Disclosure: I don't know squat about aeration.
Would there be a benefit to turn off aeration totally for a period to establish a baseline of how the pond is "naturally?" Possibly the same for any other inputs like feeding etc?
That would be an interesting thing to try, but for the time being, I will trust that aeration is a good thing for my pond. The pond is suffering from heavy pollen and I am in the middle of a Optimal feed trial, so I don't want to turn either off right now. It will be cooling off more very soon which would normally call for more airtime, so I think I will test what more air does first and then turn off and test the DO trends later this fall. And, I will certainly run plenty of tests next spring before the diffusers are engaged.
