Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions Building a RC51 system.... Qustions?

Hey Joker no problem glad I could help. Cody gave you some good advise about the pump. I don't think an Eco 5 would cut in 10 foot plus of water. As far as how long you run your pump? Really it only needs to be ran at night which is when you lose alot of your DO in your water because the sun is down and your plants in the water are not able to create any DO as a matter of fact your plants take oxygen from your pond at night that's why our want to run it at night for sure. If you have no fish in it you can start up your pump how ever you want. Just remember to use the start up porcedure the next spring when you do have fish in it. 12 hours a night for a 3/4 acre pond I think is more than enough IMO. Some guys run them 24/7 in the summer. That's up to you. From everything I have read it doesnt really seem to do any more good to run it all day? You may want to run it all day if you dont have many weeds in your pond at first. That way you know your getting plenty of DO in your water. I can tell you this I ran mine for 6 hours at night and my fish were loving it and very happy about it. So this year I am going to 12 hours and they should be estatic!! Have a good one and both you and Cody keep us posted.

RC51 and Cody got all of it ordered tonight. thanks again! BGK and any others pics of the dock are up in the dock section

Great info RC on helping these guys put a small system together, another option to consider adding to your aerator is a bubble hose, you can do it on the cheap with a soaker hose and a sand filled hose attached to keep it on the bottom, or a more expensive but much more efficient specially made bubble hose.

I like the results from a soaker hose but would like to get the specially made ones which should be much better.
http://www.epaeration.com/pdfs/ADS_aeration_tubing.pdf

I'm on my 3rd season with an Eco plus 5, here's the soaker hose laid out straight for the summer.


Hose in a half circle for the winter.

Hey thanks AP! I learned a lot from you and others on the PB so I finally got to pay it forward a little. I am interested in seeing if Joker can get that pump to work in 15 foot of water. I think it will be close!

Ok cool! Your 70 percent there now. Putting it all together is not to hard. And if you have electricity at your pond already or near by your good to go!! Take pics and let us know how it goes.

ya I think Im going to try a plastic bread rack for the difuses mount with some weight on it for my mounting plate. amd have some stainless cable I am going to attach to all 4 corners going into 1 peice that will be 16 foot long with a duck decoy on the end of it that way I can row out grab the decoy and move it shallow for winter. The elctricty is about 200 feet away nothing a ditch-witch cant solve. I put my 240ft service line for cabin. with 1 they wor great and the rental shop only charges like 50$ for 4 hours. we did the service line, ditched it, put it in conduit and backed filled it and had the Ditch-witch back to the rental shop in 3 1/2 hours. Just went to menards today and bought all the conduit and outside boxes. So this spring my "RC51 Aeration Diffuser Station ®" will be on-line lol. Thanks again!

Hey I kind of like the way that sounds!!! "RC51 Aeration Diffuser Station"
Oh very good idea with the "Rope A Duck" too!


P.S. Your place looks great by the way!!

RC51, getting most of my stuff in the mail this week. Diffuser express messed up my order. But am gona post some pics as it all comes together. I ended up usuing a plastic bread rack with some 1/4 in alluminum plate on the inside for weight. its turning out preaty good.

What do you mean on the bread rack.. You kinda want a solid base that will get your diffuser 5-7 inches off the bottom. So it don't stir up muck. Which in your new pond you shouldn't have to worry about.. Just a thought

I have 4 plastic bread racks. there made the same way as plastic milk crates. they slide into to steel, 4 wheeled racks about 7 feet and keep the bread from being smashed during delivery. there 22"x26" and area about 6 inches tall. I will have 3 stacked on top of each other, and the difusers will be about 1' off the bottom and one rack will be on top to guard the diffusers. They are very solid and the rack that the difusors will be on ( 3rd one off the bottom) will have a 1/4 inch thicl aluminum plate 22"x24". this way if it is still stiring up mud I can just add another rack and lift it up another 6inches. hers a pic of ones simalar to what I am using
http://www.southernperfection.com/products/bakery/plastic-trays.aspx

Joker,

That's sounds pretty cool! Looking forwared to seeing your setup!! The bread rack sounds like a pretty good idea. My whole setup is about 3 inches off the bottom and I have a LOT of muck and I don't have any stir up issues. Cant wait to see it!!

I've got a quick question about this system.

We'd like to put our compressor/pump near our hose, and bury the airhose all the way out to our pond. It would be around a 150-200 foot run.

Is this something that could be done with this system, using the ECO 7 pump? or should get something larger for that long of a run?

I run this distance with buried garden hose and a 1/4 HP Gast rotary vane compressor.
No problems after about 8 years usage.

George is correct it should work fine as long at you dont have any air line leaks along the way! I would use a larger hose/line when you run it. Like a 3/4 to 1 inch line and then downsize to 5/8th at or near the air system. Remember larger line over long distance equals less friction and more volume. Just don't be alarmed if it takes a minute to fill the line and actually start pumping air out of your air station. I have about 75 feet of line and it takes about 5 to 8 seconds before I see any bubbles. So 200 feet of line at first may take a bit to fill it up is all I am saying.

Good Luck

Which model are you using? I'm looking at the 323 and the 523, and not sure which way to go.

RC...bought everything and finally put it together, same config as yours, except instead of the computer siding I strapped the difuser heads to a tire to be weighted and dropped in pond....question is the (eco-7) doesnt seem to push a large quantity of air through the three elbows with the diffuser heads off....Im afraid this wont produce a significant boil...I have 100 ft weighted hose to push through....the only other thing I did was place the plastic hose and attached it ti the inflow valve and drilled a hole through the pet carrier to allow it access to outside air....what are your thoughts and experiences with a dry run?

It is nornmal to not see bubbles right away when pump starts. Once bubbles are released it takes 1 sec per foot of depth for bubbles to rise to the surface. When it takes longer than that the pump is probably pushing water out the airline - unneeded and over stress for the compressor. A low pressure guage (15-30psi) at the pump lets you monitor lots of things including when the air is released from the diffuser. I always suggest a low psi guage at the pump. The membrane diffusers almost always have a build in check valve to prevent water back flow when the air flow stops. Clogging of diffuser can eventually result in clogging of check valve. It depends. Diffuser check valves can be cleaned.

I would be very interested to hear about the life span of these compressors when used for deep pond (6-15ft) aeration. Users please report back as your systems age.

[quote=dracor]RC...bought everything and finally put it together, same config as yours, except instead of the computer siding I strapped the difuser heads to a tire to be weighted and dropped in pond....question is the (eco-7) doesnt seem to push a large quantity of air through the three elbows with the diffuser heads off....Im afraid this wont produce a significant boil...I have 100 ft weighted hose to push through....the only other thing I did was place the plastic hose and attached it ti the inflow valve and drilled a hole through the pet carrier to allow it access to outside air....what are your thoughts and experiences with a dry run?

/quote]

Dracor,

I didn't really do a dry run per say. The first time I used the air pump I had my system in about 2 foot of water just to test it. It will push it. I can't remember how deep your putting your pump? Mine is at 8 feet now and no problems. Remember these diffusers only need a minamum of .5 CFM and your Eco 7 puts out a max of 7 CFM. Joker another user on this site using the same system has his in about 12 feet of water and it works great for him. I don't know after 12 feet how good this pump will work as I have never tested it past that? So if your going deeper than that let us know how or if it works ok?

Hey Bill,

That would explain why mine takes about 8 seconds to show up then as my fusers are in 8 foot of water. Thanks for that bit of into. I have had mine only going on my second year in 8 foot of water. So far no problems at all. I know AP has had a Eco plus 5 pump for 3 or 4 years and he runs his year around in the winter and has not failed him yet although he doesn't run it very deep I don't think. Joker is the only one I know of that has one deeper than mine and his is at 12 feet but he just put his in a couple of months ago. And for 105 bucks for the Eco 7 you can't beat the price. Heck you could even have another one on the shelf in case you need it for that price.

I was getting ready to buy a $1200 setup online when I ran into this thread in my search to figure out which pump technologies would be best for my pond. I ended up ordering the RC51 special and I was pleasently surprised by the quality as the motor and diffusers arrived yesterday.
I currently have a 2HP fountain (otterbine) aerator at the surface. Im excited to see how this does with breaking down the organic sludge at the bottom. When the pond was new (6 years ago now), I had a huge algae bloom early, and got a big sludge layer at the bottom. The otterbine really cleaned up the surface algae, however the bottom has never been able to shake the anerobic muck in a few locations. Im hoping that placing this new system in those locations, I can get some oxygen circulation and finally break down the organic sludge area's that area fully anerobic right now. Ill post back with my results...

krhule,

Looking forward to what you have to say! I think you will like the system it works pretty well on smaller ponds for sure! Let us know how it goes!!

RC51

I've got some 3/4 inch pvc will that work for the diffuser station. I think I'm going to go with 3 diffusers as well. Thanks

Hey Chris hope it works out well for ya. Let us see your setup when your done take a few pictures ok! Holler if you have any questions that haven't already been answered!!

Have a good one! RC