Outdoor Pond Temperature Swings

[mineralNTL]

So I'm working on my first mini outdoor pond setup this year and I've been going thru a lot of the old AC videos on pond setups.

Based on my location in the world, the angle of the sun, and the limitations for where I can have the pond placed, I have real issues with daily temperature swings - somewhere around 20F swings between night and day at the moment with what I assume will be even worse swings come mid-summer. Obviously I'll need to come up with some shade coverings and/or some kind of container insulation (and yes, I'm aware a really easy solution would be to stick the pond in the ground but that's not an option where I live), but what I'm wondering is: what do we feel are "acceptable" daily water temperature swings in order to prevent livestock harm?

Tl;dr - My pond's daily water temp swings are roughly 20F - so ignoring the how I lessen these fluctuations, what would be an acceptable goal for temp swings? 10F? 5F?

 

 

[Cory]

I think you'll find it depends on the fish. However the larger the pond, the smaller the swings will be.

[gardenman]

To some extent the speed of the swing probably matters more than the extent of the swing. A twenty degree swing over 24 hours isn't so bad. A twenty degree swing in an hour is not good. I'd try to focus on fish more from small streams/ponds than those from the deep waters of the Amazon. Smaller streams and ponds are more prone to major temperature fluctuations than larger bodies of water. 

[mineralNTL]

On 4/10/2021 at 9:03 AM, gardenman said:

To some extent the speed of the swing probably matters more than the extent of the swing. A twenty degree swing over 24 hours isn't so bad. A twenty degree swing in an hour is not good. I'd try to focus on fish more from small streams/ponds than those from the deep waters of the Amazon. Smaller streams and ponds are more prone to major temperature fluctuations than larger bodies of water. 

I didn't even consider that - excellent point on stream fish being more amenable to these sorts of conditions. I'll keep that in mind as I search for suitable livestock.