There is not much published on how much destratification by aeration can increase carrying capacity (cc). It will depend on several if not numerous factors. Generally destratification will increase the invertebrate community that inhabits the benthic zone in the pond bottom that would normally be anoxic. One of the main factors is how much this will increase cc is what portion (%) of the pond bottom now becomes aerobic to support invertebrates.
Another big factor is amount of pond fertility which very few have a good estimate of this number or where their pond is located on the fertility or nutrient scale.
Another factor that I think enters this discussion is the compositon of the fish community. The more herbivores and ominvores there are present the more the cc will be increased.
One has to remember that the destratifiation is affecting primarily the invertebrate community of the pond's food web-chain. For a wild guess I would say the cc increase of fish would be on the order of 10%-25%. This assumes the entire pond is now destratified and in some instances this is not true due to undersized or inefficient aeration units leaving some parts of the sediment water interface still anoxic or without adequate DO to support most larger bottom dwelling invertebrates.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 10/20/09 10:03 PM.
