Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help Fish kill - help

There are two schools of thought on aeration. 24/7 is used by some and evening hours are used by others. I'm no pro here but here's my understanding:

24/7 operation has a continual input and mixing of the water which is a good thing most of the time but there also might be some design criteria that is taken into account. The consideration is how frequent is the water turned over. In the extreme weather (hot or cold) running the system can heat or cool the water basically taking out the deep water refuge.

The guys that are running their systems only at night rely on plants, wind/wave action, and phytoplankton to provide O2 during the day and then in the evening kick the system on when there is no photosynthesis to keep the O2 input going. This helps to prevent the solar input of additional heat and hopefully keeps the deep water refuge a little cooler than the shallower areas. It might require a larger system to still turn the water over in a shorter timeframe.

Again, I am no pro. Hopefully somebody will chime in with additional info or to correct what I've stated if I've listed something incorrect.


4' of water over 3 acres is A LOT of water in a short amount of time. Very likely PH, Temp swings and possible toxins released with the inflow. We have beans planted this year on part of the watershed that feeds our pond and the farmer just recently sprayed the beans to kill off any weeds that were present in the crop. Not sure if you are in a similar boat with crops in the watershed but that might have been a contributing factor as well. 4' of water would likely be water inflow from 100% of your watershed.