Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions Sizing a new areation system

12" of water covering 1 acre of land is 325,851 gallons. 1 acre pond, average 6' deep has approximately 1,955,106 gallons of water......... There are 7.48052 gallons of water in a cubic foot.

Call the company back and talk to someone else. The person you talked to is wrong. The CFM from the compressor is cubic feet per minute of air moved, NOT water since the compressor is not pumping water, plus liquids are usually measured in Gallons per minute or hour...... Use that figure to determine how many diffusers you need. They need to furnish to you a chart like Vertex has to determine how many diffusers you need at the depth that they will be placed. All diffusers don't move the same amount of water, fine bubbles move more water to the surface than coarse bubbles. I have no other information on other brands of diffusers other than Vertex. Here is their information. As you can see, the GPM (Gallons per Minute) moved depends on the depth of the diffuser. These figures are based on 1 CFM to the diffuser at that particular depth.



Also as the diffusers are moved deeper in the water column, the pump has more back pressure to work against. The compressors have a curved pressure/volume curve, showing the more back pressure the less CFM they move. So, a rule of thumb is to size the system for the deepest part of the pond. i.e. if the pond is 10' max depth, and there will be a diffuser there for the summer, then figure 1/2 psi back pressure for every foot of water depth. and throw in another psi for system parasitic drag on the air moving to and through the diffuser. In the 10' example, figure cfm at 6 psi back pressure. That's what I do.