Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - Am I on right track.

New owner of a pond that has been neglected. Have a lot of the common issues, Muck, stunted fish, runoff ect. Have been raking for a week and ready to install a system. After my system is installed will address muck with bacteria.


WVA pond 1 acre 12 ft deep rectangle for most part, 25 years since built
avg depth @ 8
No algae, runoff keeps it moving a little, some minor weeds
lots of small 9-13 inch bass and 5 inch bluegill
600" from power source.

Thinking of a Gast 0523 with 600 feet 1 " air line to a manifold and two 5/8 inch weighted lines to 2 diffusers at 12 foot and 6 foot. Am I on right track? How loud is the Gast? Other suggestions? Any pumps more energy efficient. Thought about the Hiblow 200 but worried about too much pressure?

I can report about this.
Visually, the Matala diffusers move an amazing amount of water. And I have done temperature readings, which were as concerning as you could imagine, heat wise. During a long hot stretch of weather, I paddled around and took temp readings, compared top to bottom data, and found no more than 2 degrees difference from the 11 foot deep holes where the Matala were located, and top water, 1 degree in some spots.
Temperatures were taken with a Fluke meter, K style thermocouple on a long wire with a clip on sinker.

The findings, along with Bob Lusk's article on the thermocline topic, motivated me to move the diffusers up a couple feet, where they remain.

That article cause me to raise one of my three diffusers a foot or two off the bottom because of what you describe. We can get terribly hot in the summer, even at night, and warm the whole pond water up top to bottom with aeration.

A person wants MOST of the water stirred. Gives more area and resourses to the fish community. But from that article they need a refuge they can dip into and cool off.

When we used to scuba dive in the lakes in SW Missouri and NW Arkansas, in the heat of the summer fish would often be found right around the thermocline. I presume it is for the reason we are talking about. The upper water got warmer than they liked so they hung out where they could cool off easily.