Pond Boss Forums AERATION Should I aerate? Should I aerate

Well, it looks like you lost a LOT of the water in the pond. So, the fish that were used to having more water to swim in were crammed into a much smaller area. Higher water temps hold less dissolved O2 also, so the low water levels during summer make it even more critical.

One way you can tell if you need aeration is to see fish piping at the top of the water right at sunrise, or see white fish bellies floating. But then it's too late.

You can go buy a YSI dissolved O2 meter and take readings, anything below 5 ppm or mg/l is cause for alarm.

The older the pond gets, the higher the O2 demand on the pond will be due to decaying organics and possibly a higher fish biomass load.