Post by SkFarm25 on Jun 1, 2014 17:16:28 GMT -5
Howdy swampers, hopefully I'm posting in the right area here. I'm wondering if anyone has tried any kind of aquaculture, be it small, medium, or large scale. I have a decent sized contained dugout, roughly 150 x 50 and 15 feet deep, however we have has a lot of wet years and now it has overflowed to the edge of the road making it about 200 x 200 with the overflow getting about 6 feet deep. The dugout sits in front of my yard and I love having the company of the ducks, and birds and even the muskrats, as well as a nice place for my animals like dog geese and ducks to go cool off on a hot day. However over the years that the overflow has occurred, the weeds have really moved in and for a few years now have looked more like a slough than a pond. Last year I put in a large aeration system in to help the water stay circulating as well as get lots of oxygen in it. I also have a windmill aeration system that just needs to be fixed and i'll add that to it again too. My plan is to stock the pond with some rainbow trout. I've heard they can take care of some of the algae, weeds and insects(esp. leeches) So just wondering if anyone has experience in this and can give me some advice on keeping cleaner water healthy fish and weed control like grass around the edges and cattails without harsh chemicals that can be harmful to fish and livestock.
I also have some muck on the bottom I'd like to somehow get scrapped up, was thinking of building something large that I can tow in with my tractor pto or winch. I'm open to any suggestions. The way I see it I have to look at the pond every day, so I think it shouldn't be such an eye-sore.
I also have some muck on the bottom I'd like to somehow get scrapped up, was thinking of building something large that I can tow in with my tractor pto or winch. I'm open to any suggestions. The way I see it I have to look at the pond every day, so I think it shouldn't be such an eye-sore.
