I have a .5 acre pond with 12' depth. Pond was recently dredged this spring. It is a water table pond with a new aeration for ted at forevergreen. The aeration system works great. I have the eco 2 system with one diffuser at 6' and one at 8'.

I added 300 hybrid bg (3-6"), 200 perch (3-6") and 20lbs of fhm. My local guy who i bought my fish from, (he has been raising fish longer than i am old)(Im 29 by the way).

He is concerned the my diffuser are placed to low and will heat up my pond during the summer months and there will be no thermocline, for the fish to go to deeper water. I want to raise some monster gills and perch, but also use the pond for swimming. His famous line was happy fish, eat alot and become really big happy fish.

What is everyone thought on this??

thanks in advance!

He is right about there being no thermocline. He is wrong about the fish having a guaranteed summer haven of cooler water if there is a thermocline.

In a small body of water such as yours and mine, the thermocline that develops in summer is almost always wasted water space that is devoid of oxygen and can't support fish. Fish can not survive in the water below the thermocline for very long, if at all. Toxic gasses such as Hydrogen Sulfide from decaying matter quickly build to lethal levels in this non-aerated, cooler, "summer" water also. Aeration overcomes both of the issues of toxic gasses and low dissolved oxygen, and makes the entire water coulumn usable for fish year round. I have yet to see a pond that did not benefit considerably from adding bottom diffused aeration.

Summer aeration should have the diffusers placed at the deepest point and the second diffuser where it will move the most water. In the winter, move the diffusers to a more shallow depth to prevent super-cooling your water.

If there is a danger of the water becoming too warm during the summer, you can run the aeration at night only when temps fall below 70-75*.

Bottom line is the guy you got your fish from SHOULD know the species you listed are not too upset with the slightly warmer water. In fact, without aeration, having a thermocline, and warm water, the perch would possibly die in the summer.

Personally, if my fish supplier had told me what your's did, I might look for another fish source. Growing small fish such as those from a fish farm is not particularly hard to do....growing them big and maintaining high quality water is however, exceedingly hard to do with any consistancy!

thank you that answers alot of questions. im just happy there is a forum out there that can help newbies like me.

One of these days i will post my build thread of my pond. I have alot of phots thru all the stages of my build.

FWIW, I run my summer diffuser at the deepest point in the pond (14' currently) and for the winter, I turn it off and turn on my diffuser that is suspended at 5' depth in 10' of water.

Chadman, you've gotten some great input so far. Remember, too, that whatever Ted Lea told you is probably the best guidance on the issue of aeration system placement - he knows his stuff far better than your fish supplier would know it, in my opinion.

I was told i could turn off my aeration in winter. Or should i look at suspending it at 4-5'.

I jsut worry about my dog on the ice and if i wanna do some ice fishing.

I know exactly what you are thinking. I almost lost my 2 Springers a few years ago when they went swimming after some geese in -20°F windchill temps. To prevent that from happening again I moved the aerator closer to shore so that it was thawed all the way to shore, and they or a person could walk right out.

do you see any problem just leaving it off?

Since your pond has recently been dredged I would not be concerned about winter aeration. Remember no such thing as safe ice with or without aeration.Consider keeping snow off of at least 10-20% of the ice if snow covered for more than a month. Remove in strips if possible.Moving one of the diffusers into shallow water may still overcirculate your size pond.I will have all of our ponds that we maintain shut down in the next two weeks. The ones recently checked are 90-95% saturation and from 47-52F,with 8-10 ppm DO Yours is likely in the same range.Once your average dailey temp is in the 40F range for a week or so just shut it off.At that point your no longer aerating just circulating.PS All of the above posts provide you with great information.

thanks ted.

chadman 154 - Southern range of yellow perch is northern, Coastal South Carolina where summertime water temps get into the low 90's. The fish are delicate at those temps and don't handle well, but make it through the dog days just fine. Not a separate species so should be well within your fishes abilities to handle your WI summers.

Like Ted said for wintertime, keep the snow off the pond and natural O2 production should be just fine in a pond that's dredged and has summertime aeration.

what if i dont keep the snow off the pond will i have a fish kill? I go to florida in winter for a few weeks, maybe a month this year.

I am familiar with Vertex aerators and Ted's equipment. His diffusers do move lots of water. However, if you are comfortable letting the compressor run while you are in FL and worried about snow cover, here is what I would do. Valve off the deep diffusser. Pull the shallower diffuser up into the beach area where water is 3.5-4.5ft deep. Run aerator 24/7 while in FL. IMO one diffuser, even if it is a dual head in 4 ft of water will not super cool your entire pond enough to cause dangerously low or lethal temperature problems for your fish. It will over chill your pond but not as bad as if diffuser was in 6-10' of water. Warmwater and coolwater fish that live in WI streams during winter survive okay in water below 39F. Fish in your pond will also do okay with a shallow 4' depth diffuser operating in winter. When you return from FL turn off the aerator and do some snow removal on area of pond opposite diffuser where ice will be thicker and safer. Thick ice will soon form over the aerated area. Test ice thickness where deep snow lies on ice before traveling on ice.

that makes sense, but what if i dont want to clean off the pond at all during the winter? I barely like to clean my driveway at my shop moreless the whole pond. And i use a 6,000lb skid loader to move my snow.

Ted also said NOT to valve off one because it would give to much pressure to the other diffuser. He stated i could dump the air from the one somewhere.

The higher pressure/flow makes sense to me. You could easily add a dump valve anywhere in the line going to the deeper set diffuser and use that one to control the flow allowed to go into the shallower set diffuser.

If you don't allow light to penetrate into the pond to promote oxygen creating photosynthesis, you run the risk of a fish kill in the winter.

Lets say you have an 8 ft average on your .5 acres or 1.3 million gallon.You move one diffuser to a depth of 4 ft and cut 50% of the total compressor flow (exhaust it off at the deep water valve at the manifold)2 cfm at 4 ft will still lift 1400 gpm or 2.016 million gallon per 24 hr day.If you try this move the station to an extreme end of corner and get it close to the shoreline.I would also consider putting an inexpensive timer inline to run perhaps dusk to dawn only. You can melt off 6 inch ice easily in 24 hours.Your water will be at 10 plus ppm DO soon and even though you have "plenty" of fish stocked their need for moderate to high levels of DO is getting to be less each day it continues to get colder.Dont be concerned about having to have open water in your situation for this year. If you had snow free ice when you get ready to leave for a month I wouldnt worry about it.

Another option when/if the diffuser is moved to shallow water is to substitute the Vertex diffuser with one that moves a lot less water. A homemade would be adequate for keeping a small area open in winter with snow cover. I also like the option of bleeding off a major amount of the air to the shallow winter diffuser thus when the Vertex receives only a small volume (0.5-1cfm) of air and the fewer bubbles it makes rewults in less water moved.

Lots of good ideas for your situation.You can also just spin one of the discs out of the weight base and put a 3/4 plug in and lower the cfm to .5-1 range but still move to very shallow water.

i think i will leave my shallow one where its at 6' and dump out the air on the deep one. When I installed the system i never planned on moving these winter to summer and have the lines burried really deep. The compressor sits inside in my shop. Pond has a 12-13' depth.

Would i be able to cycle the compressor with maybe 15min on and 1 hour off? that sould keep everything fairly warm to prevent freeze up. I could even do 30min on and 30 off.

I may sound lazy but i dont have time to keep the pond clear from snow.

The more times you start the compressor, the more strain it takes. I'd rather start it once a day than 10-12 times. It also takes more electric to start it (I believe).