Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions Is the plan too small?

Here is the picture of my pond and the basic topo of it. It is about 1/2 acre and the deep end under the raft is 15 feet. The other end has a depth of 8 feet.





The house and landscaping is under construction, but the pond is 3 years old. We are adding aeration as part of the project. The Contractor has spec'ed for one location for the bubbler, and we have put a waterfall on the side opposite the house in the middle.

Two questions that I need help with.

1) Is one head enough for this pond?

2) If one, where should I put it and how deep, if more than one is needed, where should I put them?

The pump will be located on the side opposite the house, next to the waterfall.

I will only run the pump when the ice is off the pond.

The pond has LMB, BG, RES and YP. they have done very well the last three years without aeration. I am hoping that aeration will help with alge control and overall pond health and stratification.

We move in in June. I cannot wait to finally live on my pond!

Hi Brian, great looking project. To answer your questions 1. Is one head enough? Depends on the lifting capacity of the head or airstation.Also depends on how often you want to lift your water body (once or twice per day)? 2. I would rather use the same size compressor and lift in two different areas in this particular pond.I would use two different styles of air stations with two discs on each but spaced differently on each station.One for the deep end under the raft and the shallow one in the NW section of the 8 ft area. This pond could easily be areated properly with a small 2.5 CFM single piston compressor 1/3 hp.Aeration will help with overall pond health but "at best" can have a profound effect at algae reduction.Dont be oversold on bottom diffused aeration and FA reduction.With the pond being young at 3 years and "demand" for oxygen being low and easy for mother nature to supply it is common to have healthy fish in a newer pond without aeration.With the trees you have to block wind for most of the warm season and the leaves in the fall and the house perhaps blocking some wind your "demand" for oxygen may get closer to your "supply" soon.

Hello Brian, this is my dream set up. Ted answered you perfectly. I would add that since Algae is your reason for aeration, it can only be a side benefit of aerating a pond. The algae is there for a reason. Nutrient loading and the pond's ability to assymilate those nutrients is low.

By aerating, you will be suspending the nutrients to the bottom of the pond and locking them up (as long as the sediment oxygen demand is met) so that the algae can not use them as a food source. By adding bacteria, you will add additional animals to tie up those nutrients. Finally, if pond dye such as Black is use, it provides a "Sun Glass" effect on the pond shading the amount of sunlight and reducing the algae's ability to produce chlorophyll.

Best fishes,