Hey Guy's,

Is there a base line minimum height that my aerators should be off of the bottom of my pond? I put them on concrete pads before my pond was full (6"). I dont think they are high enough, especially since I have just treated my pond with Alum.

I will have to wait till it gets a little warmer and go down with scuba to add more blocks. Is there a "Too High" point to raise them? They are both at 18'. I do not remember reading any directions from Vertex.

Rainman, I tried running them for about 30min, the cloud just got worse. I will probably have to add more Alum.

Thanks,
Chad

Two things determine the best height from the bottom of the diffuser. Depth of pond and type of pump. With vertex pumps height makes little difference. In most ponds 14'-16' close or higher is okay. In ponds shallower than 12 ft preferred method is close to the bottom - maybe on a plate or shield to keep diffuser out of the muck.

Chad Horn, if you are thinking the floc from the alum treatment is causing the "cloud", the floc will be about 1/4" thick or less.

When I did my own DIY diffusers, I made pods of 3 diffusers in a triangle shape and mounted them on a 2' x 2' galvanized oil drip pan so current would not erode soil and let the diffuser pods "dig a hole".

Rainman,

Is you pan 2' square and sitting on botom or do you have them 2' off bottom?

The erosion prevention make total sence.

Bill I see how protecting the sides could make a difference. Almost like inside a box.

Thanks,
Chad

Chad here is what I did and it worked great so far now going on 5 years.

I put one of those wire baskets under the computer side plate zip tied it all together and so far so good. You can see I am not that far off the ground but my pond is only 10 feet deep to. Like Bill said you could go up a foot or so and it wouldn't be a problem in your case.

My pans extended beyond the diffusers. In the pictures RC51 posted, our diffuser array was similar, but in his, erosion could EASILY begin, and probably has, under the outer edges of each diffuser that has nothing solid under them. If the base is too small, and/or diffusers too low, the water moving under the diffusers can pull up sediment, and the diffuser just digs a hole into the pond. In RC's setup, I doubt it dug any hole under his base, but can almost guarantee there is erosion on the edges.

My diffusers were 6" above the base, and the base plate extended about 6" beyond the diffuser edges. After I looked at the pan I'd used, it was actually 30" x 36"....also, my diffuser edges were under 1" from touching.

RM is probably right, but I take my fusers up every spring and scrub them off so I don't think in my case it becomes an issue as much. Now if I left my fusers in the water for 2 or 3 years they may be an issue. When I made this setup I was GREEN, GREEN about air setups and now as RM said I would make it a little bigger to cover the fusers all the way around.

RC