Hi John, The windmill sounds totally cool. Wish I were geeky enough to have one!
We excavated/recovered our old farm pond last fall. We don't have a problem with eutrophication (no algae bloom, etc) from fertilizers, but the pond had 18" of goo on the bottom from decades of leaves and other plants decomposing. It's about 3/4 acre and is 9' at its deepest side. At present, our main interest is in swimming and stocking the pond with fish for the dinner table: perch or bass. It's spring & runoff fed, so there's no possibility for trout unless we aerate, which since I'm trying to simplify moving parts (I'm not a mechanic) out of my life is not an option. Besides, perch are almost as good. But my question is...how soon can we stock? If the clay is still suspended in the water this spring (it's refilled completely now) will this be bad for the fish? Should we wait a year on the fish stocking, so plants (food source for the fish) can reestablish themselves this year? I haven't been able to find a knowledgeable contact person to answer these questions. Will check out the pondowner.com site. Thanks, Katie Q-J John Miller wrote: > I wanted to pass along notes I took in conversations with Superior > Windmill (Saskatchewan, Canada) and Terry Fitzgerald (friend, State Univ > at Cortland entomology professor who has ½ acre pond on his property > near Virgil). This Spring I'm building a ¾ acre, 15-20 ft deep pond- > mainly for swimming and improving our view and maybe some trout > stocking. We are also going to drain and seal an older, smaller pond > that has grown full of weeds and cattails. > Terry pointed out that fertilization and eutrophication are big problems > for ponds- often from subsurface water and runoff carrying nutrients. > He has avoided unwanted plant growth by cutting off surface and > subsurface flow to the pond-now 20 years old-and feeding it only with > snow and rain. He has also anchored plants around the perimeter to pick > up the excess nutrients that do get to the pond: arrowhead, pickerel > weed, water lily, sedges, rushes and cattails. Terry maintains that if > you start with a clean clay bottom and keep it that way- and minimize > flowing water input- the pond will have low productivity (just enough to > support desirable aquatic plants) > To help clear up our old pond years ago, I took the recommendation of I > believe a DEC person to stock pond with crayfish that aggressively ate > vegetation. Seemed to work pretty good and the blue heron really liked > the idea! Terry responded that crayfish are omnivores but most of their > diet consists of animals and their role as a detrivore is limited. > So, on to the Internet went I on the topic of pond eutrophication and > soon ran into pondowner.com and this site recommended aeration as best > means of keep ponds clear and healthy. Next I go to Koenders and > Superior Windmill sites and liked the Superior design better so called > them up. Really great people (remember they're in Saskatchewan not New > Jersey- I'm sure I'll get some Jerseyite feedback on this remark!). > Well, in short order they convinced me I should invest in a windmill > aerator and it turns out their mills are on sale! I've ordered a dual > diaphragm machine that will aerate both ponds (mill must be within > 1000ft of the pond) and use their Pond Conditioner- non-toxic bacteria, > enzyme and sun screen food additive in liquid form that is added to the > aerated section of the pond when the surface water reaches 58 deg F > (they estimated late May) The conditioner starves non-beneficial > bacteria and the sun screen retards overall bacterial growth. Aeration > burns off the excess nutrients and bacteria. Aeration throughout the > winter helps maintain pond health and promotes fish reproduction. > And then there is the geek factor- I just think windmills are so cool > and this one with multiple blades (looks like old time farm water pump > windmill) , clean unipole (constant diameter tube with hinge at base for > 5 year diaphragm maintenance and 8-12 year main bearing replacement) and > the powder coated optional finish (galvanized steel standard) really > kept me awake tonight thinking about it. > Hope this is of help to someone on the listserv or someone you know > building or recovering a pond. > John > > > _______________________________________________ > RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: > [email protected] > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > > > -- _______________________________________________ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
