I went and scraped the snow off both my ponds and broke through the ice on
one. I immediately got the bad, rotting smell. Some native plants were
still green, even those imbedded in the ice. No fish in either of those
ponds.
I then went to a neighbors who I had helped put in a small pond. When I
broke through the 3" of ice, all the fish I could find were dead. Maybe too
much fish load and too much rotting vegetation.
None of the ponds were aerated.
Chuck Church
Indianapolis, Indiana
In a message dated 1/7/01 6:46:56 PM US Central Standard Time,
choupiqu_at_wctc.net writes:
<< I just got done, after running into some snags, putting the air line to the
killi pond that had not been disturbed since winter started. There was
about 10 inches of snow on the ice. The ice was only about 4 inches thick,
and very weak. In comparison, the gar pond with little snow cover, and open
water because of a heater and current, where there is ice has about 2 of
hard black ice with a inch or so of frozen slush. Here is the problem with
the snow on the killi pond. The water smelled a little funny when I punched
through the ice from lack of gases escaping. It doesn't seem too bad, but I
am sure if we get some rain, or signifigant snow melt, and it gets below
freezing it would seal it up. It appears the important thing is letting
gases escape, and some fresh air into the water regardless of method. The
snow did keep the ice from getting as thick as it could most likly, but
doing so also sealed the pond off.
Ray
>>
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