I only have limited experience with aeration, having only been doing it a year.

I would have two concerns. Well really just one because the first one is easily rectified.

10 cfm is a bunch of air. The 9" Matala diffusers I am using call for a range of 1.4-4.2 cfm per disk or in other words 2.8-8.4 for a dual station. Lots of different types of diffusers with different specs out there. Using my diffusers as an example, you would need three of them if you were to use all the air the pump produced. The other option would be to "bleed off" part of the air and not use all of it. Of course this means you are wasting electricity. If you over expand a diffuser (with excess air flow) it will burst it or severely shorten its life span.

In past threads there have been formulas to figure electric cost. I don't have that info right off hand, but I would not be surprised of that 3/4 hp motor did not cost 30-40 dollars a month to operate continuously.

So the first problem, too much air, could be rectified easily by bleeding some off. For me, the electric cost would be my concern. You might only need a quarter or third horsepower pump for the size pond you have, and the electric cost for the larger pump might quickly eat up any savings in your lower pump cost price. That would be my concern. Something running 24/7 for 6-8 months out of a year can get expensive in electric cost. Maybe that is not a consideration in your case.

Some helpful links:
aeration links

Edit: It is my understanding that some diffusers use restrictions on the input of the diffuser. In my case the Matala diffusers do not. But it is another consideration when balancing pump output to diffuser.

Last edited by snrub; 01/27/15 08:55 PM.

John

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