Pond Boss Forums AERATION Should I aerate? my new aerator

Some of you may have followed the recent post on my bosses pond that has trout turning up left and right. I have just installed my aerator this morning and have everything in place but my bosses recent mess has me severely frightened about running our aerator.

I started this morning and place 2 diffusors on opposite ends of the pond both in 6-7' of water. 1 diffuser is on the end we have been running the venturi air at night, the other diffuser is on the opposite end which stays fairly stagnant except for windy days.

After placing both diffusers I started it up and ran it for about 3 minutes until the stagnant end started sliding down the dropoff and was emiting the most vulger smell I have ever tasted.. yeah.. it was so bad you could taste it. So we shut it down immidiately and moved the diffuser back up to the 6-7' range and then tied it off with a shore line to keep it from sliding down the dropoff. The diffuser on the previously aerated end had no odor and very little if any change in water color .

We were previously using the venturi system from dusk to dawn and experience tells me if I don't do that the trout start to come up from the deep within 2 days so I know I have to aerate at night. I have been cycling the new aeration system since 9:30 AM this morning running it for 10 minute intervals every 3 hours.

My goal is to simply run it dusk to dawn and eliminate the venturi pump that is so costly to run. Is there a way I can determine it's safe to run it at night ? I know now is a bad time of year to be starting it up but I also know dollar for dollar the venturi we were using is not very efficient or nearly as effective.

I guess I'm looking for some advice on running it tonight or should I continue the timed intervals for a week during the day and continue the old venturi at night while I cycle the new system ? I would think trying to do just the top half isn't as risky but after that smell from this morning I know there is a risk if that stuff is being kicked up everytime I cycle it.

TIA



P.S. now 7:00 PM, and maybe I'm a little naive or oberly optimistic but the feeding activity just now was better than it has even been. fish are hitting top water in the stagnant end which almost never happens. YP, LMB, and BG were all eating in harmony at 2nd feeding.. hopefully it's the aeration and not just the switch back to AM500.

How does it look today AF?

Bump for expert feedback.

I'm still cycling, doing 15 minute intervals every 2 hours today. everything appears ok at the moment. We used the old system last night dusk to dawn because I wasn't comfortable using the new system without being able to monitor it at night.

I'm real itchy to let it run thru tonight 1-6 AM but was hoping to get some feedback prior to doing so . I may just use the old system at night until I get some advice .

AF, the suggested start up is 15 minutes the first day, 30 minutes the second day, 1 hour the third day, and continue to double the run time each cosecutive day.

10 or 15 minute runs every 2-3 hours is pushing a lot of the anoxic water in to your good water and not allowing the time for the bad gasses to be safely releaased. The noxious smells you "tasted" is as deadly to the fish as it is offensive to our senses.

What compounds the dangers for a fish kill is that this is absolutely the worst time of year for starting an aeration system. Hopefully your venturi system created enough circulation that only your deepest water is toxic.

Rainman,

There is no noticeable odors in the 6' water I have the diffusers right now. The 11' slip on the original setup was aweful and I am staying far clear of that for now. We excavated everything out to about 8' last year just to strip the muck and debris. Everything beyond that point I think it pretty nasty and I plan to stay away from until next spring when I will run a full startup again a little deeper.

If I had followed a normal startup how would I know it is then safe to run dusk to dawn or is it just considered safe because the startup was followed ? It would seem there has to be some type of conditions to look for or lack of conditions that would imply it is safe to run dusk to dawn at that point .

As most would say " it all depends " but the startup had to be developed at some point when someone somewhere determined ok... " now " it's safe for me to run dusk to dawn.

I'm not asking for guarantees or anything like that but with me already having run it for an hour yesterday and approx 1.5 hours so far today is there a point where I can start to feel fairly safe to run in the wee morning hours unattended ? My anxiety is rooting from a nice cold front we had roll in yesterday morning, Our high temps today did not go over 70 and I'm trying to capatilize a little on that and help bring the water temps down some.

I forgot to mention I am also now throwing about 100 gpm in the air at night drawing it up from about 3' of water with an additional 2 hp pump. My thoughts behind this is it would help to eliminate some of the nasty gases being emited from the aerator .. if that makes any sense.

I'm not trying to ignore or belittle any one's advice, It is greatly appreciated. I am simply trying to speed up the process in a safe way to capitilize on the cooler weather while I can. Low's tonight are suppose to be in the mid 50's and I would really like to get a piece of that. I guess the new fountain sprayer will grab some of that but the aerator is much more efficient and less costly. The cold front is suppose to run most of the week before going back up to the mid 80's.

Thanks again, I really appreciate your thoughts and comments.

Farmer,

You have been taking it easy and that's GOOD! I installed my system about 5 weeks ago and I took it real slow!! Here is how I started up my system. Just so you know.

Day 1 - 20 minutes
Day 2 - 30 minutes
Day 3 - 1 hour
Day 4 - 2 hours and I left it at 2 hours a night for an entire week.
Week 2 4 hours a night for 2 weeks.
Week 3 6 hours a night and that's where I am today still.

I too have notice fish very lively and easier to catch. Jumping out of the water and all kinds of stuff. So don't feel pressured to go from dusk to dawn. My setup is at 6 hours a night and I am doing GREAT!!

Now with that said I don't know what type of fish you have or the size of your pond plus you need to remember colder water holds more D.O. so with a cold front coming in you don't really have to aerate a whole long time to get the benifits from the cooler air. Anyway just thought I would share. My startup procedure is different than most but my pond is over 50 years old too. And I have read in old ponds that have not ever seen air you need to take it real slow. That's what I did and it really has made a diffence. Good Luck!

AF, I think you should run your deeper diffuser at least 30 minutes a day to start and double the run time each consecutive day to make the deeper water available to your fish. With your diffuser in the shallower area and the big pump churning the top, you will be pretty safe and degassing your anoxic water that will be lifted. I think you will stop smelling the sulfides (the stench) pretty quickly. Once you don't detect any odor in the deep water boil, you should be good to run it full time.

Rainman,

I would love to aerate the entire thing but we have trout in there that seem to be surviving ( They were stocked 2 years ago this past spring ) in the deep water and I'm extremely nervous about messing with their refuge now that the worst of summer is behind us.

If I thought I could safely get away with aerating everything and keep the trout I would go for it just as you suggested. from what I've read it would be suicide to the trout if I start mixing that right now. I'm really crossed between providing habitat for everything else at the expense of the trout or having marginal trout refuge my not aerating it all.

I'm open to all suggestions. I figured if I aerate only the top half ( tonight will be a full 6 hours ) I can keep most of my thermocline , not sure if this is accurate or not ?

I know the bottom 6-7 feet is messy and could use some aeration but if the trout and larger WE are surviving and growing there is it worth messing with it ?

Everytime I read something on this site about trout and aeration it seems to be bad!! Why is that? Well trout need cold water and they are very easy to stress out. You start mixing everything and water temps start changing everywhere in your pond and all of a sudden stress city! W.E. are not quite as bad, but you know what they say. " If it's not broke don't fix it" right? If you have trout and WE both down deep then you must have some DO down there or they wouldn't be there or they would be dead. So with that said turning your deep diffuser on for too long could be trouble. RM you think that's a good idea with trout and WE down there?

With the trout in the pond, I'd wait 'till the surface water temps got below 65° to start up the deep aerator.

RC is right, Trout seem to be the dreaded pond Kryptonite to all things normal.

Is it naive to think aerating only the top 6-7' is keeping the thermocline or at least leaving most of that deeper water undisturbed ?

BTW, we are currently below 65 , we topped out at 71 today adn that was this weeks high so far. Tomorrows lows are suppose to drop to 48 at night.. It should really help relive some of the warm water for the time being. I'm not diving into the deeps yet simply because I know better than to trust MI weather.

With that being said would it make sense come October to run a complete startup again with one of the diffusers in the deep hole and run it through december before things start to freeze up ?

Thanks again, you all have been a huge help with my crash course in pond management.

AF, if your thermoclin is inatact and you have the "stench", the chances are pretty high it is devoid of oxygen at this point. That is why I suggested starting the slow aeration of the deep water. I should have added "only at night" to keep the pond cooler.

The diffuser at 6-7 feet has probably left the thermocline intact, albeit a bit deeper than normal...this is just a swag though.

The main reason I suggested aerating the bottom water is to ensure it has oxygen since we don't KNOW that it does now. With fall coming, if you gry a quick turnover and mixing with a cold rain, all the fish could be killed...Aerating the bottom now would prevent that danger.

It's all a risk and a guess, I just wanted to throw out another idea and why.

We have been only aerating in the evenings except for the initial phases of 1-2 hours a day. After that point when we got into the 4 and 6 hours a day period we began only running it in the evening.

Like RC said previously it would stand to reason if the trout are surviving then there must be some albeit probably low levels of oxygen in the deep. fter suprisingly holding on to them for more than 2 years now I'm hesitant to change anything down there unless a DO meter tells me otherwise.

once temps drop for the fall/winter would it then be safe to aerate the entire thing without risk to the trout ? provided we make it through a turnover.

I can't think of any reason why it wouldn't be safe Attica.

Is there anything visual that indicates a turnover ?

It's downright cold right now, I'm wrapped in a blanket already and it's not even dark yet . Lows projected for 48 tonight.

Is this something I might expect to kick a turnover into gear ?

The pond turns over when the water temp is much colder. Water gradually gets denser until it hits 39°F, then it starts to become less dense. Until you can take the bottom temp, you won't know when the turnover happens. Once the surface water cools down to less than the bottom water temp the pond won't turn over.

So, say bottom temps are 55°. The water on the surface floats on top of the bottom water until 55°, then it starts mixing. At 54°F it sinks beneath the 55°F water and "turnover" happens.

If the trout survived last summer without aeration, I'd leave the deeper aerator off until surface (say 1' to 2' depth) water temps drop below 70°F. Then you can use the start-up procedure for the deeper diffuser. I believe I killed my trout by running my deep diffuser at night when ambient temps dropped below 70°F. I beleive the warmer surface water mixed with the cooler, deeper water and the O2 levels dropped, killing the trout.

With trout being so finicky to temp. and O2 it's hard to get any hard and fast rules on aeration due to the differences in the ponds.
My opinion is keep a close eye on temps at different depths and when it's warm weather run your diffusers when air temp is below 70 and at a depth where trout will be ok, say 68 degrees, but not in any deeper water than you have to so you can prolong your reservoir of cooler water.
My aerator is set at 5ft. and only runs when the air temp. is below 66*, I don't move it cause my piped inflow of 95 gpm is from highly oxygenated stream water and the trout do fine all summer, every pond is different and much of the time it's trial and error.

I think what AP is saying will work, but pay attention to how deep the diffuser is placed. I think my problem was putting the diffuser too deep. Even tho the diffuser/aerator only ran when temps were below 70°, I think I mixed too much of the warmer upper water with the cooler water below, making the whole pond too warm for the trout - no cool refuge zone even tho it might have had enough oxygen.

I think I'll hold off on any moving until surface tmeps reach 65 or maybe even 60 . In fact, I'll probably wait until I see the trout start feeding on pellets at the surface agian before moving the diffusers deeper.

Thanks for everyones help.. I think I have a pretty good game plan now.