Pond Boss Forums AERATION Should I aerate? Winter Aeration

What is the latest and greatest opinion on whether or not to aerate during the winter? I just purchased a Vertex aeration system for my 1.8 acre pond. We just did a round of bacteria supplementation and wanted to get the aeration going right away to hopefully start recovering the pond. But after researching the topic here, and many other sources, I am getting conflicting advice on if it will be helpful or harmful.

We are located in Central Ohio.

Any advice/direction is greatly appreciated!

Welcome, bucketmouth! You are at the right place to get questions answered on this topic. In fact, Ted Lea of Forevergreen in Waynesfield, OH, is a forum member and would be well suited to help you find a system to meet your needs. Plus, there are a ton of other very knowledgeable folks here who will weigh in with aeration help.

Stick around for the experts and their thoughts.

Howdy, Bucketmouth.

See the links on Winter Aeration and supercooling, about half way down in the Archive Aeration Simplified thread.

Theo,

Boy that archive saves a lot of re-typing.

+1

Thanks guys. I appreciate the help.

It's getting late for the bacteria to do it's job as they multiply best in warmer water. It may be best to aerate in the warmest part of the day to keep the ave. temps up so tht you did not spend your money without results. Reapply bacteria late next spring.

54 Deg is about as low as any reproduction of bacteria will be accomplished.

I shut my aeration off today, the water is about 55 degrees. Time to take the pump apart and see what is needing replaced.

Mine will be shut down this evening until sometime in early-mid April. Kept it going about a month longer this year do to the mild temperatures.

I've disconnected my rotary vane on the big pond and taken it into the house for the winter. I also taped shut the end of the two airlines with waterproof tape that are exposed on the shore to keep water out. I actually shut it off several weeks ago.

I've replaced it for the winter with a small 1/20th hp Gast compressor that puts out .7 cfm's of air and only uses 1.5 amps of power shown here:



It's connected to a shorter airline and a couple of airstones in about three to four feet of water. Not too far from shore and not too far (but not to close) to my six floating cages tied to the pier. I won't start it up until we have ice and may not even run it 24/7. Here I have the compressor on temporarily to show the location of the airstones.



Some of you may remember last year I had an oxygen crisis that could have ended up being a fish kill in my biggest pond. I didn't install this last year as I had been getting away with just keeping snow off the ice. However last winter we had early thin ice with deep snow and I was not able to get out on the ice to remove the snow. Lucky for me I had a Kasco floating aerator that does some massive aeration and opened up a 30 foot diameter hole in sub zero temperatures!

Better safe than sorry!

BTW I think it takes a lot more than we think to create supercooling of a pond. That Kasco aerator ran 24/7 for a couple of weeks in sometimes subzero temps and I did not see a drop in temps. Temps stayed in the mid 30's in the open water. The bluegills and yellow perch in cages in the open water created by the aerator didn't come out of the winter stressed either. Perhaps if I had run it longer, I don't know.

So is it right to say. You should start to aerate around mid April and you can stop when your water gets to about 55 degree's? Is that right?

IIRC Cody or Lusk or another expert stated that most ponds are completely destratified at about 45 degrees, and this is the time to switch to your Winter aeration mode.

I try to shift my diffuser to shallow water when the pond is 45 degrees water temp, but in practice do it on a nice (relatively) warm weekend when things are fairly close to the optimum temp.

IMO at water temps near or below 50F the water has a density still relatively close to that of water at 39F and less mechanical mixing is needed. As the temperature goes higher than 50F, water more rapidly becomes less dense and it becomes harder for it to mix or circulate into cooler water below and more mechanical mixing is needed.

This characteristic or feature of water at temps below 50F, allows a fairly easy mixing of the water column from wind and convection currents that cool the surface waters at night. Wind strength at night then becomes very important as an aid to convection currents to mix water especially when it is a fairly UNIFORM temperature.

The amount of difference between water temperatures is what results in greater resistance to mixing. As water temps drop lower than 50F and closer to 39F the energy needed to mix water vertically and circulate in the water column is quite low. Thus top to bottom mixing readily occurs naturally at water temps below 50F and mechanical mixing as usually UNnecessary. There are exceptions - See my other post below. For more information on this topic of water density and mixing see Pond Boss magazine for the article "What is Pond Stratification" by Cody and Lusk (Sep-Oct 2007, pp38-39).

Ahh ok so I guess my comment is right then?? I love your answers Bill but sometimes a simple yes or no will do... for us slow folks.

THE MAIN EXCEPTION TO THE 50F RULE IS IF YOUR POND HAS A STRONG ALGAE BLOOM. THE HEAVIER OR DENSER THE ALGAE BLOOM THE MORE OFTEN YOU SHOULD MIX THE WATER UNTIL IT BECOMES 39F.

Hi Bill,

We always listen to you, no need to yell at us...BLAHAHAHAHAHA.

Yeah sorry Bill I did not mean to make you mad!! Thanks for your input I do apprecaite it.

RC, I hope he knows we mean with his typing in all "CAPS"...

Guys - My typing in all caps is for important emphasis or prominence of important points and that was an important point. For the record, I don't attempt to make people mad nor yell at them on this forum. It was done so hopefully the all caps would be noticed by the very casual observer/reader that often does not pay attention to details and "skim" reads. It was not intended as yelling.

Off the Wall FYI: Long ago I was taught by a wise girlfriend that someone else cannot make you mad; you make yourself mad.

PS: Many think I don't know much and their situation is special, different and an exception which is perfectly okay with me. Although remember - Mother Nature always plays by her rules and knowing those rules is very important to getting along with her!

Bill we really appreciate your input here and want you to continue to share your knowledge in any case you wish.

So true about "you make yourself mad"

Bill, good off the wall FYI. I'll have to keep that one in my list of good quotes.

Yes, you are so right about Mother Nature, whenever we try to manipulate her she lets us know, right?

By the way Bill, I respect you and your input more than you realize. I was just playing around this morning.

Go ahead Bill, yell at these freaks, they probably did something to deserve it anyway. Heck, Cary alone is aways up to some sort of no good.

Funny I know I could use it. Bill we were just goofing is all. Thanks for input. Heck all caps is easier for me to read. You can type in call caps anytime as far as I am concerned.