aeration

"Newbie Bill" wrote in message
m...
Let me try this again. Thanxx to all who have answered so far. All of
your
suggestions are helpful but they may raise more questions than they
answer.
snip

What was the question again? LOL.

Seriously. Your parameters, as you say, are fine. You have adequate
filtration. Your fish are not gasping like two pack a day smokers at the
surface. Me thinks you are falling prey to one of the most primal ponding
effections...you are worrying to much. If'n your pond is workin', don't go'a
fixin' it.

Aeration is important, but it's nothing something to lose sleep over.
Certainly not scientifically speaking, but if you have moving water, good
water params and happy fish, I'd say you have plenty of aeration.

You mention the Texas summer coming...you may be more interested in some
shade.

BV.

The best way to tell if your pond is low on oxygen, the low tech, beer in hand
way, is to
get up before the sun rises. If your fish are gasping at the surface you need
more air in there. If not, they are doing fine.


kathy :-)
A HREF="http://www.onceuponapond.com/"Once upon a pond/A

"Ka30P" wrote in message
...

The best way to tell if your pond is low on oxygen, the low tech, beer in
hand
way, is to
get up before the sun rises. If your fish are gasping at the surface you
need
more air in there. If not, they are doing fine.


kathy :-)
A HREF="http://www.onceuponapond.com/"Once upon a pond/A

Getting up before the sun rises and grabbing a beer before heading to the
pond may be considered uncouth. To avoid this, stay up all night drinking
beer, and when the sun rises, go out and check on the fishies. If they are
gasping for air, worry about the aeration after you've slept it off. If
they ask for a beer, you have had too many beers to make a decision. Try
again tomorrow.

"grubber" wrote in message
...
"Ka30P" wrote in message
...

The best way to tell if your pond is low on oxygen, the low tech, beer
in
hand
way, is to
get up before the sun rises. If your fish are gasping at the surface you
need
more air in there. If not, they are doing fine.


kathy :-)
A HREF="http://www.onceuponapond.com/"Once upon a pond/A

Getting up before the sun rises and grabbing a beer before heading to the
pond may be considered uncouth. To avoid this, stay up all night drinking
beer, and when the sun rises, go out and check on the fishies. If they
are
gasping for air, worry about the aeration after you've slept it off. If
they ask for a beer, you have had too many beers to make a decision. Try
again tomorrow.

I guess I have a problem then, because I usually do this check
automatically. If the sound of the fish gasping wakes me up, I know two
things. 1) the fish need more aeration, 2) i drank too much and passed out
next to the pond.

BV.

Okay okay - You guys are tooooooooo funny. THANKS - I'm sure I do need to
tone it down a bit. Prolly part of my 'problem' is all in all things are
going great. I am addressing a 'bug' problem, but in general the pond is
great. I have 6-10 lily blooms on any given day. Water cannas about to
bloom. Other marginals getting bigger. Numbers good. Seems I did so much
and was trying to learn so much at first I just have to look for problems.
Heck I have to do something to 'justify' the many hours I'm just sitting
around watching the fishies and soaking in the beauty. I probably would be
in the top ten at least, in a tan contest. Yes, yes life is good.
Of course as mentioned, everytime I learn something I come up with 2 more
'problems'. 1-I don't drink, 2-I most definitely don't get up before dawn.
According to BV if drinking improves your ability to hear the fish gasping
from afar maybe I could just put a tape recorder out by the pond and see if
a sugar rush would help my hearing. Baby monitor? Well - maybe not .
Ein prosit, ein prosit zur gemutlichkeit! Now you've learned something. I
was an Air Force brat in Germany during high school. I DID drink then
Bill

"Benign Vanilla" wrote in message
...

"grubber" wrote in message
...
"Ka30P" wrote in message
...

The best way to tell if your pond is low on oxygen, the low tech, beer
in
hand
way, is to
get up before the sun rises. If your fish are gasping at the surface
you
need
more air in there. If not, they are doing fine.


kathy :-)
A HREF="http://www.onceuponapond.com/"Once upon a pond/A

Getting up before the sun rises and grabbing a beer before heading to
the
pond may be considered uncouth. To avoid this, stay up all night
drinking
beer, and when the sun rises, go out and check on the fishies. If they
are
gasping for air, worry about the aeration after you've slept it off. If
they ask for a beer, you have had too many beers to make a decision.
Try
again tomorrow.

I guess I have a problem then, because I usually do this check
automatically. If the sound of the fish gasping wakes me up, I know two
things. 1) the fish need more aeration, 2) i drank too much and passed out
next to the pond.

BV.

Okay, I'd better explain the dawn patrol method ;-)
BV's beer aside (as in laid back ponding method, which I am in full agreement,
though I don't drink, medication forbids...)

Anyway. At night the plant life in the pond stops producing oxygen and starts
consuming oxygen. One reason why it is important to run fountains, waterfalls,
spitters and/or bubblers 24 hours a day.
If the pond is not going to support the fish through out the night it will be
easily apparent right before sunrise and the fish will be gasping at the
surface. I saw this in my frog bog (when it had fish). Azollza had almost
completely taken over the pond and so I got up early (it also helps to be a
morning person) and the poor fish were gasping at the surface. Now I knew
there was no way I was going to get all that azolla out as it was reproducing
every two minutes so I put in a minnow trap and removed as many fish as I could
catch. Later I removed all the fish from that pond.
Interestingly the azolla all died once the air temps reached the joyful week of
105 to 110 we get here in August. The pond is also only about 10 inches deep
and so the water was pretty darn warm - another reason not to keep goldfish in
there.


kathy :-)
A HREF="http://www.onceuponapond.com/"Once upon a pond/A

Bill,

The only problem with waiting for the noise of gasping
fish is that you may very quickly be losing your
largest fish. The big ones always die first.

For the price of a small air pump at Wal-Mart and Ice
Cream Container to cover it and a brick to sit the pump
on under the Ice Cream container and a length of tubing
that puts an airstone in the deepest part of your pond
weighted down in some way, you can get a nice rising
column of air bubble and water to help you fish through
the summer.

It is a small price to pay, for a little more insurance.

Tom L.L.
--------------------------------------------

Newbie Bill wrote:

Okay okay - You guys are tooooooooo funny. THANKS - I'm sure I do need to
tone it down a bit. Prolly part of my 'problem' is all in all things are
going great. I am addressing a 'bug' problem, but in general the pond is
great. I have 6-10 lily blooms on any given day. Water cannas about to
bloom. Other marginals getting bigger. Numbers good. Seems I did so much
and was trying to learn so much at first I just have to look for problems.
Heck I have to do something to 'justify' the many hours I'm just sitting
around watching the fishies and soaking in the beauty. I probably would be
in the top ten at least, in a tan contest. Yes, yes life is good.
Of course as mentioned, everytime I learn something I come up with 2 more
'problems'. 1-I don't drink, 2-I most definitely don't get up before dawn.
According to BV if drinking improves your ability to hear the fish gasping
from afar maybe I could just put a tape recorder out by the pond and see if
a sugar rush would help my hearing. Baby monitor? Well - maybe not .
Ein prosit, ein prosit zur gemutlichkeit! Now you've learned something. I
was an Air Force brat in Germany during high school. I DID drink then
Bill

"Benign Vanilla" wrote in message
...

"grubber" wrote in message
...

"Ka30P" wrote in message
...

The best way to tell if your pond is low on oxygen, the low tech, beer

in

hand

way, is to
get up before the sun rises. If your fish are gasping at the surface

you

need

more air in there. If not, they are doing fine.


kathy :-)
A HREF="http://www.onceuponapond.com/"Once upon a pond/A

Getting up before the sun rises and grabbing a beer before heading to

the

pond may be considered uncouth. To avoid this, stay up all night

drinking

beer, and when the sun rises, go out and check on the fishies. If they

are

gasping for air, worry about the aeration after you've slept it off. If
they ask for a beer, you have had too many beers to make a decision.

Try

again tomorrow.

I guess I have a problem then, because I usually do this check
automatically. If the sound of the fish gasping wakes me up, I know two
things. 1) the fish need more aeration, 2) i drank too much and passed out
next to the pond.

BV.

the greatest risk to fish for low oxygen is
1. pond water is hot, less oxygen dissolves in hot water
2. the pond is full of green algae (well maybe green plants too)
3. big fish (big fish suffer first)
4. poor aeration

if you absolutely, positively want to make damn sure there is sufficient oxygen get
an aquatic ecosystem whitewater regenerative blower ($179) or their swee****er
(around $379) and a foot long air stone for every 1000 gallons.
Ingrid


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