Hello Scott,
Welcome to Pond Boss Forum. You were questioning the concept of aeration to help improve the health of the pond and increase the activity of the fish during the warm summer months.
A pond's goal is to eventually fill in and be come a meadow. Our goal is to slow down and in some cases reverse this process. Therefore in order to do this we have to efficiently manipulate the pond and give it for lack of better words, "a pacemaker for the pond" to keep it alive and well.
A new pond such as yours does not have a large amount of oxygen demand. Now going into the third year and on the demand begins to increase. You said your pond is in shade which means increased leaves dropping into the pond. As those leaves break down oxygne is consumed.
When a system is sized, we back into how many diffusers are required to turnover the entire volume at least 0.75 times per day. Some other companies may be a little higher or lower but we have found that this rate meets the oxygen demand for most ponds of your type.
With the limited information you provided about your pond, a single diffuser set up should be more than enough to circulate 174,819 +/- gallons.
With your concerns about suspending the clay, you should look to a diffuser that has a base with the diffuser above that base. Ours, Vertex and some other companies that advertise in Pond Boss have examples of a "raised diffuser" set up.
Again, welcome to Pond Boss and I'm sure you will be hooked like the rest of us and checking the page every day and in some cases like Dr. Bruce, between patients.
