Sorry guys, I'm not on the forum much these days and I missed this. There are a few reasons I intend to stop aerating, not the least of which is the cost and the noise. I'm tired of both. But mostly as an experiment. I've been on the forum for a lot of years now, and I'm very familiar with "it depends". I've said it myself, and still very much believe in it.
But I always figured there were exceptions, cornerstones where it didn't depend....absolute, probably basic fundamentals, that were constants. I no longer believe that. I now believe it depends all the time, everytime. No two bow are alike enough for me to say any more than if you fall in, you will get wet.
40+years of leaves hasn't filled in my ponds appreciably, the FC haven't decimated my fish population, overstocked LMB have not taken over the pond, ( they're eating each other), and HBG havent reverted back to GSF.
Out of seven ponds, only one is aerated. After four decades, the only fish kill I've seen was confined to one pond, and one species, HSB. My system is homemade, as are many here. How many times do we read of such systems getting praise, for preventing a fishkill? How would one really know? You need two identical ponds, with the only difference being one is aerated and one not, before you could credit aeration with saving your fish. Ponds are all different, with a multitude of variables occuring, that to me prohibit long distance diagnosis and advice.
So, l'm going to unplug my pond and see what happens. Im betting it will continue on as usual.
