Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions Winter in Ohio

I learned on this forum it is not necessary to aerate my pond here in southwest Ohio in the winter months. My question is can I just leave the hoses out and store the pump or should I also remove the lines from the pond?

Sorry for the late reply.

Not aerating the pond during the winter all depends on the biomass in the pond, and how much sunlight gets thru the snow cover on the ice.

Yes, you can leave the diffuser and hoses in the pond during the winter without running them. No damage occured to mine when I did the same thing last winter.

I would think it would depend on the winter temps. and your specific pond size/depth. And, as esshup rightly points out, it depends how many gills are flapping away down there.

Pumps would have to be drained if exposed and not run, of course.

Southwest OH has mild or medium winters that result in only occassional ice thicknesses (4"-6") adequate for ice fishing. Limited short term snow cover also occurs in this region of the state, thus most ponds do not have winter fish kills due to thick ice and deep, extended snow cover. The ponds at most risk of winter kill and DO loss in this region are shallow (4-6ft) and contain lots of accumulated organics of dead plants and tree leaves (woodland ponds). Normally winter aeration would only be necessary in high production ponds when deep snow cover exceeds 3-6weeks depending on pond conditions.

Very well said, Bill. Coresuper, it really depends on your individual pond and the kind of winter you have. You can leave everything in place turned off and if you are concerned because you are experiencing a harsh winter you can always turn on the aeration system for a short while and let the ice open. Once you have open water you can turn it off and the ice will form clear allowing sunlight to penetrate.

Sniper, I took it as he was talking about his air hoses and air compressor.

I usually pull out my diffusers and give them a cleaning, but I leave the airline in the pond. I wondered about possible damage to the line where it enters the water, as mine drops straight into 5' of depth.

I didn't want to drag all 100' of line back out, so I take a coupler and hook both ends of line together and tie it to a swim ladder about 2' below the surface. Then in the spring, I just pull it up and rehook both ends - no water gets in it, and it stays flexible and out of the way all winter, submerged in the pond.

This year however, I plan to aerate all winter.

In my pond I completely remove one diffuser with airline and pull the other two into shallow (4-5ft) water; leaving everything for those two in the pond. Diffusers sitting in shallow water over winter often will accumulate a heavy growth of attached FA which should be removed before restarting the system in Spring.

Thanks for all the great responses. I love Sue's idea of leaving everything in and hooked up in case we have a long freeze. My pond is about 3/4 acre and is 8 to 16 ft deep.