Hello again. I recently had a consultation done by Cason and Associates to improve my pond. I have a .7 acre pond that averages around 5 feet deep, maxing out at about 7 feet. The bottom is thick muck and the only vegetation is chara and cattails that both can get quite thick. A few years back the pond was stocked with various game fish that thrived and showed exemplary growth rates. The pond was kept alive by a 96 watt linear diaphragm aerator with one diffuser. Last winter we experienced a full fish kill. The aerator broke for a short period of time and an otter cleaned up the rest. To remedy this we called out the consultation. He checked the DO at the bottom and in the weeds and took a muck sample. The muck sample results are a few weeks off but the DO readings were given there. The bottom read at about 1.5 ppm and in the chara it read about 16 ppm oxygen. This is very bad and shows how badly I need aeration. I was contacted back today and given an estimate on the aeration unit. It will cost over $4,000. This is a lot of money. I also understand that it most likely will fix most of my problems with bacteria treatments. The aeration unit being recommended is a Vertex Air3 XL2. This will be a 3 diffuser system with a 1/2 hp .37 kW compressor. The price includes all diffusers, tubing, and full installation.
My question is this much aeration necessary? Clearly my last aerator was only a band aid on a leaking dam, but is this overkill? Does anyone have opinions on this aerator. How long will it last, how much maintenance is necessary? Any and all comments are appreciated. I will provide further information if needed to help answer this question, and I will post the muck results when they come back. Thank you.