Pond Boss Forums AERATION Should I aerate? Aerate 24/7?

dbw1968-

You are lucky that you have not killed fish. Your pond must be fairly young and the build up of hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide is not too great.

For the future, start your system for 15min the first day, then turn it off. 30min the next day, 1 hour the next, 2 hours, 3 hours and continue to add an hour until you reach 6 hours of continuous use. This will reduce the possibility of a fish kill due to the introduction of toxic gasses.

What type of system do you have? In a .33 acre lake, a single diffuser system depending on the type of diffuser and the depth it is placed should be more than sufficient.

With increased algae blooms if the system is off, that is a good indicator that the nutrients like phosphates and nitrates are still free floating in the water column and most likely being released from the bottom sediments. You mention that that happens only with the system off during the hot days.

With the system on you are meeting the oxygen demand and changing the bottom chemsitry so those phosphates and nitrates are locked up into the bottom sediments. This also allows the pond to assymilate any extra nutrients that are washing in during storm events.

Your question about 24/7 operation. I think if you want to keep the algae at bay and make sure you do not build up a layer of hydrogen sulfide gases, the only option is to leave the system on 24/7 during summer. The only true way to measure the requirements for a pond's oxygen demand is to have an O2 meter. This will alow you to find not only the oxygen levels at depths but the temperature as well.

Bass Pro had some on sale recently for $100 with a 15' marked cable and probe. I picked one up for a secondary back up meter to my Hydrolab.

Alum treatments: Buffered alum? While doing the treatment, I would turn the system off. You want the alum to bond with particles in the lake and sink to the bottom. This happens quite quickly 1-2 days max. Then I would turn on the system. Observe it to make sure you are not re-suspending the particles. If so, turn it off and rais the diffuser above the slurry level created by the sinking alumn.

I hope this helps you answer some of your questions. If you have any more, please do not hesitate to post. It takes us some time to get back to the page during summer with all of us in the field working.