Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions Shallow water winter aeration needed for trout?

For me, the biggest factors in where the winter diffusers are set during the winter are 2-fold. First and biggest criteria for me is will there be open water all the way to shore? 2nd criteria is having it shallow enough so it doesn't super cool the water but none of the customers have a trout only pond.

I almost lost 2 of my Springer Spaniels in the pond one very cold winter. I had the winter diffuser set out 70 feet from shore but still where it was 1/3 the total pond depth. I let the dogs out to go potty and I guess they heard a goose on the pond. They were out there for about 10 min when I called them back. The female came up to the house with a Toulouse goose in her mouth. She got that from the pond (she was wet, as well as her brother). I took it from her, tucked it under my arm, grabbed it's bill so I wouldn't get bit and put her and her brother in the laundry room. I walked out behind the barn by the pond and let it go. It indignantly waddled to the pond, went back in the open water to a Canada goose that was in the open water that didn't fly away. (It turned out that it had a broken wing and couldn't fly.)

Fast forward a week. Temps went from upper 20's the previous week to -10°F with 20 mph winds. I had forgotten about the goose incident and let them out again to go potty. This time when I called them they didn't come back. Crap. Put on the winter jacket and hat, and walk towards the pond. As soon as I rounded the corner of the barn I ran to the pond. They were very well trained and I whistled for then to leave the geese alone and come here. They were so cold that they couldn't get out of the pond and up onto the ice. I couldn't go out and get them because the ice was only a few inches thick and nobody was around to help. I could see ice forming in the fur on top of their heads. I ran to the barn, got an extension ladder and ran back to the pond.

I used the extension ladder to break the ice enough that there was a path to the open water from shore, but there was still a foot or so of ice that I couldn't hit with the ladder. Luckily when I called them to come and leave the birds alone, they were able to break that ice and start swimming to shore. About 5 feet from shore and in about 4 feet of water Dottie (the Female) happened to put her paw on Cal's (the male) head. Down he went under the water. I was able to grab her, threw her out of the pond and told her to sit/stay. I turned around and Cal still wasn't up to the surface. I was about to go in after him when he popped up. I grabbed him, threw him up on the bank, told them to heel and started for the house. Cal was so cold that he walked all hunched over. They had ice in their fur and were shivering. Dottie still wanted to go after the geese and I had to remind her a few times NO, HEEL.

I threw them in the laundry room, turned the shower on and ripped off my clothes. I almost had to carry Cal to the bathroom, threw both of them in the shower and climbed in after them. I adjusted the water so it wasn't too hot - I figured if I could tolerate it so could they. It took 20 minutes in the shower with me moving the shower wand (I had it on a 2x long hose) over both dogs before they stopped shivering. I kept them in there for another 10 minutes, then got out and dried them off.

After that incident I moved the diffuser about 30-40 feet closer to shore. Now ANY aeration system that we install or ANY aeration system that we service at a customers house where the ponds will freeze we make dang sure that the winter diffuser is placed so anything that goes in the water during the winter does NOT have to climb up on the ice to get out of the pond. Lesson learned, almost the hard way. That's not anything that I want to repeat, nor have a customer have that happen to them (or one of their kids).