Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions Seeking AERATION Advice

RC51, I stand corrected on that statement, thanks! Reminds me to watch my wording more carefully, such as "the biggest risk", should have read "one of the risks.."

Regarding the weighted tubing, I ran non-weighted tubing to my homemade fountain 100' from shore. I then installed my aeration system running nearly 800' of weighted tubing. NO COMPARISON! Definately spend the extra $$ and get the weighted tubing. The stuff is amazing!

Mackie, I'm quite sure you can run the air line cheaper than the electric. Especially when you factor in voltage drop issue's. personally I would not want overhead lines just because of the cosmetic issue's. If you give me an exact distane to where the compressor would sit from your main panel in the house. I could calculate the voltage drop and give you a rough idea of material cost. You may want to consider wether or not you may end up wanting a dock or gazeboo or anything later that you may want electric to also. Good Luck. and Oh yea welcome to PB.

One thing you could do is run air line from house to pond and if you ever decide you want the power at the pond you could use that air line as conduit and pull power through it.

Blair, for once I am not trying to be a smart a--, but how would you get the wire to go 350-400 yds.?

Mackie,

First, welcome to Pond Boss. You came to the right place for answers.

We are fortunate to have a number of aeration experts on the site, and Sue Cruz is one of the very best and knowledgeable in all of North America (we can't forget our Canadian friends). She is in the business of designing and selling aeration systems.

Disclaimer -- I have no connection with Sue Cruz, or her company, other than having known her for a number of years, and having heard her and her colleagues speak on a number of occasions about aeration and water quality.

One of the great things about asking for this kind of advice here on the PB site is that you will also get a wide variety of experienced answers from users -- from what works, to what doesn't work.

Regards,
Ken

We have pulled wire 300 feet. I know utility companies pull alot further.
We tied a plastic bag to fishing line. Sucked it through with shop vac. Then pulled a rope through with fishing line. Then pulled wire through with the rope. It was piece of cake and I know they are going further then we did but you could start in the middle and pull it in 2 shots.
Mule tape is what our utility companies use it's rated for 2000lbs pull.

(I see Blair posted while I was typing -- so I guess they do it the same up nort as we do it down here.)

I'm not sure how Blair would do it, but many times in my career I've pulled cable that far, and further, through conduit and stuffing tubes of all kinds. For long runs like this, I generally start with a strong industrial vacuum cleaner attached at one end, and a roll of heavy string at the other end of the conduit. Let the vacuum cleaner suck the string through the conduit. Attach a much heavier line to the string, and pull it back through. Securely attach the cable to the heavy line -- then start to heavily lubricate the cable and conduit. There are a number of different kinds of lubricants, for different conduit and cable jacket types, each with their own friction coefficients. A good electrical supply company can usually make recommendations.

Ken G.

Ken, are you sure you pulled it 1200 or so ft. in the ground? A raceway is a lot different then the ups and downs that is due to unlevel surfaces. To go that far would you have to use 3 nu.6 copper wires or would something else work? Blair, you could do it in shorter runs. The electric companies here use 2 1/2 in. pipe when they bury the pipe but they usually just bury the wire as is. We have had 2 to fail on rental homes over the past few years.

I have pulled literaly 100's of miles of wire and cable over the years and really you are only limited by the size of your tugger and strength of your rope. The longest Ive been involved in was around 4000' at the UPS worldport Hub in Louisville Ky. Most in a tunnel on tray rollers into 6" conduit underground and up 80' to the roof. The tugger had a 460 Ford engine on it and the rope was a fiberglass core. when it moved an inch on one end it moved an inch on the other, No stretch at all. Which can be a killer on long pulls.

RR, the aeration pipe that was sized for me to go 900' was one inch so i think that hose would be about the same size.

I've contracted, and personally pulled wire and cable of many types through pipes, hose, conduit, stuffing tubes, and raceways. I've pulled under parking lots, under highways, in high rise buildings, and on many many small and large ships, including the USS Ranger, USS Enterprise, and a lot of others. I don't know what the longest runs have been, but many have far exceeded a 1000 feet -- many times in conduits that were already nearly full. It has not always been easy, but it can almost always be done. One of the worst problems includes kinks at elbows in small conduits that are already beyond capacity.

If nothing exists under a structure, road, parking lot., etc, you get a contractor with horizontal underground boring equipment from manufacturers like Ditch Witch, Vermeer, Flow Mole, etc.

A single cable, in a much larger pipe, with adequate lubrication and something like http://www.eaccu-tech.com/installation-s...0-lbs-strength/, as mentioned by Blair, such a pull should not be a significant issue.

Agreed a pull like this should be very easy. Manufacturers are even making wire that doesnt require lubricant. I was skeptical but it works.

Ken C I'm not quite sure what your asking. Sorry

That is good that it can be done easily. I have never done a long pull but have helped do some shorter runs which were not easy for us. Having the right equipment makes all the difference in doing any job. Definitely not the first time I was wrong about something this week,I am hoping I can hang on to be wrong way into the future. It was nice being schooled by you guys. Take care,Ken.