Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions Surface or below surface areation?

Which would be the best to use? I'm hearing conflicting stories on the best way to aerate my pond.
I lost my fish last winter,(2nd winter kill in 2yrs) probably to low DO2 and now want to do the best thing.

Let me know if you miesters with more experience need details of my pond.

Thanks, FH

helpful info would be surface area, depths, shape, if power is available, and how far away from the pond it is. fishmgr@hotmail.com
Robert B

Fishhead,

I wouldn't waste my time with a surface aerator if your pond is deeper than 5 or 6 feet. Also surface aerators tend to use more power than bottom diffusers. However, as I have said before, I would have an alternate diffuser to hook up in only about 4 or 5 feet of water in winter to prevent to thorough of a mix of the water column.
Otherwise I run mine 24 /7 most of the rest of the year in the center of the pond.

Cecil- A bit of a debate here! It depends on what you are raising? Bluegil, Bass, ect. If you are raising trout in Nebr and Iowa a bottom diffuser is a wreck unless you are running aerated well water in the pond as you do. If not the bottom diffuser will do more harm than good. My problems stopped when i quit the bottom system and went to the splasher and added un aerated well water. If not talking about a trout pond i totally agree that a bottom system is great. Cecil, i respect your opinion but wated to quantify your reaponse as far as species and available water. If i was raising only Bass, cats and Blue's i would only run mine for water quality and breakdown of waste as in my country there is plenty of DO to keep them alive at 3k feet and only 6 weeks of heat all day. What do you think of this comment? Really like picking your brain and enjoy your comments.

Jeff

Thanks Cecil, I was hoping to here that bottom mixing was a better choice for me as I have heard about the price of some of the surface aeration operating costs. I will be primairly stocking LMB, BG, CC, and probably mixing a few SMB when culling some LMB.

My pond average depth 10 ft, 2.5 surface acres, triangular shape, tile fed by aprox 160 acres, runoff from 40 acres through 60ft of CRP and 60 ft of grass & tree buffer. It is 45 yrs old and was 22 ft deep on its birth. deepest spot today is 16-17 ft. Power will be available soon, as I will be putting it by the ponds edge, or the fishing shed where the pump will be located.

What size pump will I need?
How many diffusers should I run?

Thanks,
FH

jdmcalf, I too have rainbows and am looking at aeration. This is a new pond dug last fall, no vegetation yet and have just stocked 150 trout 5-7". Pond is 150ft x 50ft x about 12ft deep.
Bill Cody, yourself and others have helped me get started already but I am intrigued by your opinions on aeration specific to Trout. First, Bill had suggested that I MAY not even require aeration for the first couple of years due to low amounts of sludge and nutrient, (I am not feeding) and has explained the benefits of a diffusor style system.
I do intend on over-wintering at least some fish. Alberta winters are very extreme, with ice on by Oct/Nov and not off until mid to end of May. Ice thickness last winter on local lakes was 30" minimum. I realize the benefits of removing snow, but am undecided on aeration and after reading your posts I am more unsure. Any comments are welcome.

JD,

I respect your opinion too, but I should have mentioned I was aware of Fishhead's pond situation, and he does not have a trout pond as he has posted before.

You are absolutely right a trout pond will benefit from surface areation, however, fishead has a large warmwater pond which he wants to keep mixed most of the year so there is no chance of overturn and fishkills. For that a diffuser is best.

Fishhead, I still would not aerate as vigorously in winter, and would put a line and diffuser off to the side so you can just disconnect the summer lines and connect the winter.

Bill can answer you better on what size to use etc. or you can call a dealer as Stoney Creek in Grant Michigan.

Wood, I'm defintely no expert on aeration just know what works for me and my trout pond is different from yours. I run in 38 gpms of aerated well water into an 88 by 59 feet by 9 feet deep pond, and the diffuser worked great for me last year. But I did turn it off when temps reached 80 degrees. Then when temps dropped at night I turned it back on. In this small pond I was able to keep temps from rising above the mid sixties even when temps went into the 90's Fahrenheit. Even when it did rise that high is started dropping again as soon as the sun went low in the sky. If my memory serves me correct I harvested about 300 lbs. of trout out of that 1/12 acre pond last fall. I've got around 200 lbs. in that pond right now and may harvest up to 500 lbs. this fall.

If you are depending on a cool oxygen layer in deep water you may not want to mix. But I would think eventually in a year or two you will end up with low oxygen in the deeper water as your pond enriches. If Jd's pond is similar to yours I would go with what he does. But then again I think he too said something about running in well water in summer? Don't you have others in your area to compare too? How about the one that sold you the trout? If he does not have trout in dugouts he may know someone that does.

I would defintely run a bottom diffuser in winter even in a trout pond to keep some water open especially if you get deep snow on that thick ice.

Bill Cody?

Hello everybody. Just want to put in my 2cents worth on these systems.I agree with Cecil on the bottom diffuser type.They run longer cost less and do a better job.They are better to put in a new pond that is clean to help keep it that way and they're good in an older pond to help decompose the debris that is already there by keeping o2 in the bottom layers. The fish grow faster stay healthier.One thing to consider about putting the bottom system in is the start up if you run it 24hrs right off the get go you will probably end up with an algae bloom that is caused by stirring the nutrients up and sending them toward the shore line.You might want to use a water quality enhancer to try to get rid of and start the decomposing of any debris that is going to cause a problem.The surface type is good if you got plenty of water supply for your lake but the increase in evaporation is really apparent in the hot summer months. DOC

Wood-My pond is 3/4 acre and just had its first birthday. I have a liner with a top soil bottom. I stocked it according to my supplier and put in a bottom diffuser before adding fish. I started seeing fish gasping for air in July and lost a good deal of them. I called mu supplier and he said that i needed a Kasco areator and put one in and the problem disappeared. Somewhere on this forum a fella that raises trout listed the benefits of both systems. I recall that the bottom diffusers supply 10% o2 and the splashers are at 50%. Cecil may recall the post where this trout farm owner specifically said he uses Splashers, its here somewhere under Trout i believe. I also add 40 gal/minute non aerated well water to the pond in July and part fo august to keep temps low. The splasher only runs at night and on cloudy days. I run my diffuser Sept-May 12 hours a day at night and it does keep a nice area open to keep ice off. If you do no have a system to aerate i would get one in ASAP or sooner or later you will have a fish kill. Also watch your temps if they get close to 75 the trout will really stress. My trout will die at 78 and the ones that don't will have problems later. Anyone who has other comments and the pros please help out if you can add to this post.

jd

Wood- one other thing, i put in 4 pounds of Agua 5 bacteria each spring and this keeps everything you don't want in a pond in check. I hate to spend the money but this spring my pond was looking alittle sorry so i added the stuff again and in a week it looked great. It really helps break down nutrients ect. The Agua 5 has 2 billion colony forming units per gram so it replicates easily and will always work overtime. Once you charge the pond you only need to use 2 lbs the following year. My supplier has pictures of dead ponds (as he calls them), once he added the Agua 5 in large amounts they came back to life as the pictures show. He consults with pay to fish pond owners is Colo and Wyo.

jd

JD, Cecil, Doc, thanks again for the info. Cecil, I did talk to two trout suppliers who told me to harvest before freeze up and re-stock in spring. Excellent advice.....especially if you sell fish. I asked them if they have ponds, both do, but told me it is too complicated to over-winter trout for the "average" pond owner. It's a whole different world up here, farmers have dugouts for cattle etc, and sometimes toss trout in them, that's about as technical as it gets for the most part. I trust the advice from you guys, I just need to modfiy for my climate, etc. Wood

Wood,

In my opinion trout are easier to overwinter than warm or coolwater fish as long as you have enough dissolved oxygen, and they don't get stressed by too cold of water like cool and warmwater fish. I wouldn't be afraid to run a diffuser in winter to keep some water open and that is probably where your trout will hang out. In fact, I have feed trout through the ice in the area kept open by the diffuser and in my ice shanty. I had a big brook trout come up into my hole and stick his head out fo the water and clack his jaws. He wanted to be fed!

Wood,

In my opinion trout are easier to overwinter than warm or coolwater fish as long as you have enough dissolved oxygen, and they don't get stressed by too cold of water like cool and warmwater fish. I wouldn't be afraid to run a diffuser in winter to keep some water open and that is probably where your trout will hang out. In fact, I have feed trout through the ice in the area kept open by the diffuser and in my ice shanty. I had a big brook trout come up into my hole and stick his head out fo the water and clack his jaws. He wanted to be fed!

Thanks Cecil, I will aerate this winter. Since trout can handle cold water, would you suggest aerator at bottom or should I still suspend about half way? At -30c any hole opened by aeration will freeze quickly when compressor is not running, any suggestions regarding run times? Thanks, John

Wood,

I suspend mine about 3 feet below the surface in the trout pond. I suspend it with gallon orange juice containers or something similar. Glue the lids on with PVC cement and run a nylon rope through the handles onto the diffuser. Mine consists of a duel airstone setup with a checkvalve. I use a weighted airline. In really cold weather you may want to slightly bury your airline to the pond edge. Don't use clear plastic milk jugs as they will not last. I would run it continuously in winter for in severe temps you pond will form ice almost immediately when you turn it off.

You don't need much flow. I use a 1/20 the horsepower model from a company known as Stoney Creek in Grant Michigan that puts out .7 cfms and it's the one I use on the bottom of my small trout pond the rest of the year. Doesn't use much electricity. If you have anymore questions give me me a holler!

I have read alot of good information on this site re:aeration. I have several small ponds here on the gulf coast of Florida My first Pondis approx 1/4 acre in size and about 7 feet max depth in the middle. I want to install a bottom diffuser as I already have a surface aerator. Does anybody know WHAT size stone diffuser I would use in this pond or if I need more than (1). My reason for doing a bottom difuser is that we have very hot sunny days and I want to De-stratify the water if possible. My other pond is about 1/2 acre and max depth is approx 6 feet. Thanks for any advice. DL