Originally Posted By: highflyer
Okay, I'll weight in here as well.

I have been playing with solar for a few years. I have been running aeration, lights and heaters using solar power to over winter Tilapia. I have also used solar for aeration of my brood ponds. In fact my next solar project is for the deep end of the big pond. I will be using three 230 watt panels, a charge controller, at least four batteries and an inverter. The reason for all of that is simple, I want the aerator to run when I need it to run, not just when there is sun. Further, I will need it to run harder as I am putting it in the deepest water in our pond.

For every 2 feet of water depth, the pressure increases approximately one pound. There is the pressure needed to overcome the diffuser head as well. 40% of the earth surface is covered in clouds and 50% has daylight. The math does not lie. In short, if you want to aerate when needed and where needed (time and depth), think about solar as the energy source and batteries as your energy storage so you can aerate when needed, not just when there is sunlight.

All of that said, solar is getting cheeper and better all the time. Also, if you have a proper system, you will now also have some available 120V AC power available at you pond for other duties as well.



Thanks for all the suggestions everyone!

Highflyer I've been doing quite of bit of reading on here and have seen where you've been involved in quite a bit of conversation for quite some time about building your own solar aeration system. I think I need to go about this in the same way you have just not on the same level. I say this because I don't think my pond is as big or deep as yours.

Sooo I see you're in East TX. Is there any chance you're not too far from Oakwood and maybe I could come out and see your system some time?

There is a thread I've been reading where MNfish was building a system that you were involved in (http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=386488&page=4) but this seems to have hit a dead end without getting to the final product.

I'd like to know more.