Any advice appreciated:
I manage an oval 3 acre pond (13 acre-ft volume), max depth 9ft, in lower New York State. There are some fish, but the pond is mostly used for swimming. Currently have 1hp aerator running four diffuser heads (6-9" long silica diffuser stones on each head). The intent is to minimize blue-green algae outbreaks during summer. My rough calcs show I turn over the lake volume more than 2/day. Now that winter is here, is there any benefit to continuing to run the aerator? I know that the temps are too low to promote bluegreen algae, but does winter aeration help, perhaps, promoting breakdown of the muck at the bottom of the pond?? Or am I doing more harm than good (by cooling the water column too much and stressing the fish) and should shut down for the winter?
Many thanks
Theodore
