I explained in my first post why winter deep water aeration was good for WBuffet. Go back and reread it. 'Supercooled" water does not harm trout; at least nearly as much as it stresses warm water fish such as LMB, BG and especially RES.
I like the diffuser setup in the 2nd picture better than the 1st setup. For the trout application we want good mixing and circulation in the main basin and the cold water currents will spread far toward the edges. Plus with diffusers in the deeper water, the boils at the surface will be stronger due to more depth for the rising column of bubbles. Stronger boils will move water further toward the edges. I think the 8 ac could be completely mixed all winter with daily solar operation with the current setup. Large volumes of water rising from the bottom has to be replaced. Replacement water comes from the edges, travels down the basin toward the diffusers. Extensive mixing occurs. Similar extensive basin water mixing occurs in winter-spring water shorline ice melts or the areas under the ice become warmed by the sun. Water temperature-DO tests mid-winter would be very educational in this application of winter aeration.
Daily aeration will keep fairly large holes (40-60ft) open in the ice. The open water and resulting phytoplankton photosynthesis and daily bubbling action will diffuse air into the water and oxygenate a lot of water and the currents will push this far from the diffusers probably to areas at least 400ft or more in dia from the boils. I have seen a windmill with a 20 ft open ice hole push oxygenated water 200ft under ice-snow cover.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 08/22/17 10:30 AM.
