Pond Boss Forums AERATION Should I aerate? Winter aeration 2026

It was asked in another thread (which I cannot find now) about how far winter aeration should be apart. While I don't have an exact answer, I did take an O2 reading on my pond today. I ran the aerator for the past week, but shut it off 24 hours ago.

I took the following O2 measurements roughly 140 feet away from the open hole that the winter diffuser made. I would have taken readings further away, but the ice was too sketchy and I really didn't feel like going for a swim.

I was ice fishing on Sunday and fish were seen on the sonar right on the bottom of the pond in 12' of water all the way up to about 4' below the ice. Today is Tuesday and it really warmed up - temps are in the upper 50's today and yesterday they were in the low 60's with full sun. Saturday I had 7" ice, Sunday it was in the upper 40's with full sun and the ice thickness was 6".

2' below the water surface the O2 was 12.71mg/L
4' below the water surface the O2 was 12.71 mg/L
6' below the water surface the O2 was 12.65 mg/L

Water temp varied from 40.0°F right below the ice to 39.5°F at 6' depth.

These readings were taken approximately 135 feet from the edge of the ice where the winter diffuser is placed. The winter diffuser is placed 3' below the water surface.

Maximum pond depth now is 12'.

My pond is a groundwater pond, with a sandy pond bottom. There is a high water table, but the pond is down approximately 6' from full pool. .

I would not be concerned to have the winter diffusers placed 400 feet apart (at least in my pond). My pond was renovated in 2008, so it's going on 18 years old. It does get a bunch of leaves blowing into it, and I feed the fish approximately 80 pounds of fish food per month from April/May until mid November.

Remarkable data. I am surprised at just how high and uniform the O2 was in your 18 year old pond, close to saturated at 40F!
Thank you for obtaining the data, and in risky conditions.

The original post was "Snow removal over ice" by RAH.

Thanks! I'll post the data there too.