Pond Boss Forums AERATION Should I aerate? Aeration Deepens A Pond?

We've installed a windmill aerator on our 3 and 1/2 acre pond and are real happy with it thus far. I've read material that suggests that aeration will deepen a pond as the oxygen allows organisms to break down the black sludge and decaying plant material on the bottom. The theory also is that this cuts down on weed growth as the plants have less nutrient rich soil to grow from on the bottom. Anyway, was wondering if any of you have experienced a marked increase in depth and less black sludge on the bottom due to aeration. If so, was this noticed all over the pond or just very near the aeration stone? I'm also anxious to see if the pond experiences less turn over kill this spring than it did last year before the windmill was installed.

Don't expect much deepening or major destratification effects from a windmill in a 3.5 ac pond. Boil is too weak for that size of pond. A 3.5 acre pond should have a minimum of 4 diffusers (better 6) powered by a 3/4 or 1 hp rotary compressor that produces 10 to 14 cfm of air. Your windmill produces 1 cfm in a strong wind. If you installed one windmill per every 0.5 ac of water then you "might" notice some effects from occassional adequate aeration depending on ave wind speed.. Adding proper microbial/bacteria blends together with adequate bottom aeration would speed the decomposition of bottom, organic sediment. Sewage treatment plants do it daily.

There is a newly published research article (No. Amer.Lake Mgmt. Soc) that questions and disproves the claim of proponents of bottom diffused aeration to deepen ponds or lakes. Is the organic sediments decomposed or just redistributed in the vicinity of the diffusers? I not sure that the research methods were not biased. More research will provide additional information.

I have seen proper aeration (the levels that Bill described) drastically decrease or even stop organic sedimentation. I have also seen air diffusers "boil away" and direct bacteria/enzyme applications "consume" small areas of sediment, but I have not seen large scale sediment decomposition from aeration or bacteria/enzymes.