Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions Over wintering trout

Hi:

I have about 50 - 75 nice 1-2 lb trout in my pond that survived the summer. It is going to freeze up and be cold here fairly soon. The fish are a combination of brown and speckled trout. I have a bottom aerator (2 diffusors and a compressor style pump) From what I have read leaving that run all winter may make the bottom of the pond too cold. It is also fairly expensive to run. We will be away for a couple of 3 week spells as well so I'm not excited about leaving that compressor run when no one is home. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I see I can buy a small compressor and an air stone for not a lot of money. Would it work to just hang the stone about 4 ft down and put the compressor on a timer?

Welcome to the forum Glenn, eh? Congrats on the over summering of the trout. Mine, too, make it thru the summer here in southern Colorado and are still actively feeding.
I am certainly not a pro, nor well experienced, but I can gather from this forum that the answers to your questions are summed up by "It depends".
Pondmeisters who aerate in winter do so with their diffusers at the bottom at a depth about 1/3 the deepest depth of their pond. That's what I do. You won't mix all the warmer, deep water that way.
Many folks use their same compressor but either move a diffuser to the shallower site, or use a dedicated diffuser at that site shutting off the air to the deeper summertime diffusers.
Unless your pond is eutrophic with lots of bottom muck, or is full of vegetation that may die and decompose when the ice forms and snow covers it up, blocking sunlight to the plants, IMHO three weeks w/o aeration may not be long enough to cause any problem at all.
I have run into difficulty restarting aeration in winter on a sub freezing day, as water backed up my line from the diffuser and froze at the surface, blocking airflow. I just waited for a warmer sunny day, the line thawed, and I restarted my pump. I run the system 24/7 in winter.

Don't believe super chilling in winter is an issue with coldwater fish. If it was they would have issues in streams and rivers in winter.

That said the 1/3rd depth aeration is fine but I doubt you'd have issues if your aerators stayed in the summer position with trout.

My first pond (.62 acre) did not keep trout over the summer. I kept the aerators in the summer position and even fed them in the open water in winter. Didn't have any issues.

In my small 1/10th acre pond I do the 1/3rd depth thing though for my browns and brooks as the pond is quite small.