Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations hello and help

Hello all! And thanks for the past advice; I have been able to correct a few BIG mistakes with your knowledge and experience! Well I just came back from a short trip home and my pond may be in trouble………WE NEED RAIN! I have put the land back into agriculture and the farmer spread chicken house litter over the watershed. We have only had 1 measurable rain fall in 4 weeks but it was a gully washer and it put a lot of fertilizer into my pond. It looks like the bloom is dieing off but the oxygen level is low in the pond, as well as the pond level (down 9foot).Thus far we have only lost a few fish but it seems they were the biggest fish in the pond(LMB) and the fish over all are lethargic. My question is about aerators and electric. I can not afford to run electric service to the pond at this time. The nearest electric is 1000 feet away .Is it possible to run a LARGE electric wire from a 115v outlet and run a small aerator? My pond is down to around ¼ to ½ acre, with A LOT of fish. Thanks in advance and please take your best shot at a solution! I have around a 500.00 budget.

For house wiring, the ideal goal is a maximum voltage drop of 2%. For copper wire, type T or TW, the maximum distance a specific ga wire will carry a max amp load is (all distances are one way:
120 volts, single phase
5 amp, #8 wire, 360 ft max
5 amp, #6 wire, 573 ft max
5 amp, #4 wire, 911 ft max
10 amp #4 wire, 455 ft max
10 amp, #2 wire, 704 ft max
10 amp, #1/0 or 2/0...no input
15 amp, #1/0 wire, 768 ft
15 amp, #2/0 wire, 965 ft

I also have 240 V, but the tables max out around 700-900 ft.
***for a voltage drop of 3%, increase all distances by 50%....for a drop of 4%, increase all distances by 100%

Thanks! the pump im looking at draws 195 watts at 2.6 amps with 3.5 cfm.Thats not alot of AIR but it beats NO air!

we used aluminum direct burial (3-wires, heavy duty coating) to go 800 feet from house to well on a 70 amp circuit w/ no loss. Used same kind of wire to go 400 feet from well house to pond on 20 amp circuit w/ no loss at pond. that would be a total of 1200 feet from original power source (@house) w no losses. if interested i'll go out to the shed and see if I have any leftover.....it'll have the guage and whatnot. comes on big wooden spool.

The biggest fear for motors is at start-up. This is when they draw the most. There are capacitor setups that help alleviate the big initial draw, but I doubt that they are incorporated into the kinda thing we are talking about powering. Your lower operating avg amperage will allow a longer stretch with smaller wire, but I still fear the need for the kick-start. You may very well be able to get away with 6 ga. At this point, I relent to the electrical experts. There's a fistful of forum posters that set these things up that likely have the charts to coincide with your project....hang tite; let's see if you can raise some more expertise and support.

No disrespect to the many venders and supports here at pond boss, but the systems I am looking at are on EBay. PS I have ordered my POND BOSS subscription! Here is the link to the equipment I am looking to run power to.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Fish-Pond-Aerator-Ae...1QQcmdZViewItem

there is another thought...
Like a compressor in the garage, the rule of thumb is add air hose, not electrical cord. You may be able to flip-flop the wire with the airhose...purty sure.

That may very well work but from what I am finding out I should be able to run the pump from my house with 12 GA wire,pump is around 250.00 wire cost around 250.00 to 300.00 almost in budget! The plus side is I could have electric in my duck blind and save my fish! Ye ha

I was gonna suggest its nice to have power near pond if budget allows. if you had a spare 20 amp circuit at house, you could get the direct burial stuff, rig up the infrastructure to not only run the pump, have your duckblind power, but downroad you could add buglights or whatever.

I looked at a leftover piece of what we used, doesnt give guage, gives millimeters.....must have been made in EU.
It says "ALCAN S 2 AWG (33.62 SQ MM) 600V". Pretty big stuff. the ground (third) wire is smaller (21.15 SQ MM). I dont remember it being more than $250 but that was 8 years ago. we got 1000 and 250 foot spools. Probably bigger guage than you need since we ran 70 amp feed to well house, but you might research (or price out) aluminum direct burial type.

Dave I do in fact have 2 -20 amp breakers open in my panel. One of them is slated for a power supply to a 40ft camper that is turning into the guest hunter residence. My wife is good natured but has had enough of the large troop of out of town duck.goose.deer and offshore fishermen /hunters that besiege our home each year. From the house to the pond is over 1000 foot so the wire will be pricey but then again the FISH ARE MY PETS! And to tell the truth I HADNT even thought about the BUG ZAPPER/fish feeder! Man I like the way you think! Not to mention the heat and TV for the goose pit!

Motor efficiency deteriorates exponentially after the 2% voltage drop, but I've run some lines to small motors with drops of 3 to 4 percent for years with no motor damage. You can run a 10 gauge (AWG) off a 120v source with about a 2.2% drop over 1000 ft if your current draw is only 2.6 amps. I don't think you will have any problem. I would never consider running wire gauges lower than 10 for long distances as the expense becomes excessive and the wire difficult to work with. You also, might consider running an air line from a remote compressor rather than an electric line and local compressor

You will be a lot better off running an air line to the pond with the budget you are talking about.
Any aeration expert will tell you this. 3.5 cfm is a lot of air, actually too much for some diffusers, but at the watt rating you stated for motor,that is probably in free air; actually probably about 1 to 2 cfm depending on depth(psi rating). What is the max depth of pond. What compressor are you looking to get? Look up the specs. Each 2.5 ft. of depth is 1 psi plus about 2psi for the air line(3/4" poly, about $15 per hundred at Lowes, but probably cheaper in bulk. 1000 ft. of #6 wire will be costly. Sounds like you had better git her done quick. Good luck. Ask for more advise if needed. Squeeky is correct, you could get by with 10 guage, but you know you will be plugging more things in if it is there, then you will have a problem.