Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions DC aeration pump?

I found a few AC air pumps in the 1/4 hp range that seem to be up to aerating my 140,000-gal pond. Since I'm off-grid, it makes sense to use the DC directly for pumping instead of going through the inverter, simply because of the energy loss from conversion. But I read that DC pumps are made neither well nor big enough for my pond. Am I missing something?

Running the aerator off the batteries means the pump will be off at night, so as not to drain the batteries too low. Having it off at night means more weeks and months before the muck buildup all gets eaten. I want every watt and percentage of efficiency that I can get! Fortunately, our Outback charge controller has some kind of auxiliary relay that takes better advantage of battery capacity than a separate Light-On photoelectric cell.

Look at this:

http://www.vertexwaterfeatures.com/britestar-solar-aeration

Well esshup, that is very interesting. Sara at Vertex did not tell me about BriteStar, but was steering me toward a system that would run off our inverter (110V AC). For that system, they "recommend the system to run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to optimal water quality improvement. Running the system only during the day will not be sufficient." No doubt 24/7 would do the job faster, but I would be satisfied to just stop the eutrophication and head our pond in the right direction. I am back in touch with Sara, asking if I can purchase the BriteStar compressor and diffusers separately, without the panels.

The BriteStar (DC) compressor comes with a 3-year warranty and 10,000 hours of expected service, much longer than the 3 months I read about in another thread on pondboss in reference to DC compressors generally.

I bet Esshup could get you that equipment as well. In my dealings with him he has been fantastic.

T. Gray Shaw:

The systems are designed to move "X" amount of water in "X" amount of time for a pond. Usually between 1 and 2 times the volume of the pond in 24 hr. If you want to cut down on the run time, you need to move more air and add more diffusers to move the same volume of water in less hours. Under aerating a pond can lead to more algae/plant growth. I haven't run the numbers on a BriteStar system vs. a comparable grid system so I can't tell you for sure how they compare apples to apples. But, as you gain altitude, the efficiency is reduced too. That may be why she is pushing you towards a system that can run 24/7. Maybe a single daytime run only system isn't large enough.

I don't know if the solar system can be purchased without the panels, nor if doing so would void the warranty.

I know that cutting off the cord on a grid system to hardwire it in will void the warranty on the compressor.

Yes, I am a Vertex dealer, so if you want a price, throw me a PM on what you are looking at getting and I can toss a quote back.