Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions Aeration

I have acquired a 1/2 hp regenerative blower. It puts out 50 cfm. My lake is 13 acres and the deepest point is 18 feet in one small area. Would air pads be necessary or would a long length of perforated air line be sufficient?

Greetings and welcome to the forum, Captain Vandervecken.

Standby for professional aeration questions and advice.

BTW, do you know at what psi it will put 50 cfm out?

Welcome Dutchman, there are a couple things to consider here. First, as Theo mentioned you need to find you pump curve and find out how much air you can deliver with 8-12 PSI. This is a lot of air for such little horsepower so I have a feeling your curve will drop off considerably with pressure. Also, you need to make sure that your "perforated airline" requires some back pressure to open the emmitters otherwise all of the bubbles will come out of the first few feet of tubing. Furthermore, aeration only occurs from the point of bubble rise so you want to make sure that at least some aeration is occuring in the deepest section of your lake unless you have a circumstance where you are trying to maintane a thermocline. If you are considering linear aeration tubing you need to make sure that your depths are fairly constant throughout the lake because the hydraulic head (water pressure @ 0.43 lbs/ft of depth) cannot exceed the back pressure required for the tubing or else once again, all the bubbles will come out of the tubing in one spot. Feel free to contact me with any further questions, otherwise I'm sure there will be plenty more posts on this topic. Good luck.