Scuba Pond?

[Guba]

A question: what is the source of water that would be feeding the impoundment? The reason I ask concerns what will be IN the water. Obviously, water in natural enclosures is murky (or not) depending upon what is suspended in the water (or not). If the water flowing into your pond contains colloidal particles, it won't matter what type of bottom it has. The water will suspend the particles forever. That's the case in my area...we have a fine red clay that has particles that simply never precipitate. Hence the water will always contain a characteristic tint (they don't call it the RED RIVER for nothin'!

 

[DandyDon]

Fish + food = excremental wastes + sunlight + warm weather = one celled floating algae even if you limit other forms, hence green, murky water. In theory, you might build a network of PVC pipe with millions of holes, buried under gravel much like an aquarium's under gravel filter, suck water up from that thru vertical pipes to the surface, thereby circulating the water enough to mechanically and biologically filter the water - but you'd still end up with nitrates, good algae food still. Some aquatics plants could be utilized to remove nitrogen forms and block sunlight, but you might not want to swim in that jungle. Alternately, zebra mussels cleared out the water in the St.Lawrence river, but I don't think you want to import those.

A gravel bottom will allow water to move in and out, so you might end up with a pond that stays at the same level as the local water table. The only two ways around that are 1. a plastic (non-permeable liner) or 2. a concrete liner like a swimming pool.

Being shallow it will grow algae. The only prevention is to either cool the water (like a mountain lake) or add chemicals which will kill your fish.

I think that minnow and/or those mosqueto eating fish would be one my first choices. Then I would consider the other stuff you mentioned. How about crayfish? They can be mini lobsters for your dive park.

Gambusia mosquito fish come in two species, western & eastern, and he may already have one or both locally. They may not be as good at mosquito control as once thot, and they have caused damages in some introduced areas. Guppies and Mollies from the same family might live in his pond, depending on how cold it gets but they would breed back to wild states quickly - so try the Sailfin Molly, an attractive fish even in the wild. Bottom dwellers like carp, goldfish, and catfish would probly be the messiest, as crawdads maybe.

Hopefully you have some cattle. They may enjoy it

Major sources of nitrogen...! :shocked2:

About the only way to have clear, inland water is to have the pond spring fed fast enough to flush out debris and nitrogen in the outflow, and that can be screwed up as in Santa Rosa NM and the Blue Hole.

 

[Avonthediver]

I had no idea those types of properties were for sale! That would make an awesome dive center!

Take a look at Valhalla Missile Silo's site if you have not already.


Family Scuba Center, Inc. > Home

just look for Valhalla on their page.