Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions First Kick At The Cat

Hello,

This is my first post and my first go around at trying this.
I'm up in the Edmonton area of Alberta, I have a roughly 1/4 acre existing pond with depths as low as 15', probably an average of 10' or so.
It is in a fairly treed area a long ways from available power.
For all of the above reasons I am thinking at pursuing a DIY solar system to aerate the pond, I would like to stock with Rainbow Trout.
I have done some reading, but I have a hard time pulling it all together in one spot and thought I would throw myself at the mercy of the forum.

First off, is a direct drive solar system reasonable, or do I run the risk of the pond getting too warm during the summer for the fish as the trees keep the wind down and I would have no night aeration cooling.
We obviously don't have scorching summers here but we can have weeks where the temps don't drop below 70°, and maybe this is not a big deal, just inexperience talking.
This is obviously the easiest route as it would still give me multiple daylight running hours year round and keeps the complexity and costs down.
I see a wonderful design by a fellow in Michigan a few years back that would probably suit me if direct drive is reasonable.

In addition to that, how long do you typically need to condition a pond before fish can be introduced, this dugout is a number of years old and currently gets pretty good algae by mid summer so there is obviously some conditioning required.

Any help anyone would like to offer would be much appreciated.

Welcome to the forum!

Can you copy/post a link to the post that you found interesting a few years ago by a guy in Michigan?

In my experience, having a pond that is 1 ac in size, and 18' deep and trout in it, I tried only aerating at night. What that did was cool down the upper part of the water column, but it also heated up the lower part of the water column, and the end result was the trout all died about 3 weeks sooner (on average) than when I didn't aerate at all.

I am trying a different approach in a clients pond next year. We are only aerating the upper portion of the water column, and not aerating the lower. Hopefully the O2 will transfer down to help keep the lower, cooler water have a higher O2 level. Preliminary O2 testing showed promise.

The "wonderful design by a guy in Michigan" has to be MNFish I would guess. Maybe you meant Minnesota? If so, he's a great guy and I am sure he would help all he could.

Ahhhh yes. You are 100% correct, it is MNFish, and I absolutely named the wrong state, my apologies.
I read trough his entire experience on that thread, perhaps I will follow up with a PM.

After some further research, I found that the acceptable temp range for rainbows is probably nothing I have to be concerned about up in this part of the world. So my concerns about not having evening aeration for cooling are probably unfounded.

Like I said MNFish is great and I bet he would be glad to help. I THINK he might be at the point where he is selling his rigs, not positive tho.

My GUT reaction was that you wouldn't have to worry about the daytime temps up there, but you know what they say about assumptions! Don't you guys all live in igloos up there??? Haha

Read up on super cooling in winter and low winter DOs under the ice. Its not just summer when problems arise.

Ewest, isn't this a similar scenario to what Bill and I have been discussing on my thread? Isn't super cooling a non issue for Neldom since he is planning on stocking Trout?

In my opinion for trout in a small Alberta pond and assuming the trout should live year round two main topics are a concern. Firstly one should do some water temperature measurements of a depth profile during the hottest part of the summer to get an idea about the warmest water of the year and an idea of the thermal stratification profile of the pond. Secondly if the heat does not kill the trout the lack of DO might during mid summer (heat) and/or mid to late winter (extended deep snow).

"Pretty good algae by mid-summer" and tree leaves are important things to pay attention to because when significant amounts of any type of algae or organic materials die it consumes a significant percentage of the pond's oxygen. As water temperatures increase it progressively contains less oxygen, so decomposition during summer is an important concern in a trout pond.

Extended snow cover blocks light penetration and in the dark, all plant, animal, and bacterial organisms consume oxygen (DO). DO sags can be deadly for high oxygen loving trout. Good dependable strong aeration even for several hours a day in a small pond during winter could keep a large enough open water area a day for trout to survive. Definitely ice thickness is an important factor for how long the aerator should daily run.

If it were my pond and I did not do the necessary homework, I would only stock a few trout as test organisms to see how well they survive. IF they make it a full year then that is a good sign only occasional trout losses will occur.

If trout are not successful, another option to trout is yellow perch, that when fed pellets and population control is managed, will grow to lengths of 12"-14" in a small pond. Yellow perch are very tolerant to low dissolved oxygen concentrations. Trout often perish when DO drops below 5 whereas perch can make short forays into 0 DO.

I no experience about solar power for aeration. But it has good possibilities.

Thanks for the input everyone, I have contacted MNFish but haven't heard back yet.

I should clarify where I can so I can get more accurate advice, while being in a fairly treed area, there isn't a lot of real close or overhanging growth, but there is enough that I wouldn't count on a windmill aerator system as being sufficient to satisfy my aeration needs.

As for the algae, the dugout is less than 10 years old, and I'm hoping with addition of aeration and perhaps some dye that the algae can be dealt with, but once again, this is likely a trial by error process.

There is definitely significant ice some years up here, 8 - 12" isn't unreasonable and depends on the snow coverage. I'm curious as to how much aeration is required to keep some ice open.

I agree about the small numbers to start, I'd hate to lose a whole crop of fish. I'll take the perch under consideration, I know they are in a few shallower lakes around here, and I suppose if they have tolerance to lower DO that would be why.

A good solar aerator and efficient diffuser operating 4-7 hrs per day should keep enough ice free water (25-40ft dia with 8"-12" ice) that trout will survive. With daily aeration and diffuser in deep water, temperatures will drop to around 0.5 to 1.1C (33-34F). Trout will handle this better than low DO.
Please keep us updated as to what type of solar aeration you install.

Alright, sorry for kind of shifting gears here, the dugout is roughly 700' from available power. I was thinking that this was too far for me to conceivably run power due to the large conductor size required to compensate for the voltage drop over that distance, as it would have cost me a couple thousand for cable alone, but I may be able to get some extra teck cable for free from work that I can just run overground directly through the bush. So an AC system may be feasible after all.
The other question is how far can you run the airline between the compressor and the dugout? Is there a maximum or do you lose too much volume over that distance? Is freeze up a problem (as trenching through the bush is not an option) and if so, if you desiccate the air will that remedy the issue?
One more thing, are these compressors designed to run when it's -4° to -25°, which is not uncommon, at least for overnight periods for sure, or is a heater required?
I would assume if the aerator is running 24/7 (you typically run them continuously correct?) that temperature is not really a problem as it will create it's own heat.
Once again sorry, for shifting gears, and maybe I should have started a new thread, but I'd rather keep all the conversation in one place.
Cheers.

It's said on here frequently that an airline can easily be run 1,000 feet or even more if you use something like 1-1/4 inch pipe and put the compressor where there is already power available. Running over the top of the ground with power is at best only a temporary fix.

Sorry, I should clarify, I didn't realize teck cable was a Canadian thing. It is metal armoured cable with a PVC coating. Its' typically an industrial use only cable and is about as robust as cable comes. It is rated for outdoor use, direct burial, etc. and will almost certainly outlast me. Especially when run directly through the bush and not in a high traffic area.

That being said if the cable is not available to me, it's good to know that the long run of airline could be a possibility. Is it prone to freeze up over that distance? And are the lines rated to be above ground?

Only makes sense to me to run the airline. I just ran ~800' of 1.5" this summer. I buried mine so I didn't go too overboard but if you were going to leave it on top of the ground I would think you could use the schedule 80 black pipe. That stuff is tough as a boot! Worse case if it ever got damaged you could splice it with not too many worries. Then you could probably find a warmer spot to keep the compressor.

It is definitely going to make condensation. If you can keep it running down hill all the way to the water then no problem. If there is going to be low spots then maybe hook up a drier or something. Dealing with driers is outside of my experience.