All of the Fish Died in our Pond, Again!!!
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 30 сен 2024
- We have a 3.5 acre pond that we just stocked this spring. And now all the fish have died off, Again.
Buy T-Shirts and Hoodies on Our Website:
www.countryvie...
Our Amazon Shop full of great Homesteading items:
www.amazon.com...
TYM Tractors: tym.world/en-us/
The Tractors we use are the
TYM 2515 - 24 Horsepower compact tractor
TYM T654 - 67 horsepower compact utility Tractor
J.I. Case 730 (1961)
Allis Chalmers D17 Series 1 (1959)
E-mail us at: countryviewacreshomestead@gmail.com
Send Letters to:
Country View Acres
P.O. Box 469
Robinson, IL 62454
Our RUclips Channel: / countryviewacres
Our Facebook page: / countryviewacreshomestead
Our Instagram Page: / country_view_acres
We live in southeastern Illinois on a 41 acre homestead. We just finished building our log cabin in 2018. Now we are focused on trying to grow our own food and raise livestock. Follow us on our journey we continue to develop our homestead and farm, while becoming more self sufficient.
Any links provided above may be affiliate links which earn us a small commission.
#pond #aeration #fish
![Cody Johnson - I'm Gonna Love You (with Carrie Underwood) [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/yy9PuYMU29g/mqdefault.jpg)
![Tee Grizzley - Blow for Blow (feat. J. Cole) [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/wNLN5xsx5dc/mqdefault.jpg)
Duckweed and algae problems are usually from excessive nutrient issues. Check where your run offs coming into the pond are coming from. You could be getting excessive nutrients from hog or cattle farms or just run off from fertilizers from the farm fields.
This would be my guess as well.
That's right
When algae in the pond dies and sinks to the bottom it uses up oxygen when it decays and this lack of oxygen is what kills the fish. Your aerator is nowhere near big enough for a pond of your size. You really need to hire an expert and measure the nitrogen and phosphorus levels in the water to see why there is so much algae, you have nutrients getting into that water somehow and excessive nutrients cause excessive algae growth which is the root of all your problems.
Id guess fertilizer run off
Yeah, that's why my suggestion last year was to harvest and compost the duckweed. I figure it would be like harvesting a hay field without fertilizing it. I wasn't of the impression that the pond was fed from somewhere, though. If it is, this is hopeless.
As a twenty year pond owner I’ll throw in my two cents. My ponds are 7 & 40 acres. Your fish kill is defiantly not caused by your aeration system. In fact, you should have it running 24/7 to eliminate the stratification in your pond. It’s obvious by the duckweed that you have too many nutrients in your pond. The decaying vegetation off gassing is killing the fish. Running the aeration system 24/7 will help remove the gas from your water, but you really need to take care of the root of the problem which is the duckweed/vegetation caused by the high nutrients. Long term solution would be to use bacteria (example; Pond Block sold at TSC) and run your aerator. For immediate results you can use a pond company to kill off the duckweed, but this will shock your pond and cause more destructive off-gassing and kill any remaining fish. I don’t know, but suspect your pond has allot of farm runoff, so you’ll need to keep dosing it with the bacteria through the year (2-3 times) to keep it under control. For your pond I recommend using a pond dye too which will inhibit the plant growth in the future. For now, don’t worry about the fish until you can get your pond under control. There is also no need to stock the high rates recommended. I’ve dealt with total fish kills multiple times and small stock numbers repopulate a pond quickly. I’ve had 4ld bass within 3 years, add minnows to your restocking and use a 1/2 to 1 acre recommendation. I fought the same pond battle as you for years and employed a very good pond management company $3,600 - $8,000 annually. My problems were not solved with the pond management company due to the high cost, which I couldn’t afford $12,000 or justify. I added self management with 24/7 aeration and 3-4 annual bacteria treatments and pond dye. My pond had to much vegetation and off gassing prior. It took two years to totally solve the offgassing, but now I spend about $600 annually on self treating the pond plus my electric for the aeration and my house has a beautiful 7 acre pond view finally (6 years and counting).
If you're going to use electricity, I would build a small wetland filter on the side of the pond that can help air rate the water and it will build up a huge biological filter at the same time. You can create like a small cascading waterfall back to the main pond.
That is an excellent recommendation. On a sidebar…. The people that owned the pond before as we all have seen and they have experienced, put trash everywhere. I would NOT be surprised they put waste or trash in the pond itself or possibly on edge somewhere. Get a fish sonar and see what you can see on bottom and test the water. You need to know what you have causing the issue and what you need to balanced it. What beneficial bacteria you need as he said.
I am a certified scuba diver with 75+ dives. In rescue training we were taught “grid search”. Map your pond into grids and use sonar etc to discover what lies below. It likely has no visibility for a diver. Hell; I would not be surprised if there was a body or two down there the way those people were.
Yup, stop guessing and consult an expert.
This comment nailed it.
Time for a professional consult.
That's my recommendation as well.
He needs to leave it alone
That's what I was thinking too.
We all are on the same page. This is not something a pond specialist hasn't seen. I don't think it'll be cheap but ponds aren't. Good luck Evan love your videos.
💯
We live in Illinois as well and have a farm pond. We run our our aerator 24/7 365. We had fish kills when we did not run them continually because there was so much sediment buildup on the bottom that as the leaves and stuff decomposed it basically became methane gas. I would encourage you to continually run them. Also we had a very bad duckweed problem the last several years. What we noticed is the overflow pipe that the water exits out of the pond was not working properly... once that was fixed anytime it rains now the duckweed flows out of the overflow pipe and we have literally had zero duckweed this year.
These have been only on during the day for 3 to 4 months. That isn't the cause or it would have happened earlier It was because the aerator broke apart. And a stream of continuous air was stirring up the bottom of the pond.
@CountryViewAcres You certainly could be accurate with the sediment being stirred up. However right now on one of my aerators it has been snapped off for about a year I just haven't pulled the line to replace the end and we have a lot of muck as well. I'm certainly no expert. Herman Brothers Pond Management in Central Illinois does a really good job and they travel to a lot of states if you were to ever want a second opinion. I really enjoy your channel I've been binge-watching a lot of your videos.
@morecowbell4u
(Great handle)
The underlying problem is always going to be too much soil nutrients in the wrong place. That’s going to take science to create farming fertilizers that have a stop-action or something… so they don’t continue to fertilize growth where they aren’t supposed to.
Also, this guy doesn’t really seem all that motivated to really get ahead of the problem…. More video content perhaps ?🤔
I think I found EXACTLY what you're looking for!!! A company called KLM Ponds did a video over a year ago that talks about what likely happened to your pond. It's a video about over aeration of ponds and how you should only aerate at night. Also need to get the excessive duckweed under control with skimming it off regularly. youtube.com/@klmponds @CountryViewAcres
Sorry to hear about this but I think that your aerators need to be on 24/7 all year round .
Evan, you are trying and learning. I love that you don’t ‘hide’ your mistakes. You own them.
I think he does need to call a professional company, lab tests etc
If you want to drag the pond. A hose full of water with pool noodles around it might work a lot better.
That is what I was also thinking.
i commented the same thing. Should have arrowed done a little more.
@@sams568 I'm sorry am I supposed to care that you commented the same thing already?
Fish nets.
He’s not really being very earnest about solving the problems…. meanwhile the little lake is getting worse + worse. Eventually just a slimy swamp.
Were fish dying with the duckweed in place?
Pool noodles duct taped together with a rope ran through all of them might work to drag the duck weed out.
slide them over that garden hose!
Yes, the duck weed is a gift really - it concentrates the nutrients in itself and floats where you can easily remove it. We had a concerted effort to clear it from our pond a few years ago and there was no sign of duck weed this year.
Time to call in an expert. Seems like the more you try the worse it gets.
During calm, hot days, the pond develops temperature layers called “stratification.” The layer of water at the surface is exposed to the sun and warms quickly. This warm layer weighs less than the cool water below, so these layers do not mix. Surface layers contain high levels of oxygen produced by the phytoplankton. The cooler bottom layers are cut off from the surface layers and their sources of oxygen, so oxygen levels drop over time because of normal biological processes. In fact, these deep waters can actually develop an “oxygen demand,” which is like having negative oxygen levels.
Hey Evan, I think your county extension office would be a great place to start on knocking out the pond issues. They can help you solve this economically instead of fighting it.
Try your County Agent, Fish and Game Commission,or possibly a vet school in a university near you. Praying you get an answer. Don't be afraid to ask for help! Love your channel!
Grass carp will not control a duckweed problem unfortunately. As others have said Evan, it’s an excessive nutrient issue from run off. You should have been running the pond aeration 24 / 7 since. Duckweed is caused from excessive nutrients. 😢
Hi Evan, I have been think about your duckweed harvesting. Crazy idea.... Have you tried a leaf/path blower and blow the surface of the water from the boat to push the duckweed to the edge where you can collect with a pool scoop.
I saw a video a while back ...a young farmer who was using the duck weed to supplement his pigs feed.He was told his pork was very high in omega threes and other nutrients. An idea to keep the plant matter from mucking up the pond and feeding livestock free food . If you have lemons make lemonade.
Have you tried beneficial bacteria?
Beneficial bacteria comes in liquid or pellets or blocks for ponds. It can help eat up all the organic matter which in turn deprives algae of needed nutrients and clears up the water while also reducing the amount of muck at the bottom of the pond.
I assure you there's already beneficial bacteria in that pond, and what they do is convert ammonia to nitrates, which plants then consume.
The heavy bloom could be from high nutrient content from runoff from farm land. I would have water tested.
A water test should be real easy.
Maybe this can help you out, Ive had a similar problem of duckweed, in my pond up in Wisconsin. I bought 3-30 ft, minnow seine nets, tied them together ,my wife on one end , me on the other, and slowly dragged the nets across the pond. You wouldnt believe how much duck weed we pulled out, of the pond. I then bought a Koenders wind powered windmill, and thats been working for us since 2003
I did this method too but I couldn’t cure it without chemicals. The duckweed would spread back out in a few days for me. I do agree on opening up the pond though with a wind source! It blows it to the other side
Or maybe have a professional person come out and evaluate the problem in the pond. Seems like it would be cheaper doing that then having to restock the pond every time you turn around. Wish you luck................
Another fish kill is a hard one. Sorry for your loss. The fountain idea is a good idea with coloured lights to give it a night time display. The fish will love it too with the added oxygen in the water.
Coloured lights would be sacrilege. It’s the countryside and they moved there because they enjoyed camping and nature and wanted to live in natural surroundings.
A fountain will clog, with that much algea/duck weed, and will be a maintenance headache!
Get your local fishery to come out and survey your pond before you do anything else.
Hey Evan. Love the videos. Makes me miss growing up on a farm. Could you block your pond overflow pipe until the water level gets higher and then release it so the duckweed flows out? Just a thought!
CLEAR water DOES NOT equate to a healthy fish habitat. I’m no expert but there are MANY videos out there discussing how many inches you should be able to have visibility on a gage.
Been a fan for awhile great channel do you think that the run off from the farm land around your homestead could be causing the problem (fertilizer and farm chemicals)
You might get a mechanical surface skimmer that floats on the surface of the pond and connects to a pump that drawa water and duckweed off the surface. The pump discharge is into a land basin with a screened discharge back to the pond. The duckweed stays behind in the basin and is periodically scooped out with a shovel or the tractor's bucket, ending up in the compost pile.
That’s a lot of compost.
He did that last year? 5 gallon bucket with a lip cut out for the intake, pumped onto the.shore, used some square bales as a filter. He got a loader or bucket or two's worth. Composted most.
We have a much smaller pond but found pumping didn't clear the duck weed very well - far too much evaded the skimmer. Actively dragging a skimmer into the thickest areas of duck weed worked well but is very hands-on. The duck weed is very high in nutrients so skimming it off is making big inroads into the nutrients excess of the pond.
I do think that shutting off the aerators is not a good idea I think they should be going 24 hours a day
Evan, ponder over this suggestion: build a float to suspend the aerator below it so the aerator is not sitting on the bottom; attach an anchor (a large rock or some scrap metal) to the float so it does not wander off.
I hope your pond will, sooner rather than later, give the two of you the pleasure of hours of fishing.
I like this idea, build sort of a diamond shaped cage in which to place the aerator in the middle. At the bottom of the diamond attach an anchor of some sort and at the top put a buoyancy device to keep the "diamond" pulled upright. Then attach your rope to the top of the diamond, along with the buoy, with the rope attached to the floating duck to keep the rope at the surface. The anchor, the diamond cage, the buoyancy device would all sink close to the bottom where you need the oxygen but stay out of the silt.
I doubt very much that one aerator malfunctioning is the culprit.
You have way too much organic matter in that pond due probably to nitrogen runoff of fields that feed it.
You’re probably going to have to resort to chemicals.
Also get those aerators off the bottom, suspend them at least 2 feet off the bottom.
Its not there is too much nutrients in the pond @teel6060
Is there a way to dredge all the muck from your pond floor? Maybe there is just too much accumulation of sludge on the bottom.
Maybe put the sludge on the hay fields?
Ask your state DNR causing your fish kill!!
There are pond advisors who will come out and test your pond in different ways, then advise you the best way to get the results you want. If you had a severe illness you would not ask the local plumber how to cure it, so why not get a pro onto the problem.
@jonquinn…
That’s what several are telling him “Get serious and get an expert!, or two!”
But then, he couldn’t keep making videos about his pond problem if he actually fixed it, could he?
I'd recommend testing your water. I'm willing to bet your nitrite levels are high. If that's the case, there's not much you can do on a pond this size. Pray for a lot of rain.
Evan I disagree with it being the diffuser, I think it’s the duckweed .. I found this --Duckweed colonies can cover the entire surface of a lake and block sunlight from reaching aquatic plants. This leads to oxygen depletion, which kills plants and suffocates fish. As such, duckweed is a common cause of dead zones in lakes. Weed control for lakes is an essential component of property management
Please do some more research on duckweed Evan . We have several lakes around us that have the diffusers and never had this problem . Just trying to help and not trying to be a butt or a know it all . Take Care and God Bless
Exactly....
Alligar diuron 80 Does wonders on duckweed but would not use if still watering the garden with the pond water. Can be found and at farm stores cheaper then online.
Maybe it’s the chemicals you’re putting on the lawn. You may have an accumulation of heavy metals you’re stirring up with the aerator.
This is what my neighbor did:
Tie a fishnet to the end of the boat and row . Have 1 person at the shore holding the other end of the net and collect the duckweed that way. Physicly remove all the collected duckweed from the net in to buckets before going on a duckweed fishnet hunt again.🙂
So, what changed since you moved in, I recall your fishing derby"s and your pond was clear. Something changed, can your extension agency look into it?
My take is pay a professional to come out and assess your problem and come up with a plan for you.. if you don't know the problem 100% your throwing money away to repeat itself
Looks like you will have to get in a flat bottom boat or a skamp or kiack and take a fine hole dip net and skim the top of the pond when it gets hot in late spring and fall until winter comes back unfortunately. Hope you figure it out! Pile the duck weed up somewhere for compost! Keep your head up!
We have lived on our place 33 years. We have a 3 acre pond that has always been clear enough to see the bottom. Until one of the big Mega farmers started farming the land across the road from our place . Applying tons of fertilizer and airplane spray on his crops. Now are pond is covered in duck weed and all the fish are dead. The run off from his field goes right in our pond. Says it is not his fault.( Can't do a thing.)
So sorry this happened to you. It must be frustrating beyond. Enough to make one feel like moving.
I also believe you need professional help with your pond.
If nothing else you should put that pump on a timer setup so when you are away you don't have to worry.
I am sorry for your lose of fish. I love fishing and really love either deep fry, smoked, foiled cooked ( like steaming or poach with lemon , butter and brown sugar).
May be cheaper to consult wit a pond/lake management consultant.
That can test the water and give you real solutions to correct management of the pond so your fish will flourish.
Sorry for the loss and good luck.
From your neighbors
The duckweed will also be taking the oxygen out of the water the barley straw is a common practice over here
As long as the surface is covered in duck weed, it would seem that you’re spitting into the wind.
The other culprit in many other similar situations is over-fertilizing the grass or fields within the drainage system that then runs off into the pond.
Aquarium owner here, I've never had a fishkill from duckweed. Even with 3" of duckweed on my 90 or 150 gallon tank, even with all but one of my filters down, never had it happen. The most common fishkill for aquariums tend to be PH crashes. I'd test the water for that first and foremost. I'd also aggressively skim off half the pond; Duckweed is great for pulling nitrates out of water, as well as many other contaminants.
Next most common is toxic algae blooms. This is POSSIBLE with that much duckweed, but unlikely.
Maybe there’s a difference between a pond and an aquarium.
You comment that you have always had at least one filter operating. Most ponds never have any filters operating.
Do you also have an air bubbler? That’s really the crucial difference because the increased vegetation consumes the dissolved oxygen in the water thereby suffocating the fish. Try turning off all the aquarium equipment and see how your fish do.
I work in wastewater treatment where we deal with nutrients. Specifically ammonia and nitrate. Nitrification/Denitrification. Of course it's similiar but different. I don't think aeration alone will help. You probably have excess Nitrate (NO3) from whatever flow is going into the pond. My suggestion is to control your nutrient loading into the pond, if you can do that. If not maybe a constructed wetland to treat water going into the pond. Wetland vegetation will consume the nitrogen. Or figure out a way to denitrify the NO3. We do that in wastewater by having Anoxic zones. But we are using activated sludge....
I did too for 20 yrs....lots of algae/duckweed on our secondary clarifiers in the summer when plant flows were low and the weather was hot and sunny. Phosphate and nitrate concentrations increased with lower water dilution and caused algae blooms which causes low D.O. levels. Surface sprayers were used to clear the overflow weirs and regular cleaning with brushes until higher flows resumed.....
Who are you consulting with? Check the fish /pond people in your area.
What was wrong with that skimmer pump idea you had last year for removing the duck weed, that seemed to work. It would be cool to have a dump truck, pump the duck weed water into the truck, a siphon to remove the excess water from the bottom of the truck. When duck weed comes out the siphon you have a full truck, dump the duck weed in a compost and repeat. When duck weed level is low the grass carp should be able to deal with the duck weed. Just my 2 bobs worth. Even if you just did with IBC to see if it works. I started warch8ng these vids because of the original fish die off. I want to see this pond work.
Another idea, you could just pump the skimmings into a IBC tank, use a hose from the bottom of the IBC, to control the water height in the IBC. Cut an overflow in the IBC that falls to the ground or the bucket on the tractor. Since the duck weed floats only duckweed will fall into the bucket. The hose from the bottom can just flow harmlessly and duckweedlessly back to the pond.
The State of Illinois Department of Conservation would be of great assistance.
It appears that part of the problem is chemical run off or the pond is not deep enough.
Even though you had a period of clear water you might have chemical contaminants in the water. The State can take water samples to determine the problems.
Evan, you & Rebecca are going to have to get out there and skim the top of that water, its gonna be laborious but its necessary or you will be buying more fish again & again & again
Contact the stony ridge farmer, he has a channel. He got rid of the duckweed on his pond.
The only way we got rid of the duck weed we waited until the wind blew it to one side of the pond and sprayed it with roundup we did it just a little at a time with small amounts of roundup and dye and its gone now and haven't had it for years
Guten Morgen Evan.
Schütt den Teichb doch zu und Pflanze Bäume. Mich würde dass so aufregen mit den Wasserpflanzen..
Ich bewundere dein Durchhaltevermögen.
Wieso wächst das überhaupt so stark? Düngemittel von den Feldern?
Grüße aus Deutschland
Achim schreibt
I had a similar problem with my pond. I found Tilapia good for eating duck weed. But I also bought some blue food dye called Blue Sea. I'd tried copper sulphate and biological treatments but neither of them worked. The blue food die worked really well.
Use some of the duck weed in your pig and chicken feed. Mix it in, it's filled with beneficial nutrients. You can skim some off daily to add to feed and start bringing that amount down.
There must be some sort of run off issue causing algae blooms. Our area is BAD for blue green algae and fish kills, and I think its one of the reason grass carp are so prolific. I would bet your carp are fine.
Just a thought: if you have a fish farm near you check what they use to air rate their ponds or maybe google. 😊❤. Love your vids
Call your local fish and wildlife dept. have them check your pond, and provide their thoughts?
Oh man I really feel for you both it’s no joke I’d feel sick not just losing the fish but the expense. I really hope you find a way to solve the duck weed issue Evan
The aerator could be kicking up H2S from the bottom muck. As the health of the pond improves, there will be less of that.
For the duckweed... You should build a skimmer and compost that pondweed for your garden. Make a better version of that hose and you could clear it in chunks. Pull it to a prepared spot on shore with a mesh conveyor at the bottom of a V shaped bay. The conveyor would strain it and load it into a truck or bin without hassle, just keep pulling in the boom to keep feeding it in.. Dump it in piles to compost down a bit or spread it on the garden in the fall.
I’m so sorry guys I know you’ve tried really hard to solve this problem . Yep I think a fountain is the way to go I’m into fly fishing and one of my local lakes uses a fountain type of system in the lake to help.
Evan is there a county extension office in your area?..maybe they can help you figure out the fish kill problem or point you to a professional in that field..
Having the same issues on our pond which is 1 acre. it's an older pond which has deep silt and muck. Weve been removing the duckweed manually and have added a fountain and aeration . One thing you could do is lime the lake with fine calcium carbonate ,this helps to reduce silt and that in turn reduces nitrates which the duckweed feeds on. Run the aerator 24/7. Its a massive learning curve and we are going through all this at the same timr so really look forward to your videos!
Thick silt and muck would tend to suggest PH crash or toxic algae bloom to me. (Certain bottom dwelling anaerobic bacteria excrete acids as waste. You can have a very rapid increase in acidity if those bacteria "bloom")
When are you going to learn? Get rid of the aerators! They are not worth the time or the fish you keep killing.
County extension agent!
You need 24/7 aeration except in the winter. When the fish eat they poop, that poop rots and uses all the oxygen. Put in an air pump with an aerator. I recommend a sweetwater blower. The effect is to movewater over the surface. Spraying the water is not much better.
Ponds don’t normally need an aerator. Take them out of your pond. You originally got the aerators to kill the duckweed, it didn’t work. The fish were fine before the use of the aerators.
The pH is all wrong ,,😢,need to clean duck weed and a good oxygen supply 😮
Just so you know, duckweed is an excellent protein source for livestock animals. So if you can skim it off you can give it to your cows/pigs.
I think he tried that, they did not eat it, but the pigs ate a little.
Yeah, you have to mix it into the pig feed with other things, the farmer who uses duckweed for his pigs mixes it with milk, alfalfa, and different grains. But chickens, quail and ducks, surprise, love it as is.
One time at Disney World, I noticed their aeration system was just under the surface 2-3 inches, nowhere near the bottom. The boom idea will work. You just need to build it right.
Still want work to much nutrients in the pond it don't matter wat u do with the aeration system
I think you need to start a new business to remove this crap. Don't think you are the only one in that state.
put a temp extension on the overflow pipe let it raise then remove it .flushing the pond surface
I love this idea!
That’s so sad, you both love to fish, you need to do whatever it takes. So sorry. Love you guys.
Evan, there's a channel I've watched that uses bogs, natures natural filters, to create crystal clear ponds. I think the channel is Oz Ponds or something like that. Might be something to look into.🤷🏻♀️
LOL I like Rebecca's attitude. IE Nothing's happening until that snake pit is mowed and if the zero turn goes in, so be it.
2 ways to weed your pond!
Get some buddies and arm yourselves with leaf blowers, Start upwind and slowly push out and away. Don't get to close or it will sink.
Or, Get a bunch of pool noodles and attach them together. Take a some rolls of light weight window screen and make a drag.
I've used both methods down home in Florida.............GO SLOW
Quickly tapered tail on snake sure looked to be poisonous. :O
It's a common watersnake non-venomous
What I could see , looked like it had a triangular head too .I hate em all anyways !!!!
Evan the first thing I would suggest you do is find out for sure what kind of snakes you have a the pound if they are Water Moccasin you need to deal with that very very seriously. If bitten you or your wife could wind up in the hospital for days or much worse.People I know have accidentally stepped on one because they didn't see it, and at night it's really dangerous. Hate to see something bad happen to you or your wife , so take care.
Ya need to get in contact with Daniel from Arms Family Homestead. He had a company from Illinois that deals with ponds come out to his place to evaluate his pond. They could give ya some info on what ya need to do to heal your pond.
Why not suspend the aerator off the bottom so it won’t stir up the silt
you are correct in your comment about a lack of Oxygen. A pond needs Sunlight so photosynthesis can happen. Also, when you Mow around the pond and you mow your grass so that the discharge is going in the pond, that is a No, No.
So many things can cause fish kills. Definitely run the aeration as much as you can. The top 18" or so of the pond is prob 25 degrees hotter than the layer underneath it. I used a duck weed killer on our small pond from lake restoration and it worked great. I wish you good luck!
We used a pond rake on our pond years ago and it worked. We pulled off so much that we had to use the front end loader and hauled it away from the pond
Using the pond rake was a lot of hard work but it worked. We added to float noodles to our rake since it was cheaper than buying a floating rake
Is the incredibly hot weather you have had also a contributing factor?
If there was a You Tube award for people that repeat themselves in every video, Evan, you would win it hands down. But I still love watching every video.
don't be rude
So sorry to hear this. If you get more carp early spring they should keep next year clear of duckweed.
I think you're thinking the right way. A stream is the best but failing that a fountain. Here's an idea though - how about using another pump to feed a fountain that faces straight down into the water. It obviously has to be raised up a bit to mix with air but it would project more oxygen deeper down.
You could also use a pump to fill a raised reservoir that then feeds into an artificial stream that collects lots of air through rocky waterfalls and back into the lake. Might be a more expensive long-term project though. The pond professor and those guys on youtube might collab with you and cut prices a bit though?
Anyway just a few ideas but I'd love to see a big tall fountain on your pond and it would probably do the job if big enough or a few smaller ones.
Rather than trying to drag the pond, why not try using a back pack blower to push everything to the bank?
Sorry to hear about the continual struggle with the pond. I agree it’s probably the fact that it covers the surface of the water so fish can’t get oxygen. I think your snake looks like an Eastern Milksnake. Harmless and common in Michigan too.
I think a little more research is needed about the air thing. Try some swimming noodles, rake the weed together and scoop it away. Keep doing that so more light gets in. Keep the air thing well monitored, put in valves to shut them off individually. But rake off the weeds.
Get an engine on that boat so it makes more sense. Not just wait for rain...
Maybe try call the county USDA office in your county . and they should be able to advise a solution. Or try calling Conservation in your area they might be able to help ! Thanks Lee always looking forward to seeing your videos ! 👍
You don’t want the pond clear, it leads to algae blooms unfortunately. Some people will add pond dye to keep the algae from growing. I let my pond stay muddy-ish and it’s fine. I don’t have aeration on my pond either.
Sorry for your fish kill; ponds can be challenging at best.
But also add beauty and enjoyment to the landscape.
We have used a fountain for well over twenty years successfully and have never had a "major" fish loss.
Our pond has never turned over either. We run a timer on our fountain set on AM at daybreak for about 5 hours and turns off
then on again to run about four hours to sunset. Caution pull them fountains in the winter a frozen pond can ruin them.
Also for some reason pets will go out on that ice in winter and your favorite dog can sure get in trouble quick.
Our pond is stocked with carp catfish koi brim a few turtles and always harmless water snakes but (kill the cotton mouth )
Reducing fertilizer applications near the pond, maintaining septic systems properly, redirecting nutrient-rich runoff away from the pond,
is a must. Your pond is large; I would put at least two fountains at opposite ends of that rascal.
Top water aeration and (several carp) really do make a tremendous difference.
Commercially raised Carp do not reproduce yet buy no more than three per acre and as they grow each year you will really notice their benefit.
Those things will outlive you "seriously"
btw don't add Koi to a pond that will be used for fishing. They are like pets innocent tame and beautiful;
Koi do not survive being fish hooked.
Land is a good problem to have Lol but gets more challenging as you age.
Hang n there!
I've got rainbow trout in my farm pond, and I'd be devastated to find them all belly up. Man that sucks, sorry to see what happened there. My big problem is trying to keep it cool enough in the summer months. I use it for yard irrigation so I'm constantly pumping water out and putting fresh cool stuff in from the irrigation district.
Contact your state Fish and Game for advice on this issue. The snakes could be water moccasins which are poisonous. The white birds could be egrets.
Keep the air on 24/7/365, add beneficial bacteria, and consider some pond dye to keep the sunlight penetration down. I realize that last one is a hard no for some folks. You will be surprised what constant air and bacteria will do. It would worth getting your water tested to understand the nutrient load and also understand where said nutrient load is coming from. Sorry you went through this again! I absolutely love our pond. This has to be extremely frustrating.
They are banded water snakes, non venomous.
Love your channel and your transparency!
As others have stated, duckweed and algae are a symptom of the problem, not a problem by themselves. Removing the duckweed will help reduce residual nutrients, but reducing nutrient inflow is the only way to prevent recurrence. I’d hold off on replacing fish until the nutrients stabilize and the duckweed is gone for good. BTW, harvest the duckweed for your compost pile? Great fertilizer if balanced with some leaves, straw, etc. all the best!
Man buddy I hate to see this for you. I know its not cheap replacing your fish all the time
Float a few straw bails in the pond. The bails will absorb excess nitrogen, that will reduce plant growth.
Looked like Copper head snake. We have them in SC. Do t know if y’all have them
You need to check out Southeastern Pond Management, talk to those people they can help you out.
Our pond used to get covered in duckweed also and the fix was to stop fertilizing our lawn along with aeration, it never gets covered anymore although there is a little along the far edge sometimes. Even the small amount of chemical fertilizer on a lawn migrates very fast to the lowest point which was our pond.
Look to see how much it costs to hire a Marine Aqua Weed Remover Boat.