Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions Restarting aeration

I installed a Vertex aeration system last fall and turned it off in November. When should I restart it? The water temperature 2 days ago was about 49 at the surface and 45 on the bottom.

Your water is mixing free of charge right now so I'd hold off until you have to. You'll get different answers but I hold off in my ponds -- except the trout pond -- until just before the ponds stratify.

Yeah your water is still pretty cool. I don't turn mine on until my air temps start to hit mid 40's for lows and upper 60's to 70 for highs.

You could turn it on as your water temps are high enough where you won't do any super cooling but start out easy. I ran mine a few days at 30 minutes or so then last week all week long at 2 hours a day. And now this week it's at 4 hours. I believe in taking it slow when it comes to starting your air back up!


RC

When I start it up I was going to use the same routine as when I first installed it: 30 mins 1st day, 1 hour next day, 2 hours next, etc....(as per Ted Lea)

Wasn't sure if I was doing any harm or good by starting this early in the spring.

This early in the spring soon after ice has melted and water is around 40F-50F. The wind completely mixes the pond. So if you start your aerator now you do not have to start is slowly since the pond is already completely mixed. Running the aerator now when water is less than 50F the water mixes very easy (wind action) since there is no warm water layer to resist mixing.

For ponds that didn't run the aerator during the winter, now is when I start them and let them run - no ramping up. That water temp is perfect for it like Bill said.

In my pond, I shut mine off because I have a project that I'm testing that needs a thermocline set up to work.

Ok so the ice is off the water temp is up to 36 on surface. I have two shallow air stations running 5-8 feet shallow. I have the one that is in one deep end at 12 feet running and has been running all winter. Water fall is running 10Am to 7Pm and dumps into the same area of the pond that all air stations are running.

Wondering when I should turn on our last air station in the other deep end at 16 feet. Would like to warm this up all even as soon as I can.

There is some water chemistry happening right now. In the mornings the water will have bubbles that last for a minute or two around the air stations in the morning and only in the morning. Not enough to make foam just enough to show me there is some chemical reaction happening over night.

My question is can I let the 16 foot air station go when surface temp is at 36 and ice only out completely for only a day?

Cheers Don.

I'd wait another week or so until the water gets to the low 40's.

We are talking surface temp around 40 or like 42. I am guessing this temp because at this temp water holds the most O2.

Cheers Don.

My big pond is within .4 degrees from top to bottom with no artificial mixing. Obviously the wind is mixing it due to the similar density. Why would I want to crank up the diffusers now? Am I missing something?

Cecil, if you do it now or within a couple of weeks of your water temps being homogeneous, then you don't have to go through the "15 min today, 30 min tomorrow, 45 min the day after that, etc." start up process.

RobA, If a pond does not have a full year (season) of aeration runtime yet and is shut off fully for the winter I prefer to startup slowly when going into first year of fulltime aeration. Fulltime for you may be on 8 months not including winter aeration. I agree with Cecil that your getting more mixing now with wind and flucuation of air temps than what most aeration systems can provide. If a pond has had a history of negative bottom water it should be cleaned up going into the first year of fulltime operation.This is being very conservative (and safe)

Never had an issue cranking it right up just before the pond stratifies. Keep in mind my big pond gets plenty of wind action and is only 9 feet deep maximum depth with average depth of about 7 feet.

Well..... water temp was up to 47-51 at the surface so we fired up the other air station.

Cheers Don.

I fired mine up too so the water column would warm up fast and I can get feed into the fish.