I have a couple questions about diffuser aeration;

1. How long do you run the system, 24/7/365 or, x amount of hours per day, or on a cycle, say 2 on 2 off?

2. When installing the system, do you have an air trap to keep water from filling the piping when the system is not running?
(like a sink drain J-trap inverted)

3. Does anyone run their system with an oilless piston airbrush compressor?

Thanks up front, you folks are the best!

will tackle what I can on #1
depends on goals if preventing ice over you run in winter how many hours some yankee will post answer for you. TO preven destratificaiton which is main reaosn for diffuser system run 24/7 spring through fall with designed properly.
#2 do not think this is neccesary

Good luck!

kennylee, for what it's worth I'll tell you what I'm doing.
I have my small aerator connected to a soaker hose in 3 ft. of water to keep an area ice free. I have a check valve connected to the soaker hose so that water doesn't fill the supply hose, and possibly freeze. The aerator is on a 24hr. timer, and right now It's running from 7-9, 11-1,& 3-5 during the day and for 15 minutes every hour during the night to keep the ice thin during the nights. This is working well right now, but I'll probably have to adjust this as the Temps. get colder. My pond has 1 inch ice cover right now.
Hopefully you'll get more info from other members, Good Luck.

kennylee, great questions of which Greg hit the magic word "depends"1.Even as mentioned with goals set you must know the turnover or lifting ability of your system.Then knowing the demand for DO you may place now and in the future is also important, ie light,med,heavy fish load, will use UV inhibitors, some plants OK etc etc.Is maximum amount of DO in entire pond with a lot of aerobic bacteria on the pond bottom part of the goal ?Normally systems are sized to run 24/7 and once the cooler weather arrives 40-45 F average daily temp your water is cool enough to hold a lot of DO so the supply is high but plants fish (demand) is going in the opposite direction. Since your pond is only 4 years old it should not have a lot of oxygen robbing organic matter yet.The key is to keep the supply of DO above the ever changing demand for DO.2.Some diffusers have check valves built in to prevent the airlines and the diffusers from filling with water and some do not. The problem with (add on) check valves is that its just one more item to maintain and one more obstruction in the airline, Try to stay with diffusers that have them built in. Add on check valves allow water to enter the diffuser and can plug up quickly, some manufacturers suggest removing the diffusers yearly and cleaning them. A good pressure guage will tell you when to clean your diffusers and most can be cleaned from the shoreline with out removal by flexing 3. Most pistons that we use are oilless and the lower cfm units are used in the air brush industry.

Thanks for the info guys. For us uneducated, one question always leads to another,lol.

How do you check the DO levels in a pond?

Is there a post or info on this sight, that has the calculations for setting up a system?

My pond is about 4 years old aprox. 1 acre, 24 foot and 12 avg. depth.
It's stocked with 8# bighead minnows (18 months before stocking rest of the fish), 500 bg, 200 green ear, 300 channel cat, 100 lm bass, bass are 12 to 15", cats 12 to 18", bg ge are 2 to 7".
I use a feeder in the warm months.
Veg. is mostly cattails and moss in the shallows.
Visibility I haven't measured but would guess 3 foot.

My goal is to have a best fishing pond possible.

kennylee, you can get a o2 test kit from tetra for about 10 bucks, or if Santa is real generous you can get a DO meter.

kennylee, I sent you a PM