JD,
I respect your opinion too, but I should have mentioned I was aware of Fishhead's pond situation, and he does not have a trout pond as he has posted before.
You are absolutely right a trout pond will benefit from surface areation, however, fishead has a large warmwater pond which he wants to keep mixed most of the year so there is no chance of overturn and fishkills. For that a diffuser is best.
Fishhead, I still would not aerate as vigorously in winter, and would put a line and diffuser off to the side so you can just disconnect the summer lines and connect the winter.
Bill can answer you better on what size to use etc. or you can call a dealer as Stoney Creek in Grant Michigan.
Wood, I'm defintely no expert on aeration just know what works for me and my trout pond is different from yours. I run in 38 gpms of aerated well water into an 88 by 59 feet by 9 feet deep pond, and the diffuser worked great for me last year. But I did turn it off when temps reached 80 degrees. Then when temps dropped at night I turned it back on. In this small pond I was able to keep temps from rising above the mid sixties even when temps went into the 90's Fahrenheit. Even when it did rise that high is started dropping again as soon as the sun went low in the sky. If my memory serves me correct I harvested about 300 lbs. of trout out of that 1/12 acre pond last fall. I've got around 200 lbs. in that pond right now and may harvest up to 500 lbs. this fall.
If you are depending on a cool oxygen layer in deep water you may not want to mix. But I would think eventually in a year or two you will end up with low oxygen in the deeper water as your pond enriches. If Jd's pond is similar to yours I would go with what he does. But then again I think he too said something about running in well water in summer? Don't you have others in your area to compare too? How about the one that sold you the trout? If he does not have trout in dugouts he may know someone that does.
I would defintely run a bottom diffuser in winter even in a trout pond to keep some water open especially if you get deep snow on that thick ice.
Bill Cody?
