Pond maintenance question

[Nebraska]

I have a small pond, it's fed by a small spring fed stream. I am surrounded by crop ground and the pond gets lots of silt erosion and I need to get an excavator in and clean some silt. In the shorter term I plan to run an aerator I have electricity down there. This will help keep the oxygen levels up as the summer temperatures increase. 
Does anyone have any advice regarding pond aerators, what are you running?

I use a sprinkler tied to a post out over the water currently it helps a little I'm sure just thinking about upgrading and saving my submersible pump in my well.  

[doc henderson]

If you dig too deep, you may have a leaky pond.  nice you have the spring.  wonder if it flows if it will keep the water cooler and aerated.  Plan to add fish?

[Jeff]

I am. It looks like an oversized aquarium pump. Runiing well water as a sprinkler into the pond does not oxygenate. Well or spring water needs to be oxygenated. There is no inherent
oxygen  in it.  A bubbler needs to be a diffuser. Simply blowing air into the water also, does not add oxygen to the water. It needs to be squeezed so to speak.  Our pond is about a half acre.  Also, if it is an old pond, you can kill all of your fish if you just install and turn them on. They must be on a start up schedule

Rootscape Pond Aerator Air... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078RHKJMW?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

AquaMiracle Linear Air Pump AP80... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08H232XX2?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Start with 30 minutes, day one, then double it each day until you reach 24/7

[Nebraska]

Yes there are fish  url=https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=359303][/url]
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I think this was Monday evening's catch. 
Local kids that come out to fish. 
 Also need to develop some small fish habitat, that lacks a bit. 

[YellowHammer]

The smiles say it all!

[customsawyer]

Y'all a little short on trees around there. A sawmill could starve in that area.
I like the smiles too.

[Jeff]

You must not have any mink and otters eh?

[Nebraska]

I was at the elementary school music program Tuesday evening and a client/neighbors (it's only 4 miles away) came over to me and said my daughter said she was "fishing at your pond last night, I didn't know you had a pond."  Well I had pictures.  I also felt old because when I came to town her parents were in high school the same age themselves..

I've seen two or three mink over the years they pretty much keep to the larger creek half a mile to the West. No otters here a few on the lower Platte river South of here. 

Yes sawmills can develop anorexia easily here as it has been determined by agronomists that tree roots can cause a yield drag......
Good thing Red Cedar grows like a weed. 

[YellowHammer]

How big is the pond?  I like the dock too.

[doc henderson]

When we had a little pond in Hays, it was our ducks that pecked along the shore that kept enlarging the perimeter and filling the bottom with dirt.

[Stephen1]

The kids say it all. nice to have fish in it. 

[Nebraska]

1.8 acres it had a 14 ft depth when it was built probably lucky to have seven now. I use a pond dye to help slow aquatic weed growth.

The dock was a salvaged deck. A freind moved and the manufactured home it was attached to was sold and the deck was left behind. He offered it to me if I wanted to dismantle it. I barely got it out of there before the Missouri River flooded and floated it away.