More bacterial food for thought.One thing that has not been mentioned, or if it was, I missed it. IME, aerobic bacteria constantly need a fresh substrate to grow on. When even a colony of aerobic bacteria die on decaying matter, well oxygenated water is prevented from reaching the detritus, including most anaerobic bacteria. Until a fish or wind and wave action disturb the dead colony and break the "seal" to allow fresh growth, little more bacterial digestion occurs.
This makes a lot of sense to me and seems to tie into Bill Cody's presentation at Pond Con 2. IIRC what Commander Cody said, in his specific experiment, stirring the sediment had more effect than adding bacteria and not stirring.
I called several bacteria companies including one that I attended a training class with in Canada. They all stated that if one were to provide samples of both water and substrate (with muck) that they could engineer bacteria to match or (supplement) what is missing. Of course this is custom blending bacteria for every case and will be much more expensive.
This also makes a lot of sense to me, an engineered bacteria to deal with a specific type of pond muck.
So a little help for a complete amateur, I understand where aeration will both destratify a pond and oxygenate the water, and if designed and implemented correctly will oxygenate water that is at the bottom of the pond. So my questions are:
1. Will aeration alone stir up the muck sufficiently to expose "new" muck to bacteria?
2. It seems to me that unless you added something artificial to a pond (like the saw dust that Cary mentioned) that bacteria that would eat the muck that was in a particular pond would be introduced naturally. I'm not explaining this very well (not enough coffee yet) but here's what I'm thinking....a decaying leaf is on the ground, it must be covered with the bacteria that helps it to decompose, it gets blown into the pond and sinks, the bacteria, if provided oxygen, would now be in the pond, correct? Or are the bacteria that grow in ponds completely different that the bacteria that decomposes the leaves on the ground?
In my non-scientific way of thinking, an occasional stirring of the bottom (I don't have a clue how this would be done on a larger BOW) would have as much or more impact than adding more bacteria.
But I'm not a science guy, so it is very likely that I don't even know the correct questions to ask. Fortunately, I have no aversion to asking stupid questions.
