Here's a case study on what under aerating a pond will do...
There's certainly a cautionary tale being told there, esshup, but as a scientist I must say that it's difficult to discern exactly what it is. Too little information about the before situation, and too many parts moving all at once preceding the after situation. I'll think more on it, though.
That and your follow-up post about balancing the air output between the diffusers brought up a few more questions, if you don't mind:
1) How is it decided whether one should use a single or more diffusers at a single spot? I've commonly seen singles and doubles, and sometimes quadruples, offered with no explanation of when to choose which, and in a photo in that case study I can see where they even used a quintuple!
2) How does one balance the air output between diffusers when there is more air being produced by the compressor than all of the diffusers hooked up to it can properly handle? For example, say I use the same compressor for three diffusers during the summer and only one diffuser during the winter, or start out by trying only one diffuser during the summer with the idea that I can add more in subsequent years if doing so seems justified. How do I keep diffusers from being overwhelmed? Is the excess air simply bled off at the compressor somehow?
3) In such a scenario as I described above, where less than all of the air produced is being released through the diffusers, how does one know how to optimize the diffusers? Is measuring O2 at depth really necessary, or is there some way one can just eyeball the roil at the surface of the water, or what?
As always, your patient instruction is most appreciated! :^]
In GSPs it seems that rather than a clear-cut division between field and show breeding, there are breeders who aim mostly or entirely for field performance, and there are breeders who aim mostly for show performance but make sure their dogs still hunt. None of them seem to want their dogs to lose the abilities for which the breed was developed, thank goodness (though some of the field breeders will insist otherwise about show breeders). I've always preferred show quality with hunting ability because I appreciate an especially good-looking dog (I used to show but don't intend to anymore) and I'm just a foot hunter who isn't very competitive about it; I figure if I and the dog are having fun, that's all that matters. But I can understand other people feeling otherwise.
Dave, I tried to post a couple of pictures yesterday (good suggestion!) but my usual online photo host Photobucket wasn't working. Last night I finally realized that we can have a few photos hosted right here at Pond Boss. So I put these in the Image Gallery:
Zooming in on a section of wall lining the bank anywhere (if that's possible with these photos) you'll see it's made up of a heck of a lot of concrete cylinders that extend somewhat more than 2 ft above the water's surface. (About a third of the pond's wall is instead made up of stone from the pond's construction, but that's all on the shore nearest the house which is where the pictures are taken from, so you can't see it.) The fellow we bought the property from had a development/construction business, and we believe he used a variety of leftover materials (e.g. all those many concrete cylinders) from other jobs to construct his house and pond. There's even a large un-tiled space in the middle of the living room floor (made level by carpet scraps and covered by an area rug) where we think he ran out of leftover marble tile. :^D
In the sunset picture in the middle you can just make out a bit of a 2.4 ac natural pond not far beyond and about 15 ft below the 2.2 ac manmade pond I've been talking about, and then some of the several acres of marsh beyond that. We get a lot of ducks and geese! :^] Unfortunately, there's a lot of the invasive aquatic reed
Phragmites growing around much of the natural pond and just starting to creep into the marsh; it's pretty but lousy for wildlife - and will really take over a landscape if left unchecked - so I'll be working hard at getting rid of all that starting this winter.
Gerry
