Farm pond renovation

[Tracy]

We bit the bullet so to speak and we are redoing our farm pond.

Existing pond was about an acre but had so much silt and goose poo in it that it was only 4 or so feet deep in the middle. Nothing has been done with this pond in 30+ years.

We hired a local guy to redo the pond. 2 different size dozers and a trac hoe. This is not a cheap date but once done hopefully will last many generations.

The first step was expanding this by another acre. There were tons of blue gill and bass in the old pond and we did not want to loose all the fish. They dug next to the old part 15 feet down. Broke the dam last Friday. The water from old part started flowing in along with many fish Yeah! My guess is there is 8 feet of water in the new area
They broke the other side Tuesday and drained the rest of the old part. We caught even more fish and put into the new area but also lost probably 400 fish, mostly blue gill and a few bigger bass.

They are now cleaning out the muck from the old pond [the muck stinks] and will dig down 15 feet so it is the same as the new part. Probably another week or so to finish this. Then they will break the wall from the old to new part and hopefully rain will fill it.

Here are my questions.
Aeration for a 2 acre 15 foot deep pond? Many option out there but I think we are leaning to a wind mill aerator. We are in NW PA. Pros and cons? What system is the best? If this is not a good option what would be a better option? Solar? We could also do electric but would prefer not to.

We want to install some type of foot valve/pump in center of pond to pump water to a holding tank to use as irrigation and or watering for livestock. What would be suggested? We have a pump house not to far from where the pond is so thinking of installing a holding tank in there.

All our neighbors are saying to fence off pond and don't let livestock have access to it, which they do now.
We have 60 head of goats, 3 horses and 2 steers. The steers will be going to freezer camp in a couple months. Only animal that goes in the pond is the steers. Goats and horses will go to bank to drink but don't go in water like the steers do.
How detrimental is it really for the health of the pond for the livestock to access this pond? We will always raise a couple steers for meat so there will be more next spring.

If we do fence off then our option would be using the pump installed and pumping water into troughs but to me this seems like more work then letting them drink out of the pond but after all this money I want the pond to stay nice.

How to keep all the stupid geese away? We do brush hog to keep the grass down but they still come every year. During goose season in the fall they are also hunted. I hate these geese. We can get hundreds at a time. Heard that putting wood cut outs of foxes near the pond would deter them but not sure if that is true?

How to deter muskrat? Trappers trap in fall but what else can be done to keep these critters from destroying the pond?

All input is greatly appreciated. I will also try to post some pictures later today.

Thanks in advance.

[fishhead]

Definitely keep the livestock out of the pond if you want to keep it from refilling with sediment. It's not just soil that filled the pond it's organic matter that grew in the pond from all the nutrients from the manure. Keep a good thick vegetative buffer around the pond to help remove nutrients before they reach the pond.

I would go with a solar pump to keep the watering tank filled with fresh water. Have the outlet go back into the pond or discharge into a rock lined trough back to the pond.

For geese let the grass grow tall. Or get a border collie.

For muskrats trap and shoot and keep the vegetation in the pond to a minimum. No food no rats although they will feed on grass roots.

[coolrunnin]

Yes fence the stock out of pond. I use 2 of these on 2 ponds to water stock Freeze Proof Waterer They work very well.

[plowjockey]

I go with the wind powered aerator, in a heartbeat, if I could afford one. A small company in OH make some decent ones. Purchased my air stone from him, but don't remember the company name. Solar aerators are good but very expensive. You might be able to build one for less.

I built my own electric aerator from surplus parts. Works great but takes a good amount of electricity to run.

Lining the banks with gravel or stone, is about the only way to keep muskrats away. If the water level drops make sure bank is still covered.

sound's like it will be a great pond.

[agmantoo]

You probably have already installed an overflow pipe. I have built a number of ponds with a siphon overflow and I definitely think there are many advantages. Siphoning the stale oxygen deprived water from near the bottom of the pond has eliminated any fish kills for me without having to aerate. The unique drain on the siphon design also avoids the erosion at the outlet end.
I would also suggest fencing the pond. Keeping the pond banks clean discourages muskrats. As for supplying drinking water......A PVC pipe through the dam to a earth moving tire waterer equipped with float and an overflow pipe should suffice and if the water is allowed to flow in the Winter it should minimize freezing.

[ronbre]

our neighbor just redid their pond as well, they managed to save most of their smaller fish, but some of the big ones died

[Tracy]

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

Will fence off pond which is what DH wanted to do any way. We have a PTO fence ponder so not a big deal. Planning on doing other fencing anyway once ground is not so dry.

agmantoo: Over flow will be installed this week. Can you provide more detail on siphon overflow or a website?


Fishhead: Why solar over windmill? My thought is we usually have some wind but solar would not work in winter months here. We are near lake Erie and get lake effect snow and cloud cover so solar would not work many months out of the year.

coolrunnin: Thank you for link. Exactly what we need.

plowjockey: If you remember the name of the company in Ohio please post. Ohio is a big state but depending on where they are we are only 6 miles from the OH line.

Keep the suggestions coming and any links from reputable companies or designs on how to install aerator etc is much appreciated.

[Tracy]

Trying to figure out how to post pictures and i cant.
Here is a linkhttp://s1068.photobucket.com/albums/u450/murfette/

[Sawmill Jim]

I don't see any way two steers could hurt a pond that size no way a heard maybe in a few years . Buddy of mine has lots of cows they keep the water muddy but other than that after 35 years that is about it . Now if you got a two gallon pond yep several cows will work on it .

Now my pond catches the runoff from the land around that is cropped every year if the ground is loose and a big rain falls i get all his dirt . I dig it out spread his dirt and in a few years it is filled again . Location and runoffs more important than a few cows .

With a nice pond a fence to me interferes with my enjoyment of it and a fence row becomes a forever pain i don't need or want .

[Sawmill Jim]

A deep pond don't need as much air introduced as a shallow pond .Hot weather is when aeration is most needed . Here some use a regular sump pump putting the water in the air and falling back . Some of the commercial fish ponds had blade aerators ran by various means . They looked like a big garden tiller that stirred the water .

My neighbor left an island in his pond with a plank walk way going out to it . With our drought he runs well water in it so many hours a day ,just shoots it in the air letting it fall back .

[Tracy]

Originally Posted by Sawmill Jim

I don't see any way two steers could hurt a pond that size no way a heard maybe in a few years . Buddy of mine has lots of cows they keep the water muddy but other than that after 35 years that is about it . Now if you got a two gallon pond yep several cows will work on it .

Now my pond catches the runoff from the land around that is cropped every year if the ground is loose and a big rain falls i get all his dirt . I dig it out spread his dirt and in a few years it is filled again . Location and runoffs more important than a few cows .

With a nice pond a fence to me interferes with my enjoyment of it and a fence row becomes a forever pain i don't need or want .

This is why I originally didn't want to fence as more maintenance to keep fence lines clear plus the enjoyment factor.

If any one knows how to actually post the pictures please do.

Run off wont be a factor as we also will have a catchment prior to the pond to hopefully siphon the road dirt. We live on a dirt road. I think the biggest factor is the geese.

The ditch in the one picture is where they broke the old dam to drain the rest. Rained yesterday so water in it again.

So you think we don't need an aerator with a 15 foot 2 acre pond?
Still want to be able to pump water to a holding tank in pump house regardless. Would a windmill pump water and aerate?

[Darren]

I'll repeat what Fishhead said. If you don't want geese, don't mow around the pond. Geese won't stay where they can't see predators approaching. Tall grass scares the crap out of them.

We never have mowed around our pond. Geese have cruised by several times. They don't stay. The one time they landed at night, I encouraged them to leave.

[Tracy]

Originally Posted by Darren

I'll repeat what Fishhead said. If you don't want geese, don't mow around the pond. Geese won't stay where they can't see predators approaching. Tall grass scares the crap out of them.

We never have mowed around our pond. Geese have cruised by several times. They don't stay. The one time they landed at night, I encouraged them to leave.

Maybe we have stupid geese but the first couple years we lived here we did not brush hog it because we did not have a tractor and in the spring they all nested and hatched out hundreds of babies in the tall grass. Since we have been mowing the area a couple times a year we don't have near as many geese nesting in the spring but they do come in later in the year.

I don't want tall grass around the pond anyway. We enjoy fishing and the view.

[fishhead]

I hadn't considered the wind powered aerator but if you have the wind it's probably the cheapest.

I raised fish commercially and I never aerated except in the winter but my ponds were only 4' deep. I used compressed air. Having a modest amount of aeration will keep your deep pond more productive. That can be done with aeration or by mixing. I've seen designs of mixers that look like a horizontally mounted fan with blades 2-3' in diameter. They can be powered by horizontally mounted blades to catch the wind. The whole thing floats over the deep part of the pond with the underwater blades held 5' above the bottom.

[Sawmill Jim]

Fishead sounds like your aerators were for freezing's factors .

Pond Management: Fish Kills

I have researched this to no end .

[agmantoo]

Here is a video or the siphon at work. I turn the discharge water totally vertical and secure the pipe to a post. True vertical lets the discharged water lose its velocity and fall directly downward without its tendency to erode the area. Just a small amount of stone under the falling water will dissipate all the energy. IMO the system in the video is NOT in the syphon mode!

Pond Overflow System - YouTube

Here is what a syphon will look like. The pond at my home will shoot water 4 plus feet vertically and fall back without washing a trench.

YouTube

The details of the construction are in this pic
You need to match the discharge pipe diameter to accommodate the normal flow of the stream feeding the pond. The cross pipe in the dam will be the level of the water impounded. It is a simple installation but you must seal the outer diameter or the horizontal pipe crossing the dam adequately.
Siphon Diagram

[How Do I]

Did your old pond have aeration? Just trying to understand why you want aeration for a pond that size.

[coolrunnin]

My ponds are stocked and I have a wind aerator that was for freezing I haven't ever experienced a fish kill and we aren't exactly the wind capitol here. Still say fence it off it will stay alot cleaner.

[Tracy]

Originally Posted by How Do I

Did your old pond have aeration? Just trying to understand why you want aeration for a pond that size.

No it did not. The old pond had years of sediment and also the one side washed out this spring which i don't think I mentioned in my original post.
The wall washed out from the muskrat holes. Maybe we dont even need aeration but if a windmill would provide both water pumping and aeration we would do this. We can pump water with electric but I am thinking if the SHTF then a water source with out electric may be a good thing.

agmantoo thanks for the links. I will have my DH look at this.

[dragonjaze]

Tracy, you see the box on the right side on your Photobucket page? just copy the IMG one and paste it into your reply.