famr pond clear water for swimming

[oosik]

Just a thought - If you want professional advice, contact your local Fish & Game Dept and see they can have a biologist come out and look your situation over. They would be about your best bet for professional advice. Here you need permits from them to develop a pond and they are all over your case like stink on a skunk. But they do provide good, sound counseling.

 

[Threepoint]

Thanks for the ideas, i bought 100ft of heavy hose and a second diffuser to get oxygen to the other end of the pond. It won't get more oxygen into the pond just distribute it wider. When I placed the single diffuser in the middle last year it blocked a lot of surface wind currents so floating debris wasn't reaching the far side. Hopefully I can leave enough room between the two diffusers to allow for wind currents
[snip]

The second diffuser should help a lot. It's my understanding that even with a bubbler system, virtually 100% of the oxygen exchange takes place only at the very surface, as water deeper in the column rolls to the surface. So, keeping the water rising slowly to the surface over a larger area oxygenates much better than moving it at a very vigorous rate in a smaller area.

 

[SPIKER]

We had a old sub pump, wired it hot and put on a 10' of 2" PVC cap, drilled the cap with about 30 holes in a even pattern in the 2" cap that was glued on. Sent a NICE water column spray up and helped a LOT on the water quality, (running pump 24 7 costs a few bucks a month though and elec is much higher NOW than 15 years ago.) The pump was a USED one pulled out when the switch quit, it had been installed in basement for 10+ years and lasted 3 or 4 seasons running half the year. Key was to have enough restriction to push less flow and spray it wider. Less flow is less current on the motor, but be aware to turn it off when playing in pond as ya dont want kids around elec & water.

Mark

 

[MossRoad]

Yeah, we have a cousin who lives on a lake. He saw his dog having a seizure in the water and jumped in to save it. Turns out it wasn't a seizure... a nearby pump had malfunctioned and was shocking his dog and now him. He was fortunate enough to have his momentum take him and the dog away from the pump far enough to walk out. He said he realized exactly what was happening while it was happening and there wasn't much he could do about it but hope he didn't die. YIKES!

 

[Rustyiron]

I had very good results with "Aqua Shade", a blue dye that keeps the sunlight out just enough. TSC had it and their own version that also worked. This was used along with a good mix of fish (catfish & Koi) along with a fountain to eliminate stratification. This was down in the mid atlantic states and starting before you had any signs was the key to staying ahead of the problem.
Don't get the dye on you're hands, it will not wash off. Ya gotta wear it off.

 

[Larro Darro]

I had very good results with "Aqua Shade", a blue dye that keeps the sunlight out just enough. TSC had it and their own version that also worked. This was used along with a good mix of fish (catfish & Koi) along with a fountain to eliminate stratification. This was down in the mid atlantic states and starting before you had any signs was the key to staying ahead of the problem.
Don't get the dye on you're hands, it will not wash off. Ya gotta wear it off.

Are all your fish blue gills now?

Larro

 

[farmer2009]

You get better oxygenation from a bottom defuser because it has time to dissipate into the water on its way up. This is why you want the defuser on the bottom and at the deepest point. The air will go up not down. The surface sprayers only pick up what ever O2 they can while the water is in the air. Plus it takes a lot more energy to move water than it does air. Energy = cost. The surface sprayers also don't eleminate the stratification they only reduce it.

 

[Looking4new]

Couple of things here. OldMcDonald is describing what is called the thermocline. At a depth(normally 2-3 feet) in a body of water where the temps make a dramatic change. Most dangerous when you dive, head first, into a body of water. Your head & upper body penetrates the thermocline and encounters cold or very cold water. Natural reaction to this is inhale deeply because of temperature shock. Natural conclusion - end of story.

Been there and done that. I am very lucky to be alive. I did a not as shallow a dive as I should have into a spring fed pond that had a lifeguard on duty....right at the deepest part, in front of the lifeguards' chair. He was on me almost as soon as I hit the water (when I didn't surface soon enough for his liking). I got to be the dummy (in more ways than one) in a artificial respiration demonstration that was real time. If there wasn't a lifeguard there I wouldn't be writing this.

 

[oosik]

Me too. And I just did a shallow dive off my dock. Came to the surface under my own power, fortunately, and coughed up half the lake. All who were there laughed a lot. I recognized how lucky I was and how glad that I didn't need assistance from any of those idiots!!

 

[boggen]

You get better oxygenation from a bottom defuser because it has time to dissipate into the water on its way up. This is why you want the defuser on the bottom and at the deepest point. The air will go up not down. The surface sprayers only pick up what ever O2 they can while the water is in the air. Plus it takes a lot more energy to move water than it does air. Energy = cost. The surface sprayers also don't eleminate the stratification they only reduce it.

diffusers = when the air bubble initially forms is when major gas exchange happens with a bubble. once the bubble is formed, there is little to no actual gas exchange. other words you don't see bubbles 1" in diameter. suddenly going to 1/8" in diameter. but rather the bubbles stay the same overall volume as they go from diffuser to the surface. the surface tension of the water (part of what determines how small or big an air bubble can be (beyond the holes in the diffusers)). acts more like an egg shell around the bubble as it floats to the surface.

the water current that is created by the diffusers is of bigger concern, it creates a much bigger "donut shape current" that allows more water in contact with the surface of the pond. this is were a lot more gas exchange happens. not by the bubbles. but rather the water current that is created by the bubbles, causing a lot more water to the surface, were air/water gas exchange can happen.