Currently I've one of my aerator pumps in the barn and run ~150ft of airline to the pond. It was inoperable, last winter, due to water freezing within the line.

Tomorrow I am running power to the pond, and have a large enclosure that will house two pumps, at the ponds edge.

This enclosure will be within 5ft of the waters edge.

Since I'll have a trencher here anyways(for the electric line) should I trench as far as possible into the water, too, and bury the airline the short distance from the enclosure to the water?

Should I leave it above ground for easier access, instead?

My thought is it would have less chance of freezing buried, but if it did it would be almost impossible fix until spring.

We can have frost here to 40".

Thanks, Jeff

Jeff,

Not sure what to tell you but I don't bury mine at the water's edge. I was once concerned that ice could compress it but it hasn't happened yet.

I'm in northern Indian though -- not the arctic like you are.

I'm sure you'll get some good responses soon. Probably not the participation there normally today due to the holiday. Most here are probably at their ponds!

I have been thinking of doing the same thing Jeff. I am no expert but I would bury it below frost level. The output air of your compressor is hot and would not freeze in the first 40 inches. then you would never have to worry about it again. I could be wrong though.

Thanks Cecil & Blair for the responses.

I wonder how many years the weighted tubing lasts? If I do bury it I'd want it to have a fairly long service life.

The trencher I'm renting only goes to 30 something inches, IIRC, and I don't believe this would be below the frost line, but I just had an idea.

I've a backhoe. If I dug say a 4ft deep trench out as far as I can reach into the pond and back to where the enclosure will sit, run 4" schedule 40 plastic pipe straight down 4ft (with a long radius 90) then out into the water, I could run the 3 airlines inside the 4" pipe.

I could have this pipe enter the enclosure from the bottom. I also could run an electric heat tape through the pipe for just incase. Obviously the pipe will fill with water, but if my airlines and/or the pipe did freeze up I could plug the heat tape in and thaw it out.

Plus the pipe would make removal of the lines much easier, down the line, if a replacement is needed. I already have the pipe laying around, just would need to buy a heat tape.

Crazy idea? Too complicated, or way overkill?

Here's a pic of what the box and location looks like. Pretend you don't see the duckweed. That's what I do.

I think running the line inside a buried pipe is a very good idea. Easy fixing if something goes bad, & it protects the line from critters that chew.

I ran power to about 4 feet from the shore & buried 4" corrugated pipe to the water (buried about 18")with 4 air lines running through. It gets darn cold here in MI but I have not had any freezing issues. You could always use a fish tape if you needed to run more lines or replace lines. The corrugated pipe is attached into pump enclosure, so lines are protected running into pump house, helps protect from weed-wacker.

Thanks Esshup & Pullo for the reply's.

The project went alot slower that I expected. The trenching, for the power, was much harder than I expected. Pretty sure I found every rock on the property.

Just so it could get it done in the two days I had available for this project I decided to run the airline atop the ground, atleast for now.

Will see how it goes this winter. It's a short run, with a gradual grade, for the hose into the water, so I'm hoping the moisture will be blown far enough down the line before it can freeze.

On another note. I bought 100ft of 1/2" sinking line from Forever Green (vendor here) for the farthest on my diffusers.(100ft)

The other two diffusers 35 & 65ft have 3/8" sinking line. The two longer run diffusers(both the same model diffuser)are at 8ft depth.

When I started up the system I was very suprised at how much more boil came from the further diffuser(35ft farther) that had the larger line.

I don't know if it's simply the larger line, or something else? Like I said, depth is the same and run off the same compressor.

Makes me want to switch out the other lines to the 1/2" stuff.

Think I got the air intake high enough to stay out of the snow?

It depends on how high the drifts are!

I did something very similar for an air intake on the fireplace insert. I glued a 1/8" mesh hardware cloth screen inside the upside down 180 to keep any bugs/rodents from trying to call it home.

The difference in the boil is a combination of more volume and less resistance in the 1/2" line vs. the others. The larger lines are more resistant to condensation freezing in the winter as well.

I believe the drifts very well might completely cover the box. I was thinking about elevating the pumps off the bottom of the enclosure incase snow were to get into it.

The screen idea is a good one. Might just implement that. Was thinking the enclosure might be inviting to mice, too, but the noise might deter them?

The difference in volume betweeen the lines was suprising and impressive, to me.

Had some question about the diffusers, too, but would probably be better in a different thread.