Hey guys. Ive been reading this forum for about a year now and am very impressed with the knowledge you guys are kicking out. Think you. I dug out my small pond last year to about 1 acre and have stocked, built a dock, and now have decided I need aeration. Purchased a vetex with one defuser unit that has two heads. Now Im thinking maybe I should have bought two seperate heads to put in two locations. pond is one acre, 12 feet deep and basically round. It has two shallow flats but for the most part the slope is consistent. Ant thoughts? I live just north of the Houston, Tx area.

I'd like to hear the answer to this one..
I've got a similar pond, only a few feet deeper. But similar shaped and size.

If the compressor produces enough air (2-3cfm) for 4 head total (min 0.5 cfm/head) then 4 heads will move close to twice as much water per hour than 2 heads.

We run two heads in our one acre pond and is more than enough to create a current in the pond when running. Our pond is 16 feet deep and 12 feet deep in two holes. We run one head at the bottom of each hole.

We only run the aerator now 5-6 hours a night. It is more than enough to get things moving.

I have found running it just before the feeder gos off we get more perch feeding than if we run the air later in the night. Mixing the top warm water before the feeder runs at 9pm is increasing the feed intake of the fish.

Cheers Don.

New system installed. Setting it up was a cake walk. I can see the water moving all over the pond. Started off 15min. Went to 30 and so on. The pond would build up algae on the surface late afternoon and in the morning it would be gone. It has stopped doing that with the aeration even running it for a limited time. I think its gonna work!

Dave, that is good news. Please keep updating this thread, if you don't mind, on how things are going? Did you get water temps, before and after? I have to admit, I don't know if aerating will lower temps, I thought it might, but that's just a pure guess. Also, do you have elec right near the pond? I would have to run my air line 900' from barn to pond.
Thanks
Jeff

Jeff, I hope Dave does not mind me jumping in, but I thought I would pass along that the diffusers did lower my water temps by mixing the bottom colder water with the warmer surface water. And it's pretty easy to run 1.5" rolled tubing to the pond. Mine came in 300' rolls where I ran about 2100' of air line. Much cheaper than solar or running electricity.

Tracy

Thanks Tracy. How far did you have to run from the pump to the pond? I've got to go roughly 900'. Plus into a pretty big ravine and back up a hill, then over to the pond. I keep thinking water will settle in the hose. I don't have a big ice problem, so I don't think I will run it in winter, but who knows.
I was hoping it would help lower water temps.

The pump is 2100' from the pond. And the air will blow the water from the pipe or it did in my case. After running the 1.5" pipe (900 feet of it) I then reduced to 1" and it got water in it from the rains prior to completing the job. I hooked up the air and it blew water out of the line with some pretty good pressure. I did this before I hooked up to the weighted lines.

Tracy

Wow. I did not know you could have the pump that far from the pond. I won't need a big pump for my small pond. Hopefully I can set it up 900' away, and still get good results.
Thanks for the info.
Jeff

Jeff, I would do your research locally and find a large single spool of 1" black poly pipe, or two 500 foot spools so you only have one connection under ground, and put that connection at a place where it is accessible if needed without too much work. That is the most cost effective route to go. Going with multiple pieces of 100' lengths could cause you headaches in the future if the connection comes apart due to thermal expansion and contraction.

If the underground pipe/tube is sized properly, you can run air a long, long way.

Thanks Scott. I had originally planned to add aeration this summer, but other things (leak) have pushed the aeration project back. Hopefully next summer. The pond is just turning two years old, so I don't think it's in dire need of aeration, but the fish are getting bigger, and my leaf debris on the bottom is accumulating, so aeration is definitely going to happen. I think the best way for me to go, is run the pump in the barn, and run an air line the 900' to the pond.
Thanks,
Jeff

Jeff, doing it that way will be less expensive for you than running power to the pond. BUT, when you were planning the pond, you said your wife might want power by the small storage shed/gazebo that was planned. If that is still the case, even in the future, then I'd run power to that area, then air from there to the pond.

The sooner you put air into the pond, the sooner you can slow down the eutrophication of the pond.

Thanks Scott,
I ended up leveling a spot up in the woods on the west side, and dumping gravel on it. Then a fire pit, and picnic table. I think that's all we are going to do.
Which means, I won't need elec. Hopefully next summer on the aerator.
I've just got to rent a ditcher, and run an air line down to the pond.
Since you were there, I've cut a road straight to the pond through the woods. Means I'll be cutting a lot of roots when I put in the air line, but hopefully it will get done.

One thing about it, they have some really nice solar lights now so even if you decide you want some lighting in a shed or around a dock it would not be hard to do so with solar.

Renting and using a ditcher where there are roots will be fun. Rent a 4"-6" wide one, because even when it cuts through the roots they still intrude into the "ditch", making it hard to put regular PVC pipe in the ditch without cutting all the roots.

At a clients pond, we ran 2 of the poly tubes to the pond, one for air, and another one with a piece of paracord in it to pull wire "just in case" he wanted electric at the pond in the future. The extra $$ spent for the extra poly tube was minimal compared to having to make another trench in the future if he wanted electric there at some time in the future.

Did the second tube come with the parachord in it already? I've always wondered how to get the chord in there with a 500' roll. Let alone the wire. I like that idea though, I may just go ahead and run the second tube in the trench. I won't want to rent the trencher again.
I've run 4" pipe before, in a 6" trench through the woods. All roots, all the way. What a pain.. I mean pain.. Walked it down to the bottom of the trench, but needed snake chaps to do it! Ha

Getting the paracord in there was a chore. BUT, I figured out a way.

It won't work with the tube in a roll. Tried and it won't work.

Here's what I did. I unrolled the tube, making it as straight as possible. I had a buddy stand at the opposite end with a fishing reel that had enough 40# braided line on it. I tied a part of a plastic shopping bag to the end of the braided line, and used a shop vac on the other end of the tubing (duct tape sealed it pretty well to the tube). By buddy at one end fed in the braided line and plastic bag, I kept stopping and looking in the shop vac to see when it made it. Once it was pulled all the way through, I removed the shop vac and duct tape, tied the braided line to the spool of paracord, and he pulled the paracord back through the tube. I had set the spool so it would unroll like a baitcasting reel, not come off the end of the spool.

I took a 6" piece of the tube and tied the para cord to it at each end of the roll of tube so it wouldn't get sucked back inside and lost.

We then rolled the tube back up. We had to do that because where the tube would go into the ground there wouldn't be electric for another 6 months. If I could have unrolled the tube in the trench, and then sucked the line through it, I would have.

Great tip! I've heard people doing the same with a sandwich bag (old style, not ziplock) with a tiny bit of air in it so it acts like a float, size of the bag depends on diameter of the tube it is going through.

That's amazing. I would not have thought a shop vac could pull a line through 500' of tubing. I'll have all winter to think about this one.
Thanks

A piece of foam the right size will also work. Electricians shoot strings through empty conduit all the time to pull wiring.