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Tom M Offline OP
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I'll be installing an aeration system in my pond (~8K sq ft when full) in the coming weeks but have some questions.

There's no permanent power at the pond, which is about 75 feet from the house. I do run a fountain & a waterfall pump but these are currently handled by a heavy extension cord w/waterproof connections on a GFCI circuit and have worked fine for quite some time. Certainly not ideal but it works.

What I'm thinking at the moment is to build an enclosure and mount the aeration pump by the house where the AC units are mounted. This should provide close access to power with minimal effort. I'd then run a 1" air line out to the pond area where I could mount the manifold and run the weighted lines to the diffusers. A bit more involved than having everything pond-side but it provides for a permanent electrical install.

The more costly alternative is to run permanent power out to the pond area. Not sure how much that would cost but likely not inexpensive.

Either way what's the best way to handle the placement of the weighted tubing? We freeze in winter and the pond can get several inches of ice on it depending on the duration & severity of the weather. Since the pond level rises and falls over the winter the ice will also rise & fall as the level changes. I'm guessing this would not be good for the air lines but most of the installs I've seen show them basically laying on the ground. With ice involved should they be buried at least part way or run hard lines further out?

I do leave the pump electrical on the ground into the pond and haven't had any winter issues but not sure about the softer weighted air lines.

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My opinion for areas that freeze, based on my experience, is this.

Running air to the pond is cheaper and easier.
Running power to the pond with short airline runs is BETTER.

I deal with long severe Winters at our place. ~24" of ice last year. Last year condensation froze in my lines (that were buried 24" deep) and shut down my whole system. Blew up two pumps and I thought I had lost the $1,800 in trout I had stocked a few months earlier. Through trial and error over a few systems on multiple lakes up there we learned the airlines better be ON GRADE all the way to deep water. The systems with airlines on grade had no problems even with the airlines laying on the ground for short runs!!

Basically, again IMHO, if you can't guarantee you can put your airlines on grade all the way into 4' or 5' of water then you are far better off running power to a pond side pump.

Good luck!


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Sounds like some hard learned good advice for people needing to run their system in freezing weather.

I had always heard that the air lines need to run down hill all the way to the diffuser. I also knew from practical experience installing my own system that is easier said than done in all but very simple, straight forward systems.

As always, "it depends".

At any rate, glad you got a system finally meeting your needs.


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Having electric at my pond is nice even though it has not been used for anything but the air pump to date. I have a drop light in the pump house and an extra outlet for anything that comes up. Running the air line from the shop would not have been down hill all the way. I heeded Buffet's warnings.

I ran 3 pex lines housed in 4" pvc down 25 feet from the pump house into the pond's water for the 3 diffusers. We dug the trench to be 18 inches below the waterline where the pex/pvc enters the pond. This way the air lines don't see as much freezing and thawing. This may not be that big of a deal, but I did not think having the lines located such that they would be IN the ice during the winter was such a good idea. The weighted line is connected to the pex lines and out into the pond it goes. The 6 foot of underwater pex was covered with rip-rap to keep it down and from getting any direct sunlight.

Right, wrong, or indifferent...that's what I did.


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Tom M Offline OP
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Based on the feedback I'll place the pump assembly at the pond.

Next question is where to place the diffusers. I've done a bit of reading and went out an did a rough contour map this morning.



The pond is currently down about 6 feet so all the numbers are reduced with the max depth currently 6.5 feet to the top of the muck and there appears to be about a foot of muck past that point.

There's really no thermocline as the current temperature readings are pretty uniform at 79 degrees +- 1 degree. This is likely due to the waterfall pump running at about 1.5 feet off the bottom along with the fountain and other circulation pump currently being run.

At the moment I'm thinking of placing one ring diffuser on a weighted milk crate at the bottom which would put it about 10, 12 or 15 inches above the muck. If higher would be better I can stack some milk crates.

I'd place a 2nd diffuser in the shallow end but with the pond down so far may not have it running too much until the water level comes up. For winter I'd run this one and shut down the deeper diffuser.

Just wondering if this seems like a workable solution.

Last edited by Tom M; 08/19/18 09:16 AM. Reason: typo
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Hey Tom,
Milk crates work great! Just keep in mind, the higher you stack them the more apt they are to tip over unless you add some weight to the bottom, which you'll need.

Just a suggestion here, but if you can get several, I'd think about tying 4 together for a base. It gives the whole thing great stability on the bottom as well as displacing the total weight of the structure so it's not as likely to sink as deep in the muck. It doesn't take much weight at all to sink them. I use 4 railroad spikes, one on each side.

If you decide to elevate your diffuser higher, you can stack them in the center of the base. If you have to set them on inclined banks, the wide base will help stabilize it all. I'd add more weight to the high side tho.


.10 surface acre pond, 10.5 foot deep. SW LA. The epitome of a mutt pond. BG, LMB, GSF, RES, BH, Warmouth, Longear Sunfish, Gambusia,Mud Minnows, Crappie, and now shiners!!...I subscribe!!
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One minor issue I want to point out is that the diffuser will get "lighter" as air is applied to the system. At least with the round membrane type diffusers. I'm not familiar with the tube type.

The reason is when air is applied the membrane will "balloon" out some (the higher the air flow, the more it will balloon) and make it more buoyant than when you initially sink it without air applied.

Not a big deal, but if you weight it just enough to sink during installation it might float when you apply the air pressure to the system.

Another "not big deal" but "could become a problem" is if you have large CC or turtles they at times can move stuff around. If it were me, I would want it weighted more than just barely enough to sink it. You want it to stay in place. The reason I mention this is during my pond build I installed some cover that were made of plastic. I weighted them with a rock. No problem, they stayed down fine. Till my CC got to around 3-4#. Now once in a while I will find one of these plastic structures, 4 years later, floating along the bank to where the wind blew it after it floated to the top. I can only assume something (fish, turtle, what have you???) moved it enough to tip the ballast rock out of it and it floated. Like I said not a huge deal. Just part of the learning curve of "things you didn't think of but wish you had of".

Last edited by snrub; 08/19/18 12:01 PM.

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Tom M Offline OP
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Thanks to you both for the suggestions.

I've got some surplus brake rotors to hold the crates down so I don't think they'll be floating away any time soon laugh I think I'll start with a height of one crate and if there's too much stuff stirred up I raise it up.

I just finished a 1 hr test of the pump enclosure I built using a large storage bin. The intake side is fan forced room air at ~75 degrees blowing on the pump and the exit air was hovering around 90 degrees so I should be good. The one head (inlet & exhaust side) was about 105 degrees while the other side was 122 degrees.

I 3D printed all the custom parts I needed using PETG to hold up to the temperatures. Sure made building the intake and exhaust pieces a bit easier.

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Tom M Offline OP
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Got things installed. A bit short on hose so the shallow end is a little deeper than I wanted but I can always extend it later if I decide to do so.

I rechecked the temperatures not that the system has a load on it and with an ambient temp of 89 degrees the exit temperature hovers around 103. So it's still about a 15 degree rise over the inlet temp.

BTW, I bought 100 feet of weighted hose but also bought 50 feet of 3/8 air hose from Harbor Freight as it's less expensive than heater hose. I used that from the pump and out about 20 feet on each run.

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Originally Posted By: snrub
One minor issue I want to point out is that the diffuser will get "lighter" as air is applied to the system. At least with the round membrane type diffusers. I'm not familiar with the tube type.

The reason is when air is applied the membrane will "balloon" out some (the higher the air flow, the more it will balloon) and make it more buoyant than when you initially sink it without air applied.

Not a big deal, but if you weight it just enough to sink during installation it might float when you apply the air pressure to the system.

Another "not big deal" but "could become a problem" is if you have large CC or turtles they at times can move stuff around. If it were me, I would want it weighted more than just barely enough to sink it. You want it to stay in place. The reason I mention this is during my pond build I installed some cover that were made of plastic. I weighted them with a rock. No problem, they stayed down fine. Till my CC got to around 3-4#. Now once in a while I will find one of these plastic structures, 4 years later, floating along the bank to where the wind blew it after it floated to the top. I can only assume something (fish, turtle, what have you???) moved it enough to tip the ballast rock out of it and it floated. Like I said not a huge deal. Just part of the learning curve of "things you didn't think of but wish you had of".


I didn't think about the diffuser getting lighter as it inflated!! Mine are the tubular type. So far everything seems to be staying put tho and I don't have anything large enough to move things around...that I know of anyway...or yet.

Thanks for pointing that out!! I'll have to keep an eye on things and add some weight if it moves around. Good thing about milk crates is you have lots of anchor points to add more ballast if you need it.


.10 surface acre pond, 10.5 foot deep. SW LA. The epitome of a mutt pond. BG, LMB, GSF, RES, BH, Warmouth, Longear Sunfish, Gambusia,Mud Minnows, Crappie, and now shiners!!...I subscribe!!

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