Cecil, after a hard day of work on Friday, I came here to relax and educate myself again...but, you make my head hurt! Any man that sells a fish for $100 is a genius, I'm just trying to follow along, and adjust your ideas to my needs. It makes a TON of sense to aerate the water column to only stir the mix, and to use well water for oxygen saturation. My question is : have you seen this type of system in a more natural looking environment ? I want to use the basic principals here, but don't really want 5 gallon buckets hanging near the bank of my pond. Could this system be set in a series of buckets cascading down like stairs, or is it the continuious straight drop that provides most of the oxygen ?