Originally Posted By: Rainman...Extending your tubes to the bottom would save you considerable energy because the water would stay cooler, longer and less water would need to be pumped."
Originally posted by Cecil..."True, but you still have the situation where mixing with a diffuser even if only at night negates that somewhat. The diffuser is needed to keep oxygen levels up on the bottom where wastes and decomposition takes place. I don't think just adding aerated water is enough. I could be wrong however."
You would be delivering oxygenated water to the bottom...makes no difference if it gets oxygenated from aeration or the water being pumped to the bottom is already oxygenated...in fact, pumping oxygenated water to the bottom would lessen the high and low oxygen sat periods...reducing stress.
You could still reduce your air pump/water pump energy use by switching to an hour on/hour off approach and NOT activating your diffusers in the pond during the day. Add a small air pump for the well water and reduce your pond aeration to run from say 1am to sunrise. I think you would end up with better water quality, cooler temps and less energy/water consumption.
If your buckets are not fully saturating your well water and releasing all the CO2. I will virtually guarantee you have another chemical reaction going on that accounts for it..it would never take 2 days in an RAS system to achieve full O sats...perhaps high calcium carbonate reaction taking the O2 and creating CO2....
Last edited by Rainman; 03/10/12 06:02 PM.
