Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - Aeration and Destratification

I was listening to one of Bob Lusk's Facebook Live videos today where he was talking about aeration (I think it was an older video). He mentioned something that was probably minor and well-known to most people, but I wasn't aware of the fact that the tiny bubbles created by your aeration system aren't what adds oxygen to your water, its the pushing of the water in an upward motion, where destratification occurs, and where water can mix with oxygen at the surface. Wow. [Insert Mind Blown Image Here]

So I got to thinking... if the majority of oxygenation takes place on the surface, and if you want to mix as much water with the surface as possible, isn't your typical bottom diffuser a super-inefficient way of doing that? I'd think that paddle wheels or even fountains would mix way more water than the bubbles given off from a diffuser.

And I got to thinking again... wouldn't normal fish movements also stir up the water? Probably minor, of course, but depending on the size of your fish, I could see a lot of surface agitation/aeration coming from normal feeding habits and/or swimming.

Now I'm picturing a 50-ft tall inflatable Bob Lusk, sitting in a pond with a giant spoon, stirring it up.

A key part of this equation is moving bottom water to the top. Ponds stratify. Bottom water has no chance to absorb oxygen or relieve itself of gases as they build in that cold layer. Diffused aeration provides vertical movement of water, where a rock thrown into a pond only offers horizontal movement of what that interfaces with the atmosphere anyway. That's the biggest difference.

I'd love to see that big spoon.

Don Ho agrees too!