http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0dgaMdfvSkI shot this amazing video at my neighborhood fishing pond. I want to bring up this question...
With children visiting and playing near this pond frequently, I feel that an aerator may cause safety hazards for an unsuspecting child that may wonder onto the ice . Does anyone feel the same way? This aerator obviously weakens the ice on this pond. Should the neighborhood association turn off this aerator during winter months??
My point of view is there should be signs saying thin ice /deep water / stay off ice and so on.
Safety always trumps pond health. Move the diffusers into shallow water or turn off the aeration system. At the very least, put up warning signs and spread the word through the neighborhood about safety concerns. If it were mine, I'd turn off the system.
Even if there was no aeration in that pond the ice is only an inch thick(or so) making it unsafe. Kids have to be watched at all times when they are around ponds. Up here in Canada we only have 2 weeks of unsafe ice spring/fall with Aeration in our ponds it makes unsafe areas all winter. Some of you guys deal with unsafe ice all winter even without aeration. Aeration is a safety hazard but so is ice. Train and watch the kids!!!!
Ice is unsafe down here all year around. It may look thick enough but it isn't. The best thing to do in the southern part of the USA is to avoid ice on ponds.
+1 with what Bob Lusk said.
I run the diffuser in mine during the winter (no kids). After both of my dogs almost drowned in the pond (couldn't get back up on the ice in below zero weather) I moved my diffuser so that it keeps an ice free hole to the shore.
Even so, with winter aeration it's not recommended to go on the ice anywhere in the pond.
We had a cottage on Round Lake in the Tri lakes area, IN. Almost every winter there were two large areas that usually didn't freeze because of springs. Until I saw this I had no idea springs could do this. A few years ago I found a stray dog that had broken through the ice and drown in my pond so I watch my dog very carefully when the ice is thin as it is now in this warming weather.
This is Round Lake. Beautiful but could be dangerous.
There is a 2ft high fence with signs surrounding the ponds where I live.
There was a news report this weekend where 3 horses had to be rescued after going through in their watering pond. It wasn't really ice, but frozen slush. The place they went in quickly dropped off to 8 feet. They had to cut and chop a path to the shallow area to get them out.
Ice is not very good around here this year. I am surprised there are not many more reports this year. Usually there are several reports of vehicles becoming structure after a bad experience on the ice.
There is no safe ice in the winter when an aeration system is running ~ definately shut if off if there are concerns!!
Yeah I was born and raised in N. Wisconsin and you don't mess with ice on creek's, river's, air systems on ponds. Moving water equals unstable ice!! Every year you would hear of someone or someone's kid trying to take a shortcut home and crossing a creek or a river somewhere where they shouldn't have. Or playing someplace where they should not have been playing on ice. I lived on a lake behind our house and it was called Spring Lake. For a very good reason. Spring's all over in it. I fell in once when I was 15 at about waist high talk about mind curdling cold!!! Thank goodness I was only in 4 foot of water! You will forever respect it once you fall in it and if you live though it!
Thank you to everyone who reinforced my decision to talk to my association and get this aerator turned off. It should be in their best interest, since this is an accident waiting to happen. I would hate to see a pet, or even worse a kid , have to be pulled out from this ice water.
In any case, winter aeration should not be done in the same location with the same diffuser placement as summper aeration.
If there's a bunch of fish in the pond, I'd look at placing a diffuser close to shore in shallower water, or risk losing the fish during a severe winter.
Yeah that is a problem. Of course we don't want anything to happen to any people or animals for sure! Like esshup said if you could move the fuser to one end of the shallow's where the water would stay open that would keep anyone or any dogs from trying to get on the ice from that shoreline cause they would visually see the open water?? The problem with that though is you just never know what a child might do anyway! If you have a lot of kids around I would shut it down just to be safe. Maybe try and keep a section cleared off of snow so the sun can get to it??? Good luck let us know what you do.
I agree with all the comments here. Kids, animals and people without common sense will hurt themselves in all kinds of ways. We as manufacturers do our best to educate and lable everything. Stickers, embossed sections on the outside of the cabinets, wording in the owner's manuals and yet we hear story's such as this.
I have recomended ORANGE Vynl Construction Fence placed around the pond as a warning along with postings Every 20-50 feet about the danger. Even if the system is not running, my 210# would go through the majority of most iced over ponds. I have had it happen.
Secondly, I have recommended life rings with 50' lines attached to throw to someone who still has decided to neglect the warnings if they have fallen through the ice. DO NOT TRY TO GO OUT THERE YOURSELF OR YOU WILL BE A SECOND VICTOM OF THE FRESHWATER KING NEPTUNE!
NEVER run a diffuser at depth not only for super cooling but for safety reasons. And I agree with Sue, if still a worry, turn it off and as RC said, clear off the snow, but wouldn't you fall through the ice doing that too?
Be safe, enjoy you pond and
Best fishes!