. The dye helped cool down my water temp and quickly cut down the algae overgrowth that was over taking my pond. I have a 1/2 acre pond that's18 feet in the deepest areas. It had catfish when I moved in but I think I'm down to one now. I need a camera out there to find out who is taking the fish. Something strong, I'm sure.
Thank you for sharing. We have a very old pond on raw land… needs work so this was HIGHLY valuable 👍
Got many fish in it?
@@redneckofftherange3008 saw something small jumping but still new to property… excited for possibilities 🐠
I have a 3 acre very old abandoned for decades pond filled with fish. It is fed by a spring fed creek 1/2 a mile away almost year round, and probably this year due to the amount of water, and the Caldor fire burned most of the water sucking pines and cedars. I ran some aeration last year, dyi, and didn't have that problem. I noticed nothing changing, but this year I'll be at it again. We have a nice flow, and the run off from the fire and following huge storms turned it brown from the red dirt. However, it only takes over a week for the visibility to be crystal clear, so I'm thinking "amonia" or other toxins would flush rather fast. Very frustrating fixing an old pond, that is for sure.
I'd imagine having a creek flowing through your pond would give you some of the benefits of an aeration system and that could be why you didn't have the problems we had. Yes it is very frustrating having to fix it after a fish kill. The fishery that installed the system gave us bluegill, redear, hybrid bluegill, and minnows so far. I used my own money to add some yellow perch, golden shiners, and albino catfish just to add some new types of fish. This fall they will bring us largemouth, black crappie, and channel catfish. I might also add some walleye and hybrid bass for a more diverse fishery, but we will see how these perch do this year before making that decision. I just like catching a variety of fish, and I think this would be the best time to add something new.
The creek is what probably keeping your lake stable with no maintenance, Under heavy rains and when that creeks flowing hard into it that will stir up the silt and help push it out the other end keeping anerobic bacteria that will produce highly toxic gases like hydrogen sulphide to a minimum, on lake with no real water supply its a bit different, silt just builds up and builds up ontil you need to dredge it.
Could it be the hydrogen sulfide ( highly toxic to the fish) in the muck that accumulate and settled over the years and then got disturbed and circulated to the water column due to the force of bottom aeration?
That is highly doubtful. Usually these sudden die offs from aerators happen because the much lower oxygen water layer at the bottom of the lake is mixed into the water column and the fish die of suffocation.
Bubblers are not aerators. They are circulators. Oxygen is absorbed at the surface, taking longer than for bubbles to rise. An easy mistake when placing the air-stones is to put them too deep. Warmer surface waters hold less oxygen and fish like to be able to reach cooler deep water that holds more. By circulating to full depth that cooler water mixes with the warmer above and dilutes the avg oxygen above. Set the air-stones at ~1/2 depth to avoid stirring up muck and hydrogen sulfide released by it. Added bacteria will take care of muck eventually but not in one season.
Wouldn't that increase the average temperature above?
@@godzilla2k26 Not much will increase temps anywhere. Warm water will stay on top and hold the least oxygen. Circulation will homogenize mid-depth & up waters, while the coolest & most oxy-rich can remain on the bottom vs be diluted in the warmest weather. We don't want to warm up the whole pond and deny fish refuge in hot weather by de-stratifying natural temp zones. Hope this helps.
John I just fell victim to a fish kill in my pond. What you stated about aerarators is on point. I need to make adjustments with mine prior to restocking. Thanks for the info
There are plenty of U tube videos that tell you to slowly introduce aeration to an old pond.
Old lake = stable lake. From the dead fish clearly it was pretty healthy, at least in the way that matters to most people. Thanks for passing on a heads up to aeration on an established body of water. Sounds like the company is taking care of you. Hopefully they will do better by their customers (on the front side) in the future.
Unfortunately it seems like they are turning their backs on us. Their story keeps changing and we are not pleased. Will do update videos when it is all said and done.
I ran across this phenomenon as we just built a 1/4 acre fish pond, & are very close to purchasing & installing aeration this coming week. We just put our starter fish in n April of '23. Pond built in June '21. Sorry to hear the aeration vendor is not appearing to follow thru with the original compensation. I'm beyond shocked as a supplier & installer that they were not aware of disturbing the water quality to a level that can Essentially suffocate the fish. Either with toxic games, or just churning up bottom settled debris, to a (possible) level of degraded water & O2 quality, that's sorta like a human trying to breathe in the midst of a bad forest fire. I've seen others who have had fish kills from new aeration in old ponds, & it appears that in most cases, some fish do survive in the ponds that are a couple acres or more. Yet it appears yours was probably the worst I have heard of in all my research and past. Some people will do a fish audit & shock the water (hiring professionals) & determine what species are left, & what sizes. I'm sure that event was very disheartening. It's difficult to see 1 or 2 large fish dead from some event. Seeing hundreds die would be terrible when you can do nothing to help them. Hope it all can be sorted out. Good luck & thanks for sharing this unfortunate experience.
I wonder what the problem was exactly. I've heard that the aeration rapidly changes the temperature of the lake. First, by pumping in air. Second, by mixing the various depths of the lake. So whatever natural temperature differences the lake had at various depths is more uniform.
I'm no expert, but I think a number of things all happen at once to make this kind of fish kill happen. A dramatic shift in oxygen, ammonia, silt, and of course temperature changes. All I know is I hope I never have to go through that again.
@@redneckofftherange3008 That is so frustrating, but I'm sure your lake will bounce back quickly.
I use an air lift system to slowly mix water. Six 12 foot pvc tubes “3 inch” with barbs and air lines placed around 24 inches from the top and the bottom pieces of pipe cut at a 45 degree angle. I introduce air pressure which causes a siphon effect and the water flows out of the elbows on top of the pipes. It is a slow process but slowly blends the water from 12 feet deep to the surface which allows for more oxygen rich water. Only bad part is the long airline going to the airlift
Thank you! Very informative.
Thanks for the lesson in aeration!
Seen a couple videos like this. Thank you. What size pond?
3 acres.
Having a professional, certified installer install system they should known need to cycles 30 min day 1 1 hr day 2, 2hr day 3 etc. Double each day till at 24hrs then let it run constantly. Leave on to long to start you let off toxic gas causing fish kill
Wow, sorry that happened to you and thanks a million for for heads up. I want to add add areation to an acre pond, thats 70 years old, and has 3 feet of muck in bottom.
Had i just tossed in aerators, would have killed everything as well!
Has the water clarity improved overall with the areation?
As for the grass carp, they are not supposed to be able to reproduce, sooo that's an interesting one!
Good luck on your repopulation. Hope it goes well.
I wondered about crappie andmybe adding sone to my pond.
Where r u located?
When I bought mine, it came with directions that told me to slowly introduce oxygen. Also, I'd think common sense would tell you, pushing toxic fumes to the surface and oxygen being pushed to the bottom would cause death to fish. They need to breathe. If you're the same guy from another channel I watched the company wasn't in any danger from being sued, the guy literally admitted fault and stated he forgot to turn the aerator off. I'm glad the company helped yall out. But no one needs to beware of an aeration kit. It's simple to install and operate. Made my water much better than it was. Looking forward to swimming next year. Best of luck.
This company installed this system, started it without us being there and told us to just let it run with no other instructions or even a manual. So yes it is 100% their fault.
That would only be common sense to someone who is educated about the subject. As a seasoned aquarium hobbyist it is common sense to me now. But it hasnt always been.
@@josephmorin8941 does not excuse the fact that they told us to just let it run when that was not the proper procedure. Especially considering they started it without us being there. 100 percent their fault for the situation.
@@redneckmini14 true that true that
I empathise with you. That's an awful situation. So sorry to hear. Certainly, aeration in established water bodies should be done gently at first especially in summer. I think most of your more experienced water management viewers will tell us that water stratifies (separates into layers) in walmer weather especially, meaning whole layers of water can have totally different chemical composition. Deeper layers nearer the silt at the bottom can contain much higher levels of ammonia than water layers nearer the surface. Fish simply avoid the toxic layers until, of course, an aeration system on the bottom is introduced which forces destratification of the layers and forces toxins up the water column too quickly, killing livestock. I wonder whether this may have contributed to the losses.
The good news is not everything died, and we are currently restocking to have a better fishery than we ever had before. Trying to make lemonade out of lemons with this tragedy.
Is this like the nitrate/ nitrite cycle in an aquarium ?
Not familiar with that term.
Could you please tell me how far you had to run electric power and what size wire and breaker you used. I need to run about maybe 1000 -1500 feet of wire and I don't know that much about wire size and length of running. Also what pump did you use and the amp draw of the pump.
I don't know exactly how far it was, but it was probably at least 200 feet from the barn to the compressor. We used 10ga wire and a 30 amp 220 breaker. I'm not sure what pump is used for the system. We bought the whole system through a pond management company and they installed it for us. What are you running wire for? A similar system?
Have a 3 acre a LEAST 80 year old lake on my property. Pretty deep still too. Would love to have an aeration system and the edge dug to keep weeds down.
There are definitely benefits to an aeration system. Just be sure to adapt it to your lake. Nothing worse than watching all of your fish die and not being able to save them.
Hi, what happened was unfortunate. Your aeration system was/is not properly sized, and additional diffusers and SCFM (airflow) are key to preventing fish kills like what you experienced. The fish died due to a rapid change in water temperature coupled with a decrease in dissolved oxygen due to dead zones that were created by installing too few diffusers. Starting a system up in the middle of summer needs to be done carefully to prevent the rapid change in temperature and DO. (4 hours first day, 8 hours second day, 12 hours the third day, and 24 hours thereafter.)
Pond and lake systems less than 10 acres / 10 million gallons in size should be designed to provide a fluid turnover rate of 8-12 times per day. 1 fluid turnover rate is the time it takes to mix the equivalent of the water volume a single time. I recommend installing diffusers throughout the entire pond and concentrating them in the deepest water. Air will seek the point of least resistance, so it’s important to determine if additional compressors or valving / gating or air is required to evenly distribute the atmospheric air to each diffuser.
It is a common misconception that the diffusers main purpose is to provide dissolved oxygen. 90% of oxygen added via lake and pond aeration comes via surface re-aeration where cooler bottom water comes into contact with the atmosphere. The cooler water sits at the surface momentarily before finding its way back to the bottom of the water column.
As you noted the water column is now completely homogenized from top to bottom and future fish kills are unlikely unless the aeration system is shut off for a couple of days or longer.
Sludge is a concern for older ponds, and applications of beneficial bacteria (aka bio augmentation) is a proven method to reduce the organic fraction of the sludge layer. There are tons of products available, and I only recommend purchasing sludge reducing bacteria products that are manufactured with strains of bacillus bacteria with a decent shelf life.
I am a water and wastewater expert, and CEO of Air Diffusion Systems. I’d be happy to help you with evaluating your 3 acre lake, if you are interested. Feel free to reach out to me @ tom@airdiffusion.com.
That is so sad. I’m sorry you lost all of those fish.
The bottom of a pond has material that degrades over time. In the process, it produces Methane (CH4).
It sounds like your aerator accelerated the release of high concentrations of CH4 into the water...
One solution is to add a flotation device to the aerator so it remains close to the surface.
Fountains are a much better way to introduce oxygen to the pond plus it reduces the accumulation of Duckweed.
Now that it is up and running we have found some live fish of all species except catfish. Currently working on getting new fish in the lake and probably going to have to take out some big fish. I'd still say about 90% of all fish life has died though, but the good news is it doesn't seem to be a problem anymore. Just in the beginning.
Fountains accelerate the evaporation on the wayer
I totally agree.
The benefits out way the evaporation. It's not quite the same as using the wrong type of sprinkler in the heat of the day. imo
Fountains are MUCh more expensive and inefficient to get air in water. I have one.
Hey Dude, thanks for the video. Super helpful. Do you mind if I ask, did the grass eating carp help clean the pond up, and was that in conjunction with 'muck remover'?
So the grass carp were put in by my grandfather many years ago when the lake was basically all moss and cattails. I'm not sure of the exact number that was put in. I've heard 9, 11, and 15. I know we counted 23 dead and there is at least 1 still alive, plus some have died in the past, so clearly they reproduced at some point. As far as did they help, yes they did eventually clear up the lake of moss and cattails. I suggest not getting too many to start out with. We are going to get a few to put back in, but I'm gonna say a maximum of 6, which is 2 per acre, plus whatever is still alive. You don't want to eliminate the plant life. You just want to control it. Eliminating it can cause a whole mess of problems. As far as the muck biotics go, they do not kill off plant life. They just eat away at the muck at the bottom of the lake. I have not seen a real difference, but we have only put 3 treatments in so far. It takes years to get it all I think.
@@redneckofftherange3008 Nice one, thanks so much for that, super appreciate the input. Take care.
Dang that hurts. Sorry man! I just installed the same aeration unit for my HOA pond. Slowly ramped the time to now 12 hours per day. We are about to get grass carp and bluegill/hybrid bluegill installed to help control the coontail weeds in the water.
Grass carp are invasive and escape and will ruin the rest of country that is not full of stinky brown and green swamp water that actually have great tasting fish instead of bottom feeders
I have Redclaw crayfish in my dam mate they are extremely hardy but I will still introduce the aerator slowly, handy info thanks for the video.
Very informative...thank you
A fountain is safer. You canmake one just using your pvc coming into pond bank and make different heads and patterns. We use a centrifuge pump and we have different dyi heads/pattererns. Or just pushing water across the TOP works. NEVER stir up the bottom. As you and others have found. 😢
It happened to me!!!! I was told to put them in the shallow depths and slowly increase the time. But the company didn’t tell us
Thanks for sharing this.
You need to do your research on how an aquarium is brought to maturity. The pond is the same thing just bigger.
The bubbles are not adding much oxygen to the water as you think. Just as it does not for aquariums. The bubbles create turbulence at the surface and water movement. The surface is broken by the bubbles letting harmful gassed to escape intern making the ecosystem healthier for fish and and your benefit all bacteria. Basically you supercharged the nitrification cycle. It created ammonia spike which is deadly for your fish. Next you will get a spike in nitrites which is deadly as well but not quite as bad. Then you end up with nitrates that that are used up by plants and algae. This whole process is called the nitrification cycle. Keep in mind your oxygen and gas exchange happens at the surface. Not by a few bubbles in a large pond. Hope this helps. Questions welcome. Sorry this was so long.
I think he was the victim of excessive aeration turning the water corrosive. Some businesses just take advantage of people.
From the look of it, I have the exact same aerator. I bought it directly from the manufacturer and they provide literature with it that explains the introduction much as you did in this video. Whoever did the installation for you did you a horrible disservice.
Yes somebody dropped the ball. We should have been given a manual regardless of who installed it. Also since they are the ones who installed it and started it up, that information should have been relayed to us, but it was started when we were not even present and they gave us no other instructions other than to just let it run. A lot of people have been saying this is all our fault for not being educated on the subject, but we were just following what the supposed professionals told us to do, and they didn't even make sure we were present when it was first started. So I really don't understand how anyone can say this was our fault.
It needs to be on a float well above the bottom seen this so many times
Sorry this happened to you buddy.
Thanks, you may have just saved my fish.
Glad I could help.
You could have got everything including a fake rock for $500 bro. Vevor is the company.
Thank you
Sorry for your lost. You have too much organic material at the bottom and the air pump dissolve it back in to the water column. Most probably, you had also gas (metano) bubbles, inside the organic material, and they break up. Very common in old freshwater aquariums, with low maintenance. Nitrogen turns into ammonia, which is poison. For the future, you need some kind of filtration to decompose ammonia to less harmless nitrites and nitrates. A simple bog filter, only with gravel and aquatic plants, 10% ou 15% the surface of the lake would work fine, I think, should be enough to maintain the lake clean and safe for the live stock. A constant flow of fresh water would be very important also, if possible. But, first, I would clean as much organic material as possible with a submersible pump. Great fertilizer for plants and trees. My two cents.
You could use our Oxypro technology that releases oxygen on demand at the molecular level.
Weve done sludge studies and oxygen studies to share if you're interested .
i've been studying aeration as I plan to add it to my lake to help reduce muck and algae as I add other products to help with that. In my research I saw several people talk about how to introduce aeration. Sorry you didn't see that. Sucks that your fish died.
That's what happens when you trust the "professionals" that install it. You would think that when they installed it and started it that they would give some sort of instructions if it was necessary to slowly introduce the system. Last fall they stocked bluegill, hybrid bluegill, redear, and minnows for us. In a couple weeks I am picking up some yellow perch, albino catfish, and golden shiners to add to the lake, and then in the fall they are going to stock some largemouth, crappie, channel cats, and grass carp. I'm debating on whether or not I want to add walleye and/or hybrid bass next year. I'm a big fan of catching a variety of fish, but I want to see how this first wave of new species takes off before adding more.
Do not put crappie a pond that small please. It's asking for imbalance.
3 grass carp per acre from what I have read. Otherwise it will be a desert like mine! Good luck!
I know when the carp were originally put in the lake was basically all moss and cattails. I was always told they only put in like 9, but clearly we removed way more than 9 dead ones, plus at least 1 survived. We are supposed to be getting 8 more. I think that will be plenty. You just want to control the vegetation, not eliminate it all together.
OMG stop aeration stop the lake bottom🛎🛎🛎🛎🛎
Did you ever get the water tested? I doubt the sudden die off was caused by toxicity. It is far more likely the fish were killed by lack of oxygen. Lakes and ponds stratify in summer with low oxygen levels at the bottom. When you turned on the aerators it pushed the very low oxygen water from the bottom into the water column and suffocated the fish. You're not the first who has experienced this problem. Aerators should never be turned on all at once and run all day in a pond especially during summer. You're best to do it gradually in the early spring and then once on leave them on.
The fishery/pond management company that installed it never acted like the water needed to be tested. I think it was brought up once, but it was never done. I know for a fact we are not the first people to have this problem. The company who installed it and fired it up (without us being present) should have known the danger to the fish and informed us of what could happen. They never mentioned it to us. We were just told to let it run.
@@redneckofftherange3008 I had a typo, I meant to say you're not the first. These kinds of die offs have happened many, many times before which is why it's so well known in the pond management industry not to just turn on aerators in old ponds especially in Summer without doing it slowly and carefully. Country View Acres experienced what you did except he did it to himself and wiped out his pond including some huge, mature fish. KLM Ponds did a video about what happened to you and your pond and why it shouldn't have happened given the company should have known better (see his vid 2000 dead fish....). IMHO the company should replace all your fish with ones the same size and age as what you had before their incompetence killed them.
I wonder about whether you tested the water after the kill to see if it was toxins. Did they tell you that was the cause? If so, they are not telling the truth. It's likely it had nothing to do with water quality and everything to do with low oxygen suffocating the fish.
@@snappingbear They mentioned testing it after, but never did. They did stock 3-4 inch bluegill, hybrid bluegill, and redear sunfish, plus 30 pounds of minnows and 8 grass carp about 8-10 inches long. Just waiting on them to stock the bass, crappie, and catfish in the fall.
@@redneckofftherange3008 If your goal is big bass you might not want to stock crappie. They are direct competitors with bass. Catfish are too when older. I look forward to watching your videos about how the pond recovers.
@@snappingbear We have had crappie for a long time, and there are still quite a few in there. We are not concerned with catching monster bass. I have other places to go fish if that is what I'm after. I honestly prefer catching a variety of fish, but my favorite is catfish.
Gotta start aerators slow, don't start them up full blast otherwise it throws off the balance of the pond.
Yea testing the ph after introducing anything into a body of water is a good idea..
I also think that was too many grass carp for that pond.
We didn't stock them. Any grass carp that were in there were stocked by my grandparents. I only ever heard they stocked 9, but maybe they put in more. There was a point in time where the entire lake was filled with moss. The carp definitely cleaned it up, but it took years.
Cool, that's a different way to kill off everything in an old pond to restock. Instead of using chemicals. I have stunted crappie and huge bowfin and probably 2' of muck over 1/2 my one acre pond.
Trust me, it wasn't intended. Some fish did survive, and we have started the restocking process. Where did you get bowfin to stock in a pond?
@@redneckofftherange3008 It was never stocked. I imagine they crawled in. It's been a swamp for 30 years created by a logging road. I dredged 3/4 of it to around 8' to 10' and now cleaning muck from shallows. I'm going to stock, hopefully starting next spring. Bowfin and crappie are native but I don't want them in my pond. I have a river bordering land that has plenty of crappie. ( I love to catch and eat them) I have a new aeration system. It probably wouldn't kill the bowfin. They gulp air.
@@robertkayler6292 Bowfin would be a pretty cool species to catch. Around here the only place that has them is the Mississippi.
This is happening to others that use this system. I will post the link to someone else. They lied if they claimed not to see this problem before.
We completely fix the nitrogen too
Shout out to the company for making right on your wrong. Wish you would’ve named them cause they didn’t owe you anything
On OUR wrong? THEY installed it, THEY fired it up without us being there, THEY gave us ZERO paperwork and basically ZERO instruction on how to properly use the system. Even after all the fish died (which took less than a day) they told us that we didn't do anything wrong, meaning that we didn't do anything different from what they tell any of their other customers. So please tell me how this was OUR wrong? We had this thing professionally installed so that it was done right and look what happened. This is not a case of buying an aerator on Amazon and installing it ourselves. We trusted these people to do it right, and they clearly did not.
TY
No idea where you are or pond depth but being the 4th July the water was probably warm. You may have caused the water to invert too quickly. I doubt you killed every fish in 3 acre pond
We didn't. There were still lots of survivors. Mostly smaller fish. I'd estimate between 2 and 3 thousand fish were killed though.
Ummm...what's with the gun and you're set up to cross draw!?!?
What do you mean what's up with the gun? I didn't realize I had to justify to strangers on the internet my right to carry a gun on my own property. Also I prefer cross draw because having the holster on the right side of my body interferes with the seat belts on the lawn mower and tractor.
Sorry to hear that you was missimformed. All the videos I found prior to installing my system said to slowly introduce the air.
We let the company install it and fire it up and they just let it run and told us to just let it run. You would think the company installing the system would know better, especially if they are also a fishery.
sounds like a solution lookin for a problem,leave well enough alone
An aeration system has plenty of benefits to a pond, but unless it is introduced properly, you end up with the problem we had. Old ponds with little to no maintenance eventually will have problems. Some of them being significant problems. Our lake was heading in that direction, but we were misinformed when the system was installed and we ended up doing the very thing we were trying to prevent.
10 kto install 200 dollar pum0
They need to be sued happening to too many peoples ponds on TH-cam, they need their instructions to be clearer, it would have helped if you filmed when they came out so to have what they said on film. They destroyed your pond and killed your fish I see that as a disastrous and violent product to your wildlife
This is the second video I have seen with aeration killed the fish in a pond..
Yeah you gotta be careful when adding one. I'm using this as an opportunity to add new types of fish to the lake though. Trying to make lemonade out of lemons.
Get some domesticated DUCKS. yeah
Why?
You mean pond.
No.
Yeah that’s a disaster. You need too add lots of pond product as well. Over time it would have cleaned up decades of muck.
Plus. Most importantly putting those aerators not at the deepest parts is the most important part. Essentially you stirred up all the organic matter at the bottom. It’s a common mistake.
Sorry for the headache. At least you didn’t have psychopath like I have dumping chemicals in mine.
Anyways hope it worked out.
Yeah we have put 3 treatments of muck biotics in so far.
best to read all the videos available on you tube before trying it out
I didn't realize you could read a video. Also everything we saw and read was all positive stuff. Nothing warned of anything like this happening, and as stated in the video, the company we purchased it from installed it and fired it up and gave us no real instructions on letting the lake adapt to it. They also never gave us any sort of manual.
Nothing wrong with pond just yuppies and city folk trying to make it look like a swimming pool
I'm just excited we are going to get fish this weekend. I'm making plans to add some new species to it next year as well.
Lol.... your right. Did you just age yourself? Haven't heard yuppy in decades.
Why would you mess with a 60 year old pond.... its running perfectly fine. If God wanted those things he would have them installed on the pond
This is exactly what I'm thinking 👍 I too have a pond that is 50 plus years old. Never had a fountain, aerator nothing. Even gets low in the summer. Never ever had any fish to die for any reason.
It's called maintenance.. just done wrong
Ammonia; shmoo-onia.
I know exactly what happened.
The deeper the lake, the more intense of a thermocline you have, which is a bottom layer of colder water separated from the warmer top layer.
The warm water temperature above stays at the top, and the colder water drops and this phenomenon stays in place all Summer.
Please note that all Summer, while the bottom water is stuck in place, there is no oxygen there.
And no fish. They would quickly die down there.
Fish simply avoid this anoxic environment, which is why they were trying to get out of your lake before suffocating. Ouch. I am so sorry. Very tragic.
Then, in the Spring and Fall, when the air temperature matches the water temp, you have a "turning over", a blending of the entire water table. But this happens much more gently than an extreme, mechanical blending, like what the aeration did to your pond.
Your fish kill occurred when the mechanical mixing brought up tremendous volumes of putrid, anoxic, muddy water and mixed with the good stuff.
All at 1 time.
There was a sudden jump in hungry lifeforms, previously in suspended animation down under, that sprang into activity when surfacing to a warm, oxygenated environment.
And, yes; if you had started out the aeration regimen with baby steps, this could have been avoided.
Before I let you know how aeration really works, I would like to warn everybody of another thing that causes a fish kill; way more often than by starting up aeration (way more)-
Spraying for weeds!
Oh boy, if I had a nickel.
When the band-aid brigade comes to spray for weeds and don't do it in baby steps, all the dead algae and other plants are suddenly consumed by microscopic animals, and plants, that deplete the oxygen during the feast. Yes, even some water plants use oxygen.
(Oh yeah, even if these chemo-bots from the 19th Century do not kill your fish, the dead weeds sink and gradually fill up your pond with muck; not exactly a fix, huh?)
Back to aeration effect.
The good invisible friends are the phytoplankton.
If you also count the ocean, thanks for our oxygen!
Phytoplankton is what keeps your ponds and lakes full of life. The bacteria that break down the muck; dead animals and plants...need oxygen. All the animals you see like fish; larvae, etc. need it, too.
The urban myth is that the bubbles in aeration equipment infuses oxygen into the water.
Not accurate; sorry.
It happens on a very small scale, and mostly by accident, when the bubble pops on the surface.
I noticed your compressor on the shore was an AirMax unit?
They are bodaciously good, if you happened to get 1 that is not defective!
They had to come out? Shock!
Yeah, I said it.
But they do have efficient units that use less energy and all the hardware and hoses are best in the business.
But would you believe that even higher up folks at AirMax have this misconception of how aeration actually works?
So, anyway!
Aeration mixes the entire water table, creating a larger environment for phytoplankton.
They still don't have light down there, but the larger life-friendly volume increases the mass of them and its production of oxygen.
This is why the air diffusers must be in all the deepest parts of your lake; and the deeper the water, the better and more it mixes.
And yes, the fish get a bigger home!
Now they have the run of the pond.
Once after organically cleaning up a lake, we hired a scuba diver to go down to the bottom; 30 feet.
Bass and other species swimming around and smiling gill to gill!
BTW, bass pass out faster from anoxia than most freshwater fish.
The next critical step impacting aeration is increasing the good bacteria.
With beneficial bacteria added to the water, nutrients that clog a lake and feed the weeds are gobbled up and vaporized.
Same thing with the muck.
If you drop solid tablets to the bottom, the muck will literally be consumed, now that you have increased the oxygen down there. The nitrates and nitrites will transform into nitrogen gas and vent out of water with no smell!
This water will become an organic refuge for humans, wildlife, pets/stock, fish.
Hey!
With no excess nutrients to feed the weeds, I guess you will have to fire your chemical dude and spend the money on electricity and natural bacteria.
Remember, with aeration and extra bacteria, you are simply accelerating the natural processes that already exist. Speeding up the system.
With a very fast (expensive) regimen, we once removed 3 feet of muck off the bottom a 2 acre pond in 4 years!
Finally, and if you now understand this concept, aerating the wrong way will do more harm than good.
A pond that is only turning part of the water is just polluting the pond with all the crud coming up.
Aeration should be able to mix the entire body several times per day, so make sure the install is appropriate.
Well, again; so sorry for your loss.
But I would not give up on your parent's new system, especially if the manufacturer is working with you.
Remember, every treatment, though costly, is naturally preserving and restoring your family lake, which is priceless.
Thanks for sharing.
good info. I used to raise tropical fish back in the day, so I totally understand balancing a tank, It takes time! We recently purchased a property with a 40-Year-Old 100x60 ft pond 15 feet deep. About 2 ft of muck total. I currently have an 80-gallon per minute Ejector pump in a wire cage, pumping surface water to circulate The pond, It also aerates. I have no trouble with surface algae at all, some green algae, though. Got tons of fish, minnows, bluegill, tadpoles, frogs, and a couple of huge carp. If I add aeration, I should also do a muck remover in conjunction, correct?