Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions 8 acre pond at 10,000' - lots of aeration ?s

Thanks Eric! Actually 2018 was frozen up more solid than it looks in that pic. Looking back at my notes, my buddy went up 11.21.2018, 9 days after that pic, to gather data. The ice was 6" thick and we had 7.15ppm at 1' deep and 4.22ppm at 7' deep. I was running the 1/2 hp pump 9.5 hours per day.

Fast forward to this past weekend. My buddy went up to measure. He got as far away from the diffusers as he could which put him in about 12' of water. At 1' deep we had 7.82ppm and 36.7F. At 11' deep we had 7.75ppm and 36.1F. HUGE improvements over the past few years. Of course we were already under ice by this time the past few years so not really an apples to apples comparison. Keep in mind, this is with two dual diffusers at 4' deep, a quad diffuser at 10' deep and a single diffuser run by a windmill at 12" deep. He measured 200'+ away from the quad.

Here is what I find most interesting. In the winter we are not "aerating" we are only "deicing". A completely different topic. I have never seen this and the ramifications of this fully explained. In the summer O2 cannot penetrate deep into the water even with the help of wind. Maybe because of the thermocline, warmer water or something else? HOWEVER, in the winter O2 can magically penetrate through the majority if not all of the water column. Does it do this by osmosis? I don't know. What I do know is with diffusers suspended very shallow in the water, DO is reaching much deeper depths than what the diffusers are actually influencing! So, all I need to do in the winter is keep holes open and the DO will work its way down. I would love for someone to explain this. What sucks is I think there may have been people out there that understood this and yet I spent seven years learning it through the school of hard knocks. I do plan on making a separate well thought out post about this for any true northern folks out there searching for answers some day. Even with intermittent aeration and 3 feet of ice all you need is a pipe with your diffusers suspended from it and all your dreams can come true. My definition of true north is ice more than a foot thick for more than three months. We could simplify that some with just a decision tree or two. Look up. See the North Star? Are you two miles closer to it? If yes, you are in the North. If no, see question two. Can you drive a semi on your ice? If yes, then you are in the north. If no, you are in the south! Lol


Current temps are now considerably warmer than past years. I am thinking I may get another week or so until frozen solid. That would be almost a month less ice on the front end of winter!!

I guess we have to count yesterday as first ice up even though it was pretty weak. I know folks love pics and I can go back even further as we go on. So here we go
11.15.2021 first ice up of the year


11.13.2020 not the exact same date. Earlier date actually to be conservative. BIG difference


11.15.2019


11.12.2018 again an earlier date for conservative comparison. 9 days after this pic ice was verified 6" thick


11.08.2017 buddy took this pic while hunting. a week earlier than our 2021 pic and frozen very solid.