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#413331 05/29/15 10:06 PM
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Purchased in large part on the basis of information found here at Pond Boss.

Gast 5023 rotary vane compressor. (Bought from a septic supply place but it came with no electric cord. I had a spare I had cut off some piece of equipment and was able to get it wired up and running)

1/4 inch NPT fittings to allow me to connect a low pressure air pressure gauge to the outflow I'm thinking about a gauge that goes up to about 15 psi?

110 feet of 3/4 inch black tubing to the pond.

100 feet of weighted 5/8 tubing to run out in the pond.

Vertex XL2 Shallow water diffuser.

Homemade manifold at the ponds edge with three 1/2 inch valves. One for the main diffuser to be put in at 7-8 feet depth. One for a possible winter-time very shallow diffuser. One more in case I need to bleed off some pressure to keep the compressor happy. If I don't need it, I don't have to use it and it only cost me a couple dollars. or maybe I'll put in another XL2SW someday.

The pond is in central Ohio about 8.5-9 ft deep at the deepest point. It is triangular shaped and covers about .88 surface acres. Average depth - somewhere between 6-4 feet maybe? Total investment in the aeration system and all the fittings and clamps somewhere shy of $800. It has some FA and LOTS of curly leafed pond weed. Stocked over two years ago with about 25 CC, 75 LMB 350 BG 150 RES and 6 GC - all are growing. Mainly want some aeration to remove some of the nutrients and to dissolve the pond muck at the bottom. Not sure if it will help at all with the CLPW. The pond is about 3 years old and can drop close to 2 feet in dry summers ( like last year)

Curious thing about the Vertex XL2SW - the specs say the the only difference between it and the deeper water XL2 is that the diffuser disks are CLOSER together on the shallow water version. Why would they be closer? I thought that the deep water air column would naturally be wider the deeper the diffuser was sunk. Why would a shallow water diffuser have the disks closer together? I thought they would be further apart! In any case that is what I got. If the system runs with very little back pressure I'm thinking that I might just get by with the one diffuser and move it closer to the shoreline for the winter months. I'd be interested in any comments. I have about half the system in and am expecting the rest by next week. I'll post pics when finished if I can figure out how to do that.


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The pressure developed will depend on the depth. The compressor has to overcome head pressure of the water, which is approximately a half psi per foot depth. One atmosphere in water is 34'. One atmosphere in air or water is just under 15 psi (the weight of air at sea level at the depth of outer space down to earth). So 34 feet depth of water is equivalent in pressure to the pressure exerted by the weight of air in our atmosphere. So at 9' water depth your pressure gauge will read about 4.5 psi.

You can make the manifold with ball valves, or another option is to use a water hydrant three or four outlet manifold. Some of the water manifolds made for hydrants to expand the number of outlets have full flow ball valves, some don't. The down side of using the water hydrant valves is that they have water hose threads on the inlet and outlet. This requires the proper hose barb adapters which are available at most hardware stores. Some are pretty cheesy though, the brass ones are the best. Either way, with a pre-made water hydrant manifold or individual ball valves will work fine. Just different plumbing solutions.

Pressure gauge is a good idea. If you record what the pressure is when the diffuser is new, you might be able to tell a slight difference in pressure as the diffuser starts to become plugged allowing you to know when to clean it. Pressure change will likely only be slight though.


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Equipment in and all hooked up, I be making bubbles!!! Will try to post some pics. I'm excited.


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Pictures as promised. I used about a foot of radiator hose off the pump because it all does get hot. The diffuser is at about 7.5 to 8 feet. The pond depth is 8.5 to 9 feet. I tried to find the absolute deepest point but failed, hope it doesn't make that much difference. The Gast registered 0 PSI with just the tubing connected. Deployed at 7.5 feet the pump registered about 5.5 PSI. I opened one of the valves in the manifold box (constructed of old plastic decking boards) so that the Gast is running at 4.5 PSI. Doubt I'll ever use that third valve, but I may put a shallow water stone diffuser on that second valve that is just wasting air. I'd say the column of air is about 2.5 feet wide. The diameter of the boil with white water is about 5-6 feet. The area of rapidly moving water is about 8 feet in diameter. Comments?

http://berryfieldfarm.com/Gast.jpg
http://berryfieldfarm.com/Box.jpg
http://berryfieldfarm.com/Box2.jpg
http://berryfieldfarm.com/Boil.jpg


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As I recall from another thread somewhere, Vertex uses a restriction orifice in their diffusers with the idea that if you have multiple diffusers hooked to the same pump the restriction will help equalize flow between diffusers. That may be one reason you are seeing the pressure rise when you have all the air going to the diffuser. Vertex might also do this to help protect the membrane from being over expanded to to excessively high air flow compared to what the membrane was designed to pass.

Just speculation on my part. I have no experience with Vertex diffusers. Maybe someone that does can comment to help us all understand the dynamics of pressure vs depth vs back pressure to the pump.


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The restriction valve built into the Vertex diffusers is what is causing the little higher air pressure (abt 1psi). I would close the open valve that is wasting air and send that air to the diffuser to increase the size of the boil and create more water movement. In your location and pond size you would only need to run the aerator 8-10 hrs per day for 0.8 ac and size of your air pump to get adequate turnover per day.


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Interesting. My plan was all along to let it run 8-9 hours at night - the compressor is in a berry shack where we sell blueberries and would be too annoying to have on during business hours anyway. Should be off peak hours too so I may save on electricity. So you don't think running the pump at 5.5 PSI will shorten the life of the pump? If I added a second aerator close the shoreline, what would I wan't to shoot for as to PSI?


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A second aerator close to shore will still register 5.5psi with both diffusers operating one deep one shallow. . Try it and see. Operating at 4.5 psi and 5.5 psi will not make a big difference in the life span of the rotary vane. Running at 8hrs/night from May to November, it might shorten the life of the motor by 2-3 yrs of the total 35yrs. Your 0523 rotary vane is running at 1/2 capacity at 5psi. Vanes (rebuilds) will need to be changed 1-3 times in that 35 yr period.

Last edited by Bill Cody; 06/07/15 04:33 PM.

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Thanks Bill. I will have to get another diffuser and more tubing to try it, it might be a while before I can spend some more money on this. Will probably give the pond a month and see what changes I see. I am curious about your comment of May-November - Do you not run aeration through the winter? I was thinking I probably would, mainly because of my infestation of CLPW that is going to be probably decomposing under the ice.
I doubt I live long enough to see that pump fail. I would be 98!


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In Ohio with the type of your pond, you could easily get very adequate winter aeration by operating it 2-3 hrs per day and diffuser placed in 4 to 6 ft of water or with diffuser suspended 3 ft below the surface. There should be another 'how to' winter aeration update article in PBoss magazine in the Nov-Dec 2015 issue. What part of OH is the pond?


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Central Ohio - near Centerburg.


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I m looking at a system very similar to yours and the same gast pump. Where did you find specifications on different diffusers. I was thinking about two single diffusers spread apart since my depth is only about 7 feet.

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I will probably add a shallow water diffuser myself. I did not do a very technical analysis, just read a lot here on the forum and visited a lot of aeration equipment sites.


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Gast pump is tripping the circuit breaker. Or at least something is. This started sometime in the last 2 weeks. PSI that used to run at about 4.5 is running at 3 now. It has been running problem free for about 3.5 years. The diffusers were cleaned last summer. I plan to get down there and see if other electrical devices will kick the circuit breaker. I do have buried electrical cable feeding down to the building that houses the pump (a Gast 5023 1/4 hp.)


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Sounds like it's drawing too much amp. Did you put an amp/clamp meter on it to check amp draw?

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Didn't get that far. Unplugged it from the mechanical timer and it ran for a good 6 hours with no problem. So, I'll pick up a new timer and try that. Thanks!


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