Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions Aerator Help - Use old water line?

Looking for some help here. I'm new to ponds in general. We purchased our home in April of 2017. We have (I'm guessing) approximately a 1/2 acre pond. There is currently no aeration and the water has not had any kind of treatment whatsoever. I'd say it's in pretty rough shape. All of my reading tells me that the best thing I can do is install an aerator. Problem is, I have no power to this area of my lot. What I do have, however, is a water line that runs from the pond to the basement in the house. This is how they used to get their water. No worries, I've since had city water run so we are good there. I'm thinking I should be able to use that existing 1" PVC line as an aerator line. This way I could use the power that already exists in the basement, and I wouldn't need to protect a pump from the elements. I'm looking for recommendations on how to accomplish this. Any reason to NOT do it this way? Seems it would save me a lot of trenching and $$ running power back to the pond. Thanks in advance for the help!

Hi there, welcome to PBF!

What is the specific problem you're trying to solve with aeration?

Welcome to PBF!

Lots of folks use poly pipe and locate the compressor remotely from the pond. Some guys have run more than 1000 feet. Is your pipe PVC or the black poly?

Again welcome!

Bill D.

Some aeration pumps are quite loud. Make certain you're not putting the pump somewhere you and your wife will find too noisy (like at night time when you're trying to sleep. My Gast 0523 is in my barn 150 ft from my house.

Two things:

I think a rotary vane pump will be the quietest.

Make sure you have a water trap/seperator between the pump and the pipe going to the pond. They might have sloped the pipe towards the house, and you don't want any condensing water vapor to end up in the pump compressor.

You might want to also install a foot valve to prevent any water from going to the house from the pond via siphon if that is possible.

For real esshup!!! I would not want my entire half acre pond in my basement!!! Yikes!!!! lol.

RC

Another option....
You could run an electric wire thru the existing water line to the pond. You could then have the compressor at the pond and have electricity available for other uses.

Our pond is surrounded by trees and I'm concerned about stagnant water. There is a good amount of algae built up around the edges. I was thinking this would help with that and the overall health of the pond.

I thought of this as well, but I'm not sure how I would stop the water from running into the basement while pulling the wire, and even after the wire is pulled. The water line comes into the basement about 1ft off the floor, which is below the water level of the pond.

You say a rotary pump....can someone recommend a few specifically for my application? I think what I've decided to do is to put the compressor in my attached garage, run a line from there through the crawl space into the basement, and connect to the old water line. I'll have to figure out all the fittings to use, but what would you think about using a back-flow preventer after the airline connects to the PVC (old water line)? Would the compressor have any issue pushing through this?

I was also thinking about mounting the compressor up on the wall in the garage, this way there is no chance water could ever make it back to the compressor, and as long as no fitting fail my basement won't end up full of water...:-)

Rotary vane. Gast Rotary Vane Pumps Gast 1023 is commonly used. Varying hp, I think you should be fine with 1/2 hp or maybe lower. Using Vertex diffuser discs, you need a minimum of 0.5 cfm per disk. PSI needed at the disc is basically 1/2 the depth. So, if the diffuer discs are in 10 ft. of water you need a minimum of 0.5 cfm@4 psi, but that is a minimum. I'd feel a lot better if you were pushing 1 cfm to 2 dfm to every disc.

Put a foot valve in the line like they use for holding water in the line in water wells. That will stop water from coming backwards. Vertex membrane diffusers have a backflow preventer valve built into the disc design.

You will have to look at the different pressure/cfm charts for the different compressors to determine which one best suits your needs. Compressor or vacuum, each will work, just swap around the exhaust. Exhaust goes to pond.

Mounting it on the wall might cause the wall to act as a drum head and amplify the noise. Isolate the compressor by using rubber isolators to bolt it down. https://www.mcmaster.com/#rubber-standoffs/=18xtfxm

How deep underground is the water line as it enters the pond? How far from the pond is the house? A 1/4Hp rotary vane (Gast Mfg model 0523) will very adequately mix that pond. Do you have a way to actually measure pond depth?.