Pond Boss Forums AERATION Should I aerate? Newbie confused on aeration...

Hi,
I am new but have been reading the forum for awhile and the more I read on this subject the more confused I am. We bought a house that was a forclosure and it has approx. 1/2 acre pond that hadn't had anything done to it for at least a couple of years. We bought a new motor for the aeration system and have had it running 24/7 since May. I have treated the pond and have the alge fairly under control. It is in a woods so there is a lot of muck in the pond from leaves and stuff. We are hoping to get some blue gill and minnows in there this fall and wait to put bass in next year. My confusion is with the aeration. When do I want to run it, should I run it 24/7 or just a few hours a day. Someone told me that I should stop running it at night in August. Should I only be running it at night now? Or with all the muck should it be run 24/7? My electric bill went up about $50 a month since I have been running it. Am I just wasting electric or with all that muck does it need to be running to help get rid of that? I guess I just need some advise.
Thank you...
Vicky

Vicky,

I'm not a dealer and not the ultimate expert of which a few should show up momentarily. However, I do aerate a .62 acre pond, that although it doesn't get many leaves, the fish production is quite high adding a lot of nutrients. So from my experience here is my two cents:

You should be able to run it at least half of the time you are now but it "ALL DEPENDS." That's a famous quotation from our resident Bill Cody that seems to apply to a lot of things in pond management, as there are a lot of variables. It all depends on what kind oxygen rate your "muck" uses, which you elude to. If there was some way you could get your hands on a D.O. meter you could determine if you could get by running it less than 24 hrs., 12 hrs (that's what I run mine at) or even less. If your D.O. dropped to no less than 4 ppm near the bottom I would think you're O.K. Another possibility if no meter is available is to cut back to 4 hours per say and check for a rotten egg smell around your diffuser boil. If there is one up it to 8 hrs and check a couple of weeks later etc. Get my drift?

That said, running the aerator 24/7 won't hurt anything, but I can see why you wouldn't want to pay an electric bill you don't need to. Been there done that and still doing it!

If you don't mind could you give us more information though?

1.) What type and size compressor are you using? I.e. diaphragm or rotary vane and what horsepower? $50.00 per month sounds kind of steep if it's similar to mine which is a 1/3 hp. Rotary Vane compressor. When I used to run mine 24/7 it was only about $25.00 per month but perhaps your rates are much higher than mine?

2.) How much are you charge per KW of electricity?

3.) How many, and what type and size of diffusers do you use? That is, are they stones or the flexible membrane type?

I have no idea why someone would tell you to stop running it in August. Seems to me that would be the worst time to shut it down. I usually shut mine down once the water turns over in October, and go to a smaller diaphragm pump and shallow airline and diffusers to prevent winterkill.

I run mine from Dawn to Dusk in my ponds. That's about 12 hrs. or less.

BTW there is an outstanding back issue of Pond Boss that covers everything you need to know on this subject. I'm sure if you called and requested it they could find it for you.

Hi Cecil,
I have answers to some of your questions. We are using a 1/3 hp pump. I don't know what kind of diffusers are at the bottom of the pond. We hate to drag them out because they would come to the same area that our geo thermal loop is in and I don't want to mess something up. I guess I need to find a D.O. Meter. The gentlemen that we bought a fountain from said he runs his aerator 24/7 all year long. We just are so new and don't know what the best options are.
Thanks for trying to help..
Vicky

Cecil, y'all being up north makes a difference to us southern readers............please explain why you run yours during the day, and most down here just run them at night. I would hate for some newbie down here to get the wrong idea......

ooops.

I am wondering about the same thing as BC1. I always thought that it was best to run aeration during the most calm part of the day, which in most places is the evening.

I'm confused as well about when to run aeration (well actually I'm confused about a lot of things but at this moment it is aeration run time that is confusing me the most). I read through the archive thread regarding aeration including links post by Ewest. They seem to indicate that the lowest point for dissolved oxygen (at least during the summer) would be in the wee hours of the morning. Hence the need for aeration during the evening/early morning. I think that DIED runs his aeration system at night/early morning.

Cecil knows what he is doing so I know that he has a reason for running his aeration from dawn to dusk. Cecil can you elaborate on this?

Unless I missed something I didn't see a lot of discussion in the archived aeration thread about when to run aeration. Did I just miss the discussion?

From the archives Aeration simplified


From the same archive...SRAC "Pond Aeration"7 see page 7 "When to aerate."

Well JHAP if you would stop messing around and read the Aeration thread section you would find posts such as this. Jeez you sure are an idiot.

12 hr aeration

I did read that thread moron and this one as well.. Another Questions about air and oxygen? which seem to indicate that aeration should be run at night during the summer time. Which is why I asked Cecil the question. So you're the idiot.

"I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together."

Jeff, what's confusing you this time?

Running an aerator at night is done mainly because it is a known factor that plants are not producing oxygen. There can be many more times when an aerator SHOULD be run in a pond.

Those plants are giving off carbon dioxide in low/no light conditions....(or dying and consuming oxygen if cloudy for a couple days). Running an aerator at night not only allows the tranfer of oxygen into the water as it circulates, the "boil" and circulation allow carbon dioxide and other dissolved toxic gases such as hydrogen sulfide (rotton egg smell) to be released from the water. This prevents/reduces acid formation and the resulting wide PH swings...all this equals better water quality and less stress on the fish.

Another good reason for running an aerator only at night is to minimize the temperature rises in a pond.....eg. circulating sun-heated water during the day.

Aerators most of us use are easily setup on a timer. Large fish farms will use extensive and EXPENSIVE monitors to automate and give full control over when aerators operate. In a recreational system, adding a lower end 100K+ automated system is far from practical, but say in a 10 acre production pond with CC stocked at 11,000 pounds per acre and worth $1.50 per pound....saving one die off PAYS for the system!

See how they run like pigs from a gun

Fountain, waterfall drawing surface water or padel weel vs airdifuser placed on bottom,the difference in where they collect the water procesed.
Natures light/dark(photosynteze) and Air/water wariationes temp.(F/C) thru day/night 24houers and season winter/summer.
The waters own wariationes (change in pysics) at differente temp.(F/C) Abbilietie to hold/reelease gas (O2,CO2,H2S,...)changes in water at diferente temp.(F/C)and purety. Pond water is not pure H2O neither sea or salt water for that matter.
The water on the bottom interact with the bottom it self, so the physics off the bottom (its nature)waries within its own composisone(organic mix/age) and stage.
So the interface within the bottom and the bottom water is not a constant.
The water column is not a constant.
And finaly the interface air and surface water is not a constant.
So understand or learn naturs way or influence on the physical prosess, or just say OK it happens and let roll.

Then iff you decide I want to interfere or influence this natural syclus (boost or slow).
The tool you pick and where you use/put it (in the water column) will change or influence in differente variationes (positive/negative) due to the lack off constante in nature 24/7/365.
Add to this the natural variationes inflicted by location off pond, and the type and volume off biomas (algea,plants,fish.......).

So this is simple or complicated???????
All you read is right but its also wrong
DO YOU GET IT ha ha IT ALL DEP.....
Did you get to try, the litle lure yet?

see how they fly.
I'm crying.

Do you want the list sorted alphabetically, or in order of relative importance according to me, or by subject matter, or by geographic region when appropriate, or by least boring to most boring (also according to my tastes)?

What is confusing me as it relates to this particular thread is why Cecil is running his aeration from Dawn to Dusk instead of Dusk to Dawn.

I know Cecil knows what he is doing so there must be a reason for it. I just wanted to know the reason.

PS:
I'm gonna have to crank up the Beatles on the Ipod today.

I'd bet a tilapia fry that Cecil meant to say from dusk to dawn. (Perhaps Cecil had the Beatles crankin' when he typed the run time!)

Vicky,

After re-reading your first post, I would check what the air pressure is in the output line. At $50/mo for electric on a new 1/3hp pump, either the output is clogged/blocked, or the motor is defective.