Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions Algal Bloom & Aerating

Does aerating affect the algae bloom?. It all depends. Numerous things come into play with this feature.

1. Strength of the mixing currents and what percentage of the pond's volume AND surface acreage is being turned over or mixed.

2. Nutrient load and nutrient reserves in the pond which provide food source for the algae are important stimulators of the bloom.

3. Water clarity and bloom density (number of organisms per milliliter are important in affectding the bloom.

4. Frequency and length of time that the aerator operates. Continuous running would usually cause planktonic algae to be in deep water only a relatively short time.

5. Algae speices. Each species responds differently to the variables. There are thousands of species of planktonic freshwater algae that could be living in ponds across North America. Some will be supressed by the circulaton affects whereas others could or will be stimulated by the circulation. Others such as certain fragile colonial types could be broken and disrupted by the movement and currents; ddurable colonial forms are very tolerant. Some algae tolerate low light conditions very well. Some algae go into suspended physiology during low light or low nutrients only to be reactivated when conditons improve.

6. Weather conditions and season (temperature / daylength) can be important players in how well algae survive regardless of aeration and or movement or depth of the individuals.

7. If I really thought about this and did some book searching I could find other reasons.

8. Basically - As a bottom line, It all depends. This is why one person can swear the aeration solved his algae problem and in another's case the aereator stimulated their algae bloom.