Been way too long since I've checked into this forum.
To keep the math very simple and quick, I have a 100' x 50' x '6 little pond, COMPLETELY COVERED with thick FA. I have two Danner air pumps, one AP-60 (3.18cfm) going to a single Matala 9" rubber membrane disc diffuser (with weighted base – handles 1.4 – 4.2cfm) about 25' from pump, and a Danner AP-100 (5.29cfm) going to a second of the exact same diffuser setup at the other end of the pond, approximately 80’ away from pump.
My questions are: 1. Will the AP-100 damage the 9” disc by pushing too much air to it? Is there any loss of cfm given the distance?
2. What is more effective, one more 9” diffuser, totaling THREE diffusers for this size pond, or replace the farthest 9” with a 12” and only have TWO total diffusers in this little pond?
Three diffusers would be: Two 9” on the same air hose from the AP-100 pump, one at 25’, one at 80’. This would presumably provide only approximately 2.65cfm to each 9” diffuser – all things being equal. That in addition to the AP-60 pump satisfactorily pushing out to a 9” Matala diffuser only about 25-30’ from the pump.
3. If anyone has any suggestions on how to improve the condition of this body of water, I’m all ears. It is NOT downstream of any fertilizer-laden farm fields or anything of the sort. There is perhaps at least one foot deep of muck on the bottom.
*The “flow-through” of this pond seems as rather fast in my ignorant opinion. There are so many springs feeding this pond, I have yet to calculate the outflow, as it’s not as easy as putting a bucket beneath the drain. There are springs joining the same pipe below the pond before the outlet as well. It has one 4” drain pipe.
Oh, also on a related note of FA abatement, mid-June I put in a whole bottle of black pond dye (rated as one bottle for 1 ACRE, where this pond is 0.11 surface acre), and it flowed out and completely disappeared in about a month or less.
I eagerly await a helpful response, as I’ll wait to order anything until I learn what is the best-case scenario for me to implement. Please feel free to correct any math errors.
A HUGE thanks and appreciation in advance for any help. Chuck
1.) The AP 100 is rated at 5.29 CFM airflow whereas the diffuser maxes out around 4.2. This is concerning to me, but without a pump curve for the pump, it is impossible to say how close you are exceeding the diffuser rating. I can't quickly find a pump curve on the net. If the diffuser is at the 6' depth and has 80' of 3/4" hose...you will see about 3.25 psi of head pressure. But, again, without a pump curve to tell us what the output will be at this pressure...your guess is as good a mine. I'd say you are close to the max rating as is.
The AP-100 would run two diffusers rated from 1.4 – 4.2cfm safely. I recommend adding an additional 9" to this line to extend their life and give you another point of aeration as you mentioned.
The AP 60 (rated at a max 3.18 cfm) could run one all by itself and be in a good efficiency range. Running two off of an AP-60 will not yield much, if any, more water circulation, but will allow you to put that circulation where you want it. This concept works well when surface conditions are as important as water circulation. You are basically cutting the water moving power of one diffuser and splitting it between the two, but putting that split power where you want it.
I have chosen to have more diffusers in my pond than required for a full turn over per day to aid in surface conditions. I get little wind action and don't like floaties. With your FA mats, I suggest putting 3 diffusers in fairly close to the center (or center line) of your pond to push the mats out to the edges AND rake the FA out. If you are not satisfied with the pushing power of the diffuser's boils, you can raise them in the water column and get more action out of them with a reduction of water turn over. Off the cuff, I would say that you would have plenty of water movement if your diffusers were only 3- 4 feet deep.
The key here is to remove the FA and anything (the muck) that is feeding it.
MANY thanks QA! For the great info and prompt response. Yeah, I'd sure never put two 9” disc diffusers on the AP-60 pump. It has its own air hose to a 9" Matala rubber diffuser anyway, to be left alone and stay that way as long as it keeps working. That pump and diffuser has been operating together for over three years now, as intermittent/constant as Missouri Wind & Solar’s Power Without Batteries (PWB) Suntaqe unit enables. Mwands’ device is an impressive little deal in that it restarts automatically whenever enough sunlight shows again on cloudy days.
Thank you for confirming exactly what I was wanting to do. I’ll for sure run all diffusers in a straight line down the middle of the pond end to end, as evenly spaced as I can.
A Matala 9" rubber diffuser runs a fair $69 nearly everywhere I look. Do you like one place most where I should buy aeration equipment from? I've bought a fair bit from Lagunakoi years ago when I first put this system in place. $70 isn't much, I know. But if there is a sponsor of PondBoss where I can get my equipment from, price is nearly irrelevant. PondBoss’s forum is well beyond VERY helpful.
I'm Look'n forward to getting the third diffuser out there. I had one in between the pump and the Matala disc diffuser that came with the AP-100 pump, but it was WAY too free flowing and robbed the Matala of any airflow at the end of the hose.
This pond was completely dredged and stripped clean and free of all muck probably at least 15 years ago. It was well before my time with it.
A little fun fact of this particular pond is that the water is always crystal clear below in the FA. There is a very obvious delineation between the FA on the surface and the muck on the bottom. I mean seriously CLEAR water, if that matters at all. This water has never been murky.
I can not suggest a vendor for Matala equipment because I use Vertex diffusers I bought from Hoosier Pond Pros, but Matala is listed on the PB resource page...
Keep in mind that any time you put 2 diffusers on a single line, one of them will probably suffer from lack of air flow especially if they are in series and/or at different depths...the last one in the line and/or the deeper one will be weaker.
I use flow control valves on each line leaving my pump manifold and only have one diffuser for each line. This allows me to adjust the flow to each one and balance (or imbalance) the flows. This is ideal, but not entirely necessary. Should you chose to put 2 difussers on 1 line...run the 1 line from the pump out to a "T" (connected to the bottom of the "T") and then run 2 lines from the tops of the "T" out to the diffusers. Keeping the diffuser lines similar in length and keeping the diffusers in the same depth of water should allow them both to flow at very similar rates. I, personally, would want to put the "T" at the pump. This helps maintaining the system when it comes time to move the diffusers around or trouble shooting, but comes at a cost for more line.
QuarterAcre, Snrub, and whomever else has suggested using a landscape rake for removing FA mats, WORKS GREAT! But, I have a question.
I just bought a nice 36" landscape rake from ACE Hardware, and tried two ways to make it float. The dense foam for construction broke in half on one of the toss's out onto the water. It worked GREAT for about half a dozen throws, then failed. So, I attached an inflated bicycle tire tube. Tube didn't last through the night after attaching it to try it the next day.
My question is: What is the best, most durable way to make this landscape rake FLOAT?
In other news, QA, THANK YOU AGAIN FOR REMINDING ME TO ALIGN THE DIFFUSERS IN ONE LINE DOWN THE MIDDLE OF THE POND FOR GREAT CIRCULATION AND TURNOVER. Also to ensure the two diffusers are on equal length hoses. MUCH obliged!
Attached is a photo of two diffusers on the same line from a Danner AP-100 pump. Again, each placed at the end of equal length hoses. I have all the equipment in the garage now to add a third panel to the solar setup, and get the Danner AP-60 pump going on its own diffuser as well, nearest the pump box to have all three diffusers running as much as they will.
Each pump will have it's own Suntaqe power source between the panels and the pump. Missouri Wind & Solar (mwands.com) gets BIG kudos for designing that dandy little unit.
Please excuse my ignorance, but how (without a Suntaqe controller?) are pumps ever kept on between having ample sunlight, and not? Mwands' unit auto restarts the pump as soon as sufficient sunlight is present.
As always, MANY thanks for all the GREAT help. Chuck
….I just bought a nice 36" landscape rake from ACE Hardware, and tried two ways to make it float. The dense foam for construction broke in half on one of the toss's out onto the water. It worked GREAT for about half a dozen throws, then failed. So, I attached an inflated bicycle tire tube. Tube didn't last through the night after attaching it to try it the next day.
My question is: What is the best, most durable way to make this landscape rake FLOAT?...
I zip tied a pool noodle to mine and it works great!
That is crazy that you can see how clear it is from that far away. Looks like a shadow from the FA. Congrats on the clear water. I'm no help on the diffusers sorry.
OH YEAH! Doggonit. I forgot all about pool noodles. I’ll pick some of those up next trip to town. Thanks for the reminder on those. (DUH - facepalm).
LOL! Thanks for the laugh RStringer! Sorry if it wasn't meant to be funny, but you made me laugh with your post.
Yeah, no kidding. The crystal-clear clarity of the water has always been quite impressive. I can only suspect it’s a natural result due to the rate of flow this pond has. I tried dye, and it was gone in a couple weeks. As in, no trace of it. At anywhere between $25/$35 or so per quart for that stuff, rated at one qt per ACRE and my pond being only 0.13 acre, I dumped the entire thing in, and poof. No more sign in short order. Sort of like darn near treating a creek or something.
There is about a FOOT deep of pure raw grey/black muck mud on the entire bottom of this pond. Interesting that much accumulated in only about fifteen or so years since it was completely dredged out.
Instead of going that route again, given it is VERY expensive, I wanted to try aeration, pond dye, and any other "little-to-no" natural environment impacting method instead of such measures as heavy duty chemicals. I'd like to find a more efficient way besides swimming our German Shepherd in the pond to churn up the muck (see attached photo). There has to be a way to get DO into it, however much I can will help.
Hopefully increased aeration will make a positive difference, combined with lots of dye, and relentless RAKING. Good exercise, that is. Who needs a Gym when there are ponds to maintain? Thanks again for all the help. I sure appreciate it. Coming into winter, I’m racing getting as much of the FA off the surface before it sinks to the bottom soon.
