Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Any Danger Starting Aerator To Melt Ice?

DCamp - To clarify your comment of - ..."when first starting up in the Spring, as the aerating will bring up too much bad water all at once and harm the fish. Is this right?"

Starting aeration in early spring or even mid-spring will very rarely ever harm the fish. Harming fish from initial aeration startup will only occur if the pond is thermally stratified and the deep water layer is devoid of oxygen (anoxic). Normally ponds have ample dissolved oxygen in the deep zone until late spring or early summer. Bringing up large amounts of water containing no oxygen and varying amounts of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) are what becomes harmful to fish due to the resultant water quality deterioration of the upper layer waters from the mechanical inversion of the pond. From this situation, one can conclude that the apparent extensive bubbling action from the diffuser adds very little dissolved oxygen to the rising column of water. If the diffuser was adding lots of DO to the upwelling water, then there would be little chance of harming fish due to oxygen shortages from aerating.