This thread is very interesting to me. Being a farmer, doing something like putting in aeration in a "farm" pond seems a little sacrilegious. There was no intention of doing it during construction and I kind of sloughed the idea off when the guy who sold and delivered my stocking fish mentioned "it is never too early to think about aeration".

Well when the filamentous algae started showing up, since we look at this pond out our kitchen and bedroom window, it was not a satisfactory "look" to wife (or I have to admit, myself also). So I have been studying aeration and will be following this thread through the winter.

What I have observed and think I know so far which is very little:

I ordered a relatively inexpensive linear pump and dual 9" membrane round diffuser, put it in a few weeks ago at about 8'-9' depth and took it out yesterday for the winter. It was temporary, never meant to be permanent (will do that next spring) and was mostly an experiment so I could learn something this fall while the water temperature at least had not went completely cold (although the pond I think had already "turned" and lost its heavy summer thermocline).

Some observations from someone who up until now only knows what I have read in the last couple months and have had about three weeks observation of the diffuser in operation:

The dual diffuser moves a significant amount of water. On a clam day I was surprised when I paddled my small boat up to it how well it pushed the boat away with the current. According to a 15 psi gage it was running at 3.75 psi. The gage was not an expensive one so I would not put great faith in the accuracy of that measurement, but it should be ballpark based on about a 9' depth with the diffuser base raising it up to 8 or 8.5. Again not a real accurate measurement on the depth but should be close. On a perfectly calm day you could see the ripples go all the way from the diffuser in the southern third of my pond all the way to the north shore. I'm certain I do not have enough diffusers or pump capacity for the whole pond (I am leaning towards 3 on a 3.5 acre kidney shaped pond) but as I said this was just a learning experiment till I decide what the permanent installation will be.

I was impressed with the amount of water being moved. I think it was starting to improve clarity but hard to tell in such short period and maybe it was just wishful thinking.

The small fish loved it. Adult FHM and small BG of about the same length when the water was still warm would ride the current to near the surface and jump off. Since I did not have them individually identified, could not tell if the same individuals were riding the "roller coaster" from the bottom to the top only to do the ride again, but it sure looked that way as it would be a continual stream of fish bubbling out of the stream of bubbles and current. I was observing from a small paddle boat. On approaching, the fish would temporarily disappear from being spooked by the boat, then quickly reappear and start the ride over. They seemed to love it. This pretty much stopped once the water got below about 60 degrees though. Was quite entertaining and something I did not expect to see.

I put in "lots" of structure in the pond. My small paddle boat (Paddle King) is equipped with a Garman 200 fish finder and we have fish all over the pond. But near the aeration and the structure nearest it, there appeared to be an even higher concentration of fish. Could be coincidence, could be they liked the diffused air and the current it created. Got the fish finder right after the air diffuser so have no previous reference.

My observations to date and until spring comes.

snrub

John

I subscribe to Pond Boss Magazine