Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions Disffuser under ice

Last couple years I have had a diffuser with 4 air stones on it running thru the winter under my dock. This summer I added a 2nd diffuser that same setup out in the middle of the pond and ran it all summer.

Soooo now here we are in winter...
The diffuser at the dock is fine, it has a large area with open water working great. The new diffuser in the middle had a hole of open water but I had turned the system off for a few days and turned it on again now there isn't a hole of open water in the middle.
I am wondering if this a bad thing to have this run under the ice?
The diffuser is at about 8 feet of depth that isn't creating open water where as the dock diffuser is at about 4 feet.

Thoughts would be great.
Thanks in advance.

I don't know much about aeration beyond what I've learned here, but I have to wonder if running it at that depth might not be harmful to the fish. Depending on how deep your pond is, you could possibly risk supercooling it. That's an interesting question about it being too deep to keep the surface open. During the days you had it off, did you get substantial ice accumulation? If so, perhaps it's just going to take a little extra time to clear a hole.

I'm interested to read what our aeration gurus have to say about it.

I was told in Wisconsin we don't have to worry about super cooling so I had thought I was ok there?

Yes, we prolly got close to 3 inch of ice.

I've got to worry about it here in Indiana, so I'd bet you have to worry about it too in Wi.

Who told you that? I could understand that advice in South Florida, but Wisconsin? Seriously? Haven't they ever seen video of Lambeau Field in winter?

All, what size is your pond? What are your fish types? When you added the second stone did you do it through a seperate valve? If yes that the deep stone (valve) would need to be wide open since at your stated depths it has 2 additional lbs of back pressure on it. Often with stones when the unit is shut off water flows back into the line as it can creep past the check valve, When this happens and you restart the compressor the air will go to the lesser path of resistance regardless of where/how the two valves are set. If this is your situation open the deep valve and close the shallow one and run for an hour to get the water/condensate out and then rebalance.What size compressor are you using that powers these two stations? Also unless you are trout heavy you may not want that deeper diffuser running depending on some of the answers to the above.

A few questions will help:

What size air station are you currently running?
What size is your pond? Total Depth and Surface Acre
What types of biological life (plant and animal) do you typically observe?

If the aeration system you are using is too large compared to the volume of your pond it can cause water temperature declines that may be harmful to your fish.

Ted has good advice about if the deep diffuser is even getting air when it was off then restarted. Is there a check valve on the deep diffuser and is it working properly? Water filling the air line of deep diffuser will not allow air to move to stones if shallow diffusers are receiving all the air flow due to less head pressure. Follow Teds advice for getting air to deep diffuser then crack open valve on shallow diffuser to allow just enough air to operate it.

IMO super cooling the water and stressed fish is much better than having dead fish.

Thanks all for the replies. Thinking Ted pointing out my issue, water leaking back thru the air line...which would explain why my dock diffuser has suck a large hole in -7 weather. I'm just going to turn the deeper diffuser off till spring.

Thanks all. Problem solved.

Yes turn off the deep water one for the winter even if you have to bleed off some air going to the shallow one.