Pond Boss
Posted By: Stevie Ray Pond New aeration system installed!! - 06/11/19 02:50 AM
Well I got my aeration system set up in my pond. Ran for 1-2 hours right at dark for the first run. Any pointers or lessons learned on startups. SW Louisiana, built in 2014, stocked and feeding 200 HB and 1 existing bass in 2018. 25th of an acre pond, 5-6ft deep, clay bottom. I have the Easypro diffuser set in the deepest part, running the KLC 60 linear diaphragm. When I started up I had a slight fish smell but not H2S or really foul. Any information going forward is appreciated.
Posted By: Mike Whatley Re: New aeration system installed!! - 06/11/19 09:45 AM
Hey Stevie. Glad to hear you found a system for your pond.

I'm no expert, by any means, but starting at 1-2 hours is a bit extreme. Id suggest giving the pond a couple of days to settle again, especially if you are smelling gases. You'll want to back off to about 15 minutes for a couple of days or until you dont smell anything. Then double that time to 30 minutes. If you still dont smell gases, double that to an hour. Then double again to two hours, unless the smell comes back, then go back to an hour until you no longer smell anything. Each time you increase run time you double the previous setting until you reach your desired run time.

Starting aeration is tricky, especially now that your pond is warmer. Warm water cant hold DO very well. You'll definitely want to run at night now, so a timer may make things easier.

I've been running strictly at night for a while now, 12 hours until recently. I reduced to 9 hours this past weekend, with a later start because my surface temp was over 80 degrees and I'm trying to avoid super heating the pond.
Posted By: Stevie Ray Pond Re: New aeration system installed!! - 06/11/19 04:58 PM
Alright well I guess I will let it settle for 2 days then set a timer to run for 15 minutes starting at midnight.
Posted By: wbuffetjr Re: New aeration system installed!! - 06/11/19 05:44 PM
To reiterate what Mike said. IMO, it is hard to ramp up the run time too slow, but very easy to do it too fast.
Posted By: Quarter Acre Re: New aeration system installed!! - 06/11/19 07:23 PM
IIRC, an aeration system can be run too little (or be too small for the BOW). The concept is that the aeration system is just run enough to mix the dead water with good water, but not run long enough to really make the dead water better overall. This scenario consistently makes the good water worse and the results are a BOW with it's D02 spread out (or thinned out) throughout the entire volume of water. This reduces the available DO2 at any given point in the water. You need to overcome this by getting to the point that the pond is turned over at least once a day.

So, IMO, you can bring it up too slow, but that is hard to do unless you neglect to increase the run times regularly and let it hover in the bad range too long. Where that bad range is will be different for each BOW and likely very near the beginning of the start-up.

Before I get too windy I should ask what size your pond is? 1/25th of acre...is that right? with 200 HBG?

The reason I ask is that small of a pond may require a more subtle approach depending on your aeration systems ability. A 1/25th acre pond is like a 40 foot square and if your aeration system is robust at all...you could turn that pond over in a very short time. At 1/25th of an acre, your pond is about 50,000 gallons and I would estimate that your system turns that pond over in less than an hour. I am guessing (note: guessing) that if you were going to have a problem from starting up too fast, it would have shown itself that first night. The KLC 60 appears to put out about 1 to 2 CFM at your depths which is certainly in the correct range for your diffuser. This tells me that you are moving plenty of water.

As fickle as ponds can be when aeration start-up is concerned, it's hard to tell exactly what will happen, but you have jumped right in and nothing bad happened. I would proceed as Mike suggested with a shorter initial runtime and double from there daily unless septic smells arise.

If you pond is in the 40 foot square range, I doubt you really would want to run it more than a few hours a day.

Keep us updated!
Posted By: Mike Whatley Re: New aeration system installed!! - 06/11/19 07:43 PM
Thanks for the vote of confidence, QA. I know you and I have quandried over my setup and you've been a world of information for me. It's been very much appreciated.

Now if I can find the patience to keep looking at this algae bloom until fall and can go to 24/7 runs and try to reduce my nutrient load. Nothing more aggravating than looking out at a pond covered with scum.
Posted By: Quarter Acre Re: New aeration system installed!! - 06/11/19 08:29 PM
Mike, let your patience run out, put together a FA rake, and drag it out. The labor is, well, labor!, but the results are very nice...I had to do it last year. Tried the ole' garden rake first and about died. The roped pool noodle aluminum landscape rake is the way to go. I was amazed that about 1000 square foot of floating FA would fit into a five gallon bucket (with holes in the bottom so the water could be squished out).

Thank for the show of appreciation Mike! I hope my ramblings do more good than not.

Back to the main program...
Posted By: Mike Whatley Re: New aeration system installed!! - 06/11/19 08:41 PM
It's not that easy....this ain't FA. I get one phytoplankton bloom after another and it just creates this filmy scum on the surface (looks like the beginning of BGA, but no acidic smell). Impossible to rake. Copper sulfate is really useless because it's already dead when it floats to the surface. Lately, what little wind we've got isnt enough to push it to one side or the other to try to treat anyway.

Pond dye helps to slow it down, but I think the only real cure is more plants and a lot of aeration. The plants are coming on nicely, but the aeration is gonna have to wait till it cools off again.

If I had the forethought last fall when I saw all those leaves falling in the pond, I would have had it running then. Maybe need to look at adding some more bacteria, but I'm not sure if that isnt just throwing money away.

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