With winter almost over and all of our testing complete I wanted to pass on our failures. We have been so humbled this winter with regards to understanding aeration here in frozen waters of MN. Over a dozen ponds with fish populations being tested and monitored, my partner and I have successfully killed 3 of them. The auger and DO meter got its workout this year.
Shallow, highly eutrophic BOW's, and intermittent aeration are verrrrrrry complicated and challenging to sustain fish thru the winter. We are not giving up and have more ideas to try! Unfortunately, a simulated MN winter in the lab is way beyond our budget. So we wait for next winter
We had some limited successes on improved aerator mechanics in the frigid temps and thin ice safety features with our diffusers. Those features will be built into our next generation intermittent aerator and we will be excited to post pics with the system up and running.
Editorial: 17 years of doing small remote ponds here in MN and still I feel like an idiot. Maybe I should quit....no dam way!
