That sounds like one of those "it depends" questions.

It's my understanding that running aeration in the winter is to keep a hole in the ice so that gasses that build-up from the life in the pond can escape. That hole in the ice goes against your plan for safe ice sporting. Now, if you do not have much of a bio-load in the pond, you should not have much gas build-up and, hence, no real need for winter aeration.

My guess is that the stream runs all the time carrying DO2 into the pond and carrying any gas build-up out of the pond, you bio-load is normal to small, and having ice all season for skating and such is important to you and yours. All that said...I don't think you need aeration at all, in fact, I 'd like to hear some expert opinions as to why one would have aeration on a stream fed pond, other than aesthetics.

Welcome to the club, btw!


Fish on!,
Noel