As Cecil mentioned, aerating primarily only during ice and snow cover is okay to minimize chance of winter kill for most ponds at the Ohio River and farther south.
Since the pond is one acre I would leave the diffuser at 5 ft. My experience is that at 5ft deep it will do a slightly better job of circulating more of the entire pond. However if you have redears then it would probably be better to move the diffuser into 3-4ft of water because it could provide a slightly larger warm water refuge in the more remote areas of the pond for the RES who do not tolerate very well water that is 39F and below. The colder the pond water becomes in winter the more the RES will be thermally stressed.
Since you are in WVA, winter aeration is not as important or critical because your winters are not as severe on the pond biology as those ponds in more northern states where ice cover gets to 10"-20" with extended 3-4 months of snow cover.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 11/21/15 03:24 PM.
