Pond Boss Forums AERATION Should I aerate? pond airation

Hello to all, i am new to this forum so i am probably asking a very redundent question. i have a farm pond that is approx 1/4 acre with a depth of about 10'. the water is reasonably clear but there is lots of muck at the bottom. i just bought a pond airator last week. my question is how deep to place it. the instructions on the airator said not to place it at the deepest part but 2/3 to 3/4 of the deepest part. i placed it at approx 6' and am running it 24/7. i have seen several posts on your sight that say to place it in the deepest portion of the pond. am i doing more harm than good running it 24/7 at 6'. thanks in advance for any help i am new to this pond game but trying to educate myself.

Howdy, Duane.

Maybe a dumb question - do you have fish in the pond? If so, running aeration 24/7 when starting up in an older pond with a large muck (old organic deposits) can be a bad thing. If your pond had no O2 in the deep water next to the muck, those organics were decaying anaerobically (slowly wrt the rate that is achieved through aerobic decay with aeration) and possibliy building up gases like H2S that are deadly to fish. That's why the advice usually given for starting aeration on an older pond is to start slowly, like 15 minutes a day a first and gradually work up the length of time, to release those gases in small quantities.

Here is just one post of one of our aeration pros (Ted Lea) advising that: Aeration Startup

Here is a post you may find interesting that talks about how muck is reduced through aeration: Clean Bottom.

And here is the aeration post that I personally have found the most useful overall: (Seasonal Aeration Starting & Stopping).

I'm not sure what depth would be optimum, but one piece of advice I can give on placing your aerator output (diffuser/airstone) at: you want to avoid having it directly contact the bottom muck. To avoid stirring up the muck off the bottom and creating a cloudy water problem, airstones are often placed inside weighted 5 gallon buckets (mine is) and diffusers can be strapped to a broader-based object (we have seen pictures of garbage can lids and car/truck wheels used); in either case the object is to place the air bubble source near the bottom (at whatever depth) without actually touching the bottom mud/muck.

P.S. What kind of aeration system are you running? That would help the pros (not me) tailor advice for you.

Hi to all and thanks for getting back to me so promptly. i will try to give you some more information on my pond etc. first, yes i have fish in the pond. a freind of mine planted 5 small mouth bass about a year ago and they appear to have spawned. i see many fingerlings approx 1-2" long. Second the system i purchased was from a nearby pond supply place. i am not sure of the brand as that was cut off the manual but i will describe it as best i can. its a pa33 aeration system consiting of a single membrane defuser. it comes in a plastic tray approx 18"X12"X4" deep on top of the tray there is a pipe about 4" up the defuser screws into the pipe. the defuser i think is about 8" in diameter. i would estimate the defuser is about 8" from the bottom. you fill the tray with rocks to weight down the system. the system also cantained 100' of weighted tubing the tubing runs about 75' from the house to the edge of the pond. the pump is a gast 1/4 hp rocking piston type pump. model 74-r. as earlier stated i placed it in about 6' of water and has been running 24/7 since july 2nd. i have not noticed any fish kills and the water does not have a rotten egg smell to it. i took some initial temp readings before i started the pump. the surface temp on july 1 was 78F. at 5' it was 67f and at 8' it was 63f. the visual clarity was approz 36". i had a ph test done and it read 8.5 i live in bellingham wa apprx 30 miles from the canadian border in western wa. my elevation is appozx 50' above sea level. the pond may have some underground springs but mainly is filled with rainwater. i plan to draw down the pond about 3' this fall and get a trac hoe in to cut down the edge and fill the sides with rock to keep the vegatation down arround the edges. i hope i have given you enough information. if not let me know. this is a wonderful sight and i am looking foreward to learning more about ponds

hello all i have yet another question concerning placement of an aerator. i have an oval shaped pond approx 1/4 acre and max depth of 10' avg depth 5'. i placed an aerator at approx 6' of depth and have run it for about 10 days now. my main question is should it be at the deepest portion of the pond? i would assume it has stratified so the bottom 4' may be oxygen deficient. if placing at the lowest part of the pond (10') is the correct thing to do i will move the aerator and only run it for short periods of time until its established. is this the right thing to do or should i leave it at 6'? the pond seems to be clearing and i don't detect any rotten egg smell. as always your advice is appreciated.

Duane, How big of an area is the 10' of depth. Does it circumnavigate the shape of the pond? If that area is less than 10% of the pond's total shape, we would suggest leaving it alone and let it create a so called "nutrient sink" and don't mess with it.

Cary thanks for the advice i am quite a newbie at this. i am not sure the percentage of area that is 10' but if i had to venture a guess i would say its less than 20%. the pond is oval shaped with dimensions of 190' long and 70' wide. and since it was man made i would assume that the bottom is probably flat. if you think it best to leave at 6' that's what i will do, i was just concerned that i might be creating an oxygen deficiency at the bottom that would harm the fish.