Pond Boss Forums AERATION Should I aerate? Build my own aerator

I have read several of these topics and at some point a great deal of ya'll appear to have built your own system and I want some help in doing so. My pond is 110 feet long 50 feet wide and about 8 feet deep. I know I need a compressor, but can I use a standard tank mounted model and just never fill the tank or should I buy something else, can I use PVC pipe to make my own diffuser. I am simple and cheap and do not want to buy a commercial system if I can help it. If anybody is around my area of Texas with a homemade system I could look at it would be great.

Thanks from the new guy

Hey Tom,
I'm kinda like you. If I can build it cheaper and still maintain the same integrity then I'm all for it.

The aeration system that I have put together is using simply PVC pipe and tubing. The pump was given to me by a buddy who works at Gast Manf. company. Gast pumps are very popular for this application as you can search on this forum and find that out. I bought four 9" disc diffusers from Aquatic Eco-Systems out of Florida. Here is the actual diffusor that I bought for $9.68 each:

http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/product.detail/iid/9734

I made a square frame with PVC pipe and mounted the diffusers to it and plumbed it up to the tubing. You can buy the PVC 1/2" tubing from Building Material co. or lumber yard. A 100' roll of 1/2 tubing cost less than $25. Now you might want to put weights on the tubing to hold it down on the bottom of your pond. I made myself some sand bags with old feed bags. The big 50 lb feed bag that is made of either a plastic woven material or something like plastic and it works great because it won't rot away. I cut the bag up into 4 pieces so that I can make 4 smaller sandbags about 5 lbs each. Used zip ties to seal up the sand bags and zip tied it to the 1/2 tubing every 10 feet. Works great. I have just ordered 12 more diffusers and will be installing them this weekend. I'll try and take pictures. By the way here is some pictures of my pond:

http://www.rvanorman.com/gallery.asp?folder=lake

Notice the weeds. Parts of the lake is shallow. Around 3-4 feet of water. The weeds are hard to control here but I'm hoping it will get better by reducing the muck. I'm guessing but I probably have 2-7 feet of muck in the shallows. Hey, it's all in fun and this forum is a valuable place for info. The guys here are very helpful. I'll try and get some pictures this weekend of my system.

Wow, what a beautiful place.

I agree, beautiful place!

Bob,
Your pond sounds as if it is the same size as mine (.15 acre with average depth 6 1/2 ft). We (me and hubby) built our house so I figure we can do the same for an aeration system. What size Gast pump are you using?

Valarie,

Here is a link to a discussion on DIY aeration systems that may be if interest to you. Bob Koerber's post gives a link to a company that sells (not sure if they are still available) a cheap compressor. This compressor supplied air to one 9" disc diffuser for my 0.15 acre BG pond. I have since switched to a bigger pump to run two 9" diffusers.

http://www.pondboss.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=11;t=000047#000000