canyoncreek,
My recommendation and $.02 is coming from my experience in the field, managing almost 1,000 ponds annually, many of them that have RBT in them... in Michigan. We do some pretty extensive testing on aerators, mainly Vertex, how they operate in the field.
Although the other's input may sound logical, there is one thing that they indicate which may not be taken into consideration.. and that is when they run their systems and how they run their systems. (And as for trout farms... their ponds are typically less than 10ft deep with continual water changeover and high volume surface aerators to sustain DO levels... so they have high DO and cold water)
Running a system only at certain times of the day could actually be causing more harm than good and cause some of the problems that some have written about. When ambient temps & water temps increase, DO decreases.. especially when an aerator is NOT running. So after a warmer or hot day where there could be a dip in the DO levels at the top layer of water and little to no DO at the bottom of your pond due to NOT running the aerator, your fish will be caught in the mixing process when an aerator is turned on.. Colder, DO lacking water being pushed to the top layer and forcing the already DO decreased warmer water to the bottom... Essentially, in my opinion, fish loss due to the operation cycle of the aerator, not the aerator.
I'm only giving you my input that is based off of my professional experience in the field for the past nearly 20 years... I have dozens of pond owners with trout in ponds that are in that 15-20ft depth range and sustain a healthy RBT population year after year when an aeration has been installed, all of which I have installed and placed completely to the bottom of the pond.
Last edited by PondPro; 06/11/14 03:21 PM.
