Comments for WhatPond, Your Pond Specialist

Comment on Pond Algae or Bio Filter by Darrell Rhoades

Darrell Rhoades — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 15:29:08 +0000

Hi Terry, I wish you and your family a Merry Christmas as well. I am so glad the pond is looking and doing better. Since you have added fish and winter is coming please decide on running the aerator or not running it during the winter months. Either way is fine but if you choose to run all winter move the diffuser to half the depth of the pond. Meaning if the pond is 10′ deep, move the diffuser to 5′ deep or less. It is possible that leaving at the deepest part of the pond we could super cool the pond and harm the fish. Here is a link for more details on Winter Aeration, http://www.whatpond.com/2011/11/winter-pond-aeration/

Comment on Pond Algae or Bio Filter by Terry Boehm

Terry Boehm — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 13:52:29 +0000

Darrell, just a quick note to say thanks for all the information you have provided me. I contacted you about the fish kill and algae I had, purchased a aeration system from you and my pond looks lots better. I restocked the pond this fall and hope to see lots of fish this spring. Hope you and your family have a MERRY CHRISTMAS.
Terry
Danville, Il.

Comment on Pond Building by How To Kill Cattails

How To Kill Cattails — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 10:51:21 +0000

[...] discover what ponds are all about and what it takes to build a pond visit http://www.whatpond.com/pond-building Posted in Sports Fish Ponds | Tags: [...]

Comment on Thankful Year by Darrell Rhoades

Darrell Rhoades — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 22:13:50 +0000

To expend on this a little is to mention C.E.R.T. Community Emergency Response Team. Both my wife and I are a member, went thru the training and continued training and exercises. Free training to learn what to do and how to prepare for disaster’s. If you are in the Erie area you can register for the next available training class at, http://erie.noahslist.com/erie_s_community_corner/classes_activities/108868_Ready_for_a_Disaster_C_E_R_T
If not in the area check with your local authorities to see if classes are available to you.

Comment on Big-Cedar by Darrell Rhoades

Darrell Rhoades — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 17:12:08 +0000

Thank you for commenting Eleanor. My parents visit Branson once a year and love it there. Close to a 18 hour drive though. Once you build your pond, you’ll say why didn’t I do this sooner. The pond will become your favorite place to be.

Comment on Big-Cedar by eleanor Flitsch

eleanor Flitsch — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 19:58:00 +0000

This is absolutely Beautiful!!! Actually Branson, is not that far from where I live. approx 5-6 hrs drive.!!! I still have not built my pond. but I am sure I will in the near future xx Thank you for sharing.

Comment on Dozer by Darrell Rhoades

Darrell Rhoades — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 08:45:49 +0000

Hi Al,
Tough to say on that one. When I took my John Deere 1010 out one year to plow snow the only way I was able to get good traction was to scrap to the gravel drive
or keep one track on the yard. But then depending on temps’ and snow condition the tracks can build up with snow leaving the grouser useless to bite in the ground.
I never used a dozer for plowing after that, it is a helpless feeling until you get traction again.

Get an old 4×4 pickup with a plow and add chains to it would be the safer way. Just my thoughts hope it helps.

Comment on Dozer by Al

Al — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 11:15:07 +0000

I have a 450C case dozer, live in the mountians with steep grades, is there any way to keep the dozer from sliding when plowing snow on steeping grades?

Comment on ProblemPond by Darrell Rhoades

Darrell Rhoades — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 20:45:43 +0000

Good move on adding the grass carp, I like doing that rather than using chemicals. You are started in the right direction by getting the water moving in the pond and yes pushing up from the deepest depth would be best. Don’t start running the pump full time from the deepest depth as there should be a start up procedure so we’re not pushing all the non oxygenated water and toxic gasses up and into where the fish are, just a little each day to help send the toxic gasses to atmosphere. Also check out Aerator startup . I’m not too sure on the size of sump pump being used, how many gallons per hour it moves. But the goal is to turn the entire volume of water over at least once a day. With a quick calculation on the pond size you have given and found approx. 1.9 million gallons of water in the pond, depending on what the slopes are and the shape of the pond. Moving water is more costly than moving air. Here’s an example of the AM30 bottom diffused aeration system, with the diffuser placed at the 10 depth. The diffuser can move 3,390 gallons of water per minute with air, turning over the entire pond volume twice a day so it could just be run 12 hours at night if you wish to. The compressor is a ¼ horse and piston type. Using a sump pump say a ¾ horse with the 10 foot lift would provide 2700 gallons per hour of water movement. Adding the spray nozzle would choke the flow down some but even running at full bore for 24 hours would only provide 65,000 gallons of water movement using a ¾ horse sump pump. I have a blog post called Summer Fish Kill that has more information as well. Hope this helps Darrell

Comment on ProblemPond by gordon rider

gordon rider — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 20:54:01 +0000

Hi I live in charlotte n.c. I have a pond approx 3/4 of an acre large and about 10 ft deep. It started to get a lot of grass in it this year so I put a sump pump down in it and made a fountion head for it It seemes to be helping to clean the top 12 to 18 inchs of the pond . I also put in some grass carp to help control the grass do I need to place the pump at the deepest part of the pond to get the best results? also I am only running the pump about 10 hours a day should I run it longer? Thankyou