Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions Thermostat controlled aeration to control heating

For a southern pond: I use my aerators in part to control the pond temperature, timing for night in the summer and daytime in the winter. If a blue norther is blowing in at 2 pm, the aerator runs per its timer or until I turn it off. I just got this idea that a thermostat controlled switch would allow automatic operation. Even better, a delta T controlled switch, set for air temp versus water temp. In winter, run for air minus water = 5 degrees or more. In the summer, the delta T may not be useful, but using just an air temp switch, say set to cut in at 84F, the night time aeration is optimized. A separate switch based on surface water temperature could be effective, for example not allowing the run until the surface water is cooled off to 85F. Well golly, now my "thermostat switch" needs multiple temperature inputs to a little "pi" computer, that outputs on or off, dials and data recorders for monitoring actual temperatures (a phone app for same, lol), multiple setpoint knobs, two waterproof sensors with long wires, and a weatherproof box.

I'd love to see a chart of daytime ambient temps vs. water temps vs. aeration run time a month or two into the project.

It sure would be cool to have something like this, and yeah, esshup, having the temperatures data and aeration run data...golly!
Mine is 1/10 acre, 7 feet, with two bottom aerators, an appropriate fountain and a 100 foot pumped river, which drops about twenty feet over seven waterfalls.
With all that and with continuous data, I could study effects forever! This alone, this plus that, all together now. Might even document climate change. LOL.
Could have a floating vertical sensor stick...air temp maybe a foot above the water, surface temp maybe six inches under the water, and deeper temp maybe six feet deep...with one set of encased wires attaching to the control box. I want it now!

I think your idea holds promise for the winter but not so practical in the summer. Heat only travels in the direction of lower temperature. The times in the summer when the water temperature at the bottom of the column exceeds the air temperature will be limited, perhaps too limited, to get the full benefits desired from aeration. Aeration is going to even out temperatures and tend to warm a pond in the summer. Restricting aeration in the winter to times when the air temperature exceeds the water temperature should increase the heat flowing into the pond to some degree and so have a warming effect. If you do this first monitor your temperatures this winter (and graph them) so you have a baseline to compare it to next winter. We would all be interested in the results.

Regarding summertime...substantial aeration is necessary for my heavy fish load. But to the extent possible, I don't want to add heat to the pond and I don't want to exceed 85F through the depth. Ours gets a hard afternoon sun and develops a warm surface layer. I currently schedule aeration from about 10:30 pm (expecting the surface has cooled) to 10 am (about the time the sun illuminates the pond) and air is warming fast. With thermostat controls, I'd want the pond surface to have cooled to say, 85, so that surface water switch releases to the air temp switch which is looking for 85F air. The deep water sensor would not be controlling but just feeding to the data stream being recorded. With my shallow depth pond, seven feet, I don't try to maintain a thermocline.

So are you saying you aren't trying to cool the water but rather prevent the mixing of the warmer water at the surface until it has fallen below 85F?

Good idea but there should be a fail safe that aerates after a certain time if the condition is never met. Even up here in DFW we get night time lows higher than that.