Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions New Aeration Install

So I finally got my aeration system hooked up and installed. The scenario is that I have two ponds both of about equal size of 1/2 acre each. The compressor is located in the center of the two ponds and currently I have one Vertex dual diffuser in each pond at the deepest points as close to the center as possible.

I am using a 4.65cfm dual piston pump and figure I am pushing about 2.3cfm to each diffuser but I am running this thru a 100ft line to each diffuser(haven't trimmed them up yet).

I fired the diffuser up for the first time on the 27th and ran it about 30mins by the time I got things situated. I have been working into it slowly by adding my times as follows:
Day 2- 45mins
Day 3- 1.5hrs
Day 4- 2hrs
Day 5- 3hrs
Day 6- 6hrs

My question is, after reading an article about pond turnover and stratification during the summer months. Am I actually doing more harm than good this late in the season? The article I read indicated that the months of July and August are the most dangerous for pond turnover and that while ponds will naturally turn over when temperatures cool, they do it very gradually. I am basically creating a premature turnover in the hottest months of the season and I'm wondering if I'm making a mistake. So far, I have not lost any fish over the six days and I am not seeing any signs of distress such as fish coming to the surface gasping. My main concern is should I continue to work up to a 24hr run time on the aeration or should I scale this back because of the time of year?

Any and all suggestions greatly appreciated!

I also want to add that I have not noticed any foul odors coming from the ponds. It has stirred up some sort of debris that is floating at the surface but it is minimal and does not appear to be anything more than a light film that floats to the edge of the pond and is usually gone by the next evening.

I think what the artical is saying is that July and August are the most dangerous times for a pond turn-over when you are not aerating. Had you not installed an aeration system and your ponds were heavily stratified with no oxygen in the bottom half and you suddenly had a rain event, your ponds would have flipped or turned over and mixed causing an oxygen depletion throughout the water column and subsequently killing your fish. It sounds like everything is going along really well with your start up ~ I usually advise to really take it slow this time of year, but when you get to the 24 hours, just let it keep running.

Hey TQ I started my air in June also and no problems if you take it easy. I would would run my air only at night though in this kind of heat. There has been a lot of debate on if you should or should not run your air 24 /7 or if 12 hours is good enough. I think 12 is fine. Read this thread as Bob explains why you may not want to run your air during the day. It makes good since.



http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=266678#Post266678

Thanks for the input Sue and RC. Since I have turned the system on I have noticed that the water is getting cooler. Also, I have some new developments since I made this post originally.

Keep in mind I have two ponds. One that carries bass, channel cat,and BG. The other has flathead,LMB,CC,BG, and some crappie.(mixed bag of fish)

I arrived home Tuesday evening after making this post to find 2 floating LMB in the "bass pond". Both were about a pound in size. This is where I am scratching my head. When I took the boat out to remove them and investigate I noticed that both were white as could be and very deteriorated. When I used the boat oar to scoop them out they literally started falling apart. These fish were not visible Tuesday AM. I had just come off of running the system 6 hrs the night before (7PM-1AM). My thought was these fish had to have been dead for some time to be in such bad condition but it got me wondering if I had created the problem or this was just natural mortality.

So, I ran them again Tuesday evening for 6hrs. 7PM-1AM just as I had done the night before. I got up early yesterday morning and inspected both ponds. Everything looked great. Fish seemed active. No floaters. When I arrived home yesterday evening everything was fine. At 7PM I turned on the air. An hour into it I happen to look out and see a white belly. I take the boat out to find another pound LMB floating. This one also has no color and is missing an eye already as well as starting to fall apart but it was not nearly as decayed as the first 2.

So this raises yet another question or series of questions. Am I actually killing these fish or were they already dead and the diffuser is just stirring up waste on the bottom? My thinking is that if I were killing these fish it wouldn't be 2 or 3 fish. I'd be seeing more like 20-30 floaters. Has anyone had any experience in seeing this?

There have been no floaters in the "catfish pond".

It seems as if they were already dead ~ if it was Oxygen related more would be dead and the largest LMBs would go first. Catfish have more tollerance to low DO. It could be that the vertical movement in the water column brought them up from the bottom...

That helps put my mind at ease. If that is the case, I wonder just how much junk is actually laying on the bottom of these ponds. They are about 15 years old. I bought the place last year so its been a learning process.

I'm going to continue to work into the run times. I went ahead and let it run 9hrs last night and all was OK so far today. My wife just reported there are still no floaters. Going to hold it at 9hrs for another day then increase to 12.

By the way, the Vertex diffusers seem to be working fantastic Sue. Straight forward and easy setup. And the pond already has a cleaner appearance after just a week. Will post pics soon hopefully...

Awesome! Thanks for the feedback!

I think that they were dead on the bottom in deeper water. The cooler low oxygen water kept bacteria from growing and building up decomp gasses to get them to float. Once the water started holding more O2 and warming up, the gasses started building and they floated.

That's my $0.02 worth!

So far so good. No new floaters since wednesday evening. Bumped up the run time to 10 hours last night. Actually ran it from 9PM-7AM to take advantage of the cooler temps. I have now run it 9 evenings and just hit 10hrs on the 9th evening. All the fish seem to be maintaining activity and water looks healthy and clean.

Any thoughts on going ahead and pushing it to 12hrs tonight? This will be the 10th night.

TQ,

Now that you are up to 10 hours already going to 12 should not be an issue. The damage would have already been done at the early stages. Your good to now!

Glad it's working for ya.

I also have another question. Been reading alot on how many times the suggested turnover per day of a BOW should be. Given these statistics below at what rate am I turning over each pond a day and is it within the suggested range.

Brookwood Pump rated 4.65cfm. Carrying 5PSI on pressure gauge.

Bass Pond- 1/2acre, deepest depth 12ft, avg 6-8ft. Vertex XL2 diffuser in 12 ft with 100ft air line.

Catfish Pond- 1/2 acre, deepest depth 10ft, avg 5ft. Vertex XL2 diffuser in 10ft with 100ft air line.

My guesstimate was I'm moving about 4,000GPM average and turning it over every 5hrs.

In the Bass Pond you are lifting about 4100 GPM and I'm guessing circulating that water 5.8 times per day if running continuously. In the Catfish pond your AirStation is lifting about 3400 GPM and your volume is being circulated about 4.8 times per day with continuous aeration.

From my uneducated experience I have always let my nose tell me how long to tun aerators. I have 5 in my 2+ acre pond, Two in shallow water, 2 in mid-depth (8 - 12 feet) & one in the deepest part, (18+ feet.

Every year when I first start them I run my boat over each set of bubbles. If the air, on a calm air day, smells good I keep it running all summer 24/7. If the air smells bad I run it 15 or so minutes each day. I very gradually increase run times by just a few minutes a day until the air smells good. The first year or two it took several weeks before I ran the one in deep water full time.

That's good info Sue. Most of what I've read says 2-5 times a day is optimal so I'm within tolerance based on that.

Is more turnovers per 24hr period better or at some point will it reach it's max saturation level and it doesn't matter whether its 5 times a day or 10? I guess is bigger or more better when trying to turn the pond to increase DO or is there such a thing as too many turns in a 24hr period.

Thanks for the input Bing. I did the same thing with my boat after reading alot about foul odor etc when you first install and run them. To date I still have had no foul odor appear, only a few dead fish appear and some light debris/film that is has decreased to near nothin now when they run. I'm assuming thats a good thing that I didn't get any foul odor.

Normally you can reach near saturation levels at 1.5-2 turn overs per day, so I would imagine you could reach saturation very soon. You can't over aerate unless you have cold water fish species or you are running it in the winter. If you want to run the system in the winter, move the diffusers near the edge to shallow (3-4') of water.

Once again. Good information to know. Next step is to purchase a kit or meter to test my DO levels. Will report back with some pics of the install and progress! Thanks again to all!!!!

So here is the update with some pics of the place and the system. So far I have lost two more fish. One was a small Channel Cat and the other was a 21lb flathead from my Catfish side. The Chanel was pretty far gone like the other fish that appeared in the bass pond so I'm not alarmed. The flathead was a fish I had tagged early in the spring to monitor his growth. At tagging time he was 29lb, when he died on Sunday he was 21lb. I suspect it was just his time to go. I have put around 500 more BG in there so far since May and have been feeding. All the other fish appear to be healthy. He had no food in his stomach. No other flathead have had that problem. I still have a 19 and a 37lb flathead in there as well as a dozen 5-10lb fish.

The fish are more active and the water temps are cooler. Next step is to get some temp readings to see how cool the water is. I also moved up the run time to 16hrs. I start it at 6PM and run till 10AM to give it a little more run time before dark and after daylight.

The Box:





Some pics of the Ponds:







[img]http://i1119.photobucket.com/albums/k626/tranquility2/IMG_20110816_201246.jpg[/img]

The planned results:

[img]http://i1119.photobucket.com/albums/k626/tranquility2/3PondLayout.jpg[/img]

At some point I will add a second diffuser in the Pond to the left in the cove and move the fountain out further. For now though the fountain is assisting in moving some water in that cove.

I have a cattail issue that I am about to address now that I have the aeration in. My small hatchery pond will need dug with a backhoe to get it operational. I have electric to it now and am hoping to try and get it running next spring.

Other than that I just need a log cabin where the trailer is!

Looks good! That's a lot of weight to lose (30%). Fish will die quite a while after being handled - it's not immediately, or even a week later.

TQ that place looks awesome dude! Very nice! I acutally kind of like the cattails all around the pond. It gives it that secluded look. I have heard they get out of control pretty quick though.

Thanks guys. And a BIG THANK YOU for everyone that has chimed in on this!

I have heard that a fish can die after handling. The big fella was in there for years prior to my ownership and has been caught several times before. Hated to see him go but it's a natural process and if those big flatheads get to be too much to take care of I plan on doing something else in there.

I like the cattails to an extent but it does make fishing difficult at times for my bass. I am going to attempt the battle to leave stands in areas for cover but I'm sure it will be alot of labor to keep under control. Some of the cattails are out 8ft from the actual edge of the pond and growing in 4ft of water so I would like to get it reduced and add a better structure option and make some spawning beds for my BG. I will definitely document that process as it developes.

A couple more pics:

"Jaws" final day: (Named because of the way he fed with his tail just out of the water ambushing his meals.)



Picture of a BG spawn bed I'm building. Still gotta add some pea gravel.



And the reason I'm doing what I'm doing....

SWEET!!

TQ, nice pics and a beautiful part of Ohio. The only tweek I would consider on the system is to loop the discharge hose down prior to connecting to manifold. The way it appears it can let condensation back on to the exhaust valve plate.Condensation will be more of a concern as the seasonal temps fall. The exhaust temp on that pump is approx 205F and when the unit is shut off and cools down condensation will take place.Even running constantly in cooler air temps will produce condensation.Id rather have it trapped in the line.