Pond Boss Forums AERATION Should I aerate? Aeration at night during hot weather?

'Rod:

In regards to pond temp, temp doesn't mean *that* much to me if there isn't enough O2 in the water to support life. BUT OTOH, I typically don't deal with the heat that the people in Texas see on a yearly basis.

I have seen a pond where the trout were alive (albet only for 3 weeks due to water temp increases) @ 80°F (Rainbow and Golden Rainbow Trout). The O2 reading was 10.5mg/l @ 80°F. We had an extended period of time (close to 2 weeks) starting a week after that 80°F water temp reading where the ambient temps hit 100°F during the day and only cooled to the upper 70's at night. I was at the pond 3 weeks later and didn't observe a single trout with water temps @ 84°F. O2 levels were still 9.5 mg/l. Clarity was bouncing between 36"-48"

Pond was 5/8 ac, max depth 10'. Vertex bottom diffusion system was running 24/7 and a 1 .5 hp Kasco surface agitator was running 24/7 at the same time. The pond had a tremendous amount of muck build up, I measured it at 5' thickness in the deepest part, and 3' thick with 3 feet of water over the top of that muck layer. Turnover rate of the pond was 2.1x/day with the system running 24/7.

The Vertex AirStations were sunk to the bottom, no suspended diffusers. 0 amount of muck was noticed being pushed to the surface after 50% thru the start up period (which typically takes a week from beginning to running 24 hr/day).