Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions Anyone using Air-Pro Deluxe aeriation systems?

Any feedback pros and cons on the Air-Pro Deluxe aeriation system. Seems I can get a 1/2 hp unit for 2 acre pond for $1500. What do ya'll think. That's turnkey including weighted hose.

I will watch this too, I am wanting to add some aeration as well but deciding on what to purchase or buy parts and build a system.
Thanks
Dave

The pump with Max Air Flow (CFM) of 5.6 cfm should be okay for your application. A two acre pond depending on shape and bottom configuration may need more than a dual head diffuser. That pump will operate two maybe three dual head diffusers which will mix your pond better (faster-stronger). Check on prices of the rebuild kits and number of hours between pump rebuilds (expect 15000hrs). Operating in TX conditions may require 24/7 operation during the warm season Mar to Nov.

Bill, the one I am looking at is 5.1 cfm. Is that good enough?? It is 1/2 hp rocking piston compressor made in the USA. 2-duel head difussers. 200 ft of 3/8 weighted hose. Has its own metal housing box with a cooling fan.check valve and regulator. 2 yr warranty on compressor and 5 yr on diffusers. Would this type pump be "oiless". Also I can get it for 115 volt or 220 volt same price. Which would be better? Is 3/8 hose plenty big enough? I can buy just the pump,hose,and difussers for $1100. Oh, and 100$ shipping

FWIW.....I bought a turn key before I found the forum. It came with 3/8 hose but 5/8 was offered at an additional charge. Wish I would have bought the 5/8. My system with the 3/8 runs at a little higher pressure than I would like to see. The higher the pressure, the shorter the pump life.

Just my 1 cent....

Is 220 volt going to be better than 115 volt? Are these rocker piston pumps oiless?

Rocking piston is oiless. 115 volt will not be a power savings benefit unless you are using a 3phase motor. 3/8" ID hose will cause some back pressure especially for longer lenghts of airline. If you need long airline lengths 5/8" hose is better. The rocking piston pump develops relatively high pressure and can easily 'handle' the higher pressure. For 2 acres place your diffusers in the deepest areas.

Thanks Bill. I have found because I need to run about 150 ft to my deepest water it was cheaper to buy the kit with 3 diffusers and 3 -100 ft rolls of air hose. This would give me a "spare" diffuser. How far apart should I place the 2 diffusers?? Also, I can order it with different type diffusers...diaphragm or tube type. Which is best and easiest to keep clean? How far off the bottom should I place them and the best method for holding them down. I am just about to pull the trigger but I want to get all my ducks in a row.

Typically plan on each well designed and operating diffuser to mix and push water around 200ft diameter. Several things affect the water movement so water movement may be as little as 60ft dia or up to 300ftI would not place the diffuser more than 200-250 ft apart then this deeper section of pond should remain well mixed.

Tube and disk diffuser both have advantages. I think the tubes stay cleaner and are easier to clean whereas the disks tend to move a little more water. Tubes require less weight to hold them down. Tubes are often self-weighted. Mount tubes horizontal.

I try to place the diffuser as close as practical to the bottom. More water height above the diffuser provides more water movement at the surface.

My 6.5 acre pond is 60+ years old and has plenty of muck on the bottom. I was thinking of attaching the diffusers to 12-18 inch high PVC "stands" or "tables" (all weighted) that would hold the diffuser off the bottom and out of the muck....good idea or not?? Your advice is appreciated. thanks. BM61

Bill my diffusers will only be 75-100 ft from each other. Is that too close. To put them 200-250 ft away in any direction would hit the bank or be in 4-5 ft water. Pond is not real wide but is long.

No problem with diffusers closer together. Closer will allow them to work in tandem for better mixing in that general area.

Flame, as u know I am no expert here but, I can pass along a few things I have learned this past month when it comes to aeration. The Kasco system I have came as S shaped tubes along with a bottom plate and compartment to add rock for weighting it down. It was recommended to add them to 8' water depths or deeper so they would move more water, just like Bill Cody suggested. I would run all 3 diffusers to get the same water movement effect, especially if they were going to be in sallower water. I first set mine on bottom and 3 out of 5 were pretty close together in the deeper water and mixes the water pretty good from the look of things. But they stirred up the bottom of the pond and make a cloudy area 12 to 15' around the diffusers so I raised them off bottom about 7" and they still moved the bottom mud around. I then moved 3 of the diffusers onto a small plastic baby pools so to act like a plate where the diffuser would have to reach out a little further to disturb the bottom, but again it disturbed the clay bottom. I will post up what I find out in the future if I find any plate large enough to reduce disturbing the clay. looks like I might have to raise them off bottom again and use the baby pools. And one more thing is I agree with Bill D. when it comes to getting a larger sized weighted line when running it 150'. Hope my experience will help u save a little time and money

Tracy

TGW1: I appreciate those comments about your Kasco diffusers. I will certainly see the same thing happening if I put my diffusers on the bottom.....or very close to the bottom. Probably a foot of muck down at the bottom of my old BOW would be my guess based on wading the shallower areas. I need to figure out how to get the diffusers as close to the bottom as possible without disturbing the muck....that is the last thing I want to do after dropping a good chunk of change on an aeration system.....I don't need cloudy/muddy water. Maybe the 12-18 inch height off the bottom I asked about in my earlier comment is actually about right??

Bassmaster61....pans that spread the weight of diffusers, and reduce sinking are pretty easy to do

Rainman, you and Highflyer(another thread) have mentioned Pans for reducing clay disturbance or reducing cloudy water caused by the diffusers. I used a plastic child swimming pool as a pan and that helped a little but did not solve the issue, is there a PAN that u both speak of? Or how big, or size pan is necessary to solve the situation?

Thanks

Tracy

Tracy, I like the diffuser to be 8-12" above the "pan" and the same distance for the pan to extend away, and to the sides of the diffusers. I have used trimmed Blitz brand galvanized oil drip pans used to put under old cars...purchased at Walmart.

Thanks for the pan description Rainman. With that I would think the kiddy pool would or should have worked. sounds like I just need to raise the diffusers that are now laying on the kiddy pool on bottom. I need to rent a scuba tank and gear, it would be so much easier to get this done on the deeper diffusers. And I am glad I am doing this in the summer months, it would be pretty darn cold doing this in the winter months.

Trracy

Are the raised sides still on the pool? If so, cut them off because they will block water flow from beyond the pool sides...The "pan" needs to be flat.

Rainman is this the galvanized Blitz pan you are describing? Or was it round?

Blitz pan

TGW1 plastic concrete mixing tubs might work for you. They are available in a couple of sizes at places like Home Depot. They are used to hand mix concrete. They are tough plastic and are cheap. Might need to drill some holes around sides to let water flow per Rainmans suggestion. Do a google search for concrete mixing tubs and you can see a picture of them and pricing.

concrete mixing tubs

Thanks guys for the suggestions. The kiddy plastic swimming pool is on bottom placed upside down so there are no walls. The weight of the diffusers(from pea gravel added to the weighting compartment) placed on the pools collapses the bottom of the pool and makes it pretty much flat but not flat. There may be a 5 to 10 degree angle on the bottom of the pool, moving from center to outer edge of the pools. I would think this would pull water that is a few inches off bottom. The kiddy pool covers a larger area (on bottom of pond) than the pictured pan and the concrete mixing tubs. Rainman, I was thinking of trying a kiddy pool placed in a normal position where there would be walls, maybe that will stop the movement of the bottom clays. I will tell u this, it is not so easy to do all of this work on bottom in 9' of water. Visibility is at 18 to 21 inches and holding my breath does not give me much time on bottom to achieve the task. I am a certified diver but its been years so tank rental can or might be done but I am sure there will be hurdles to go over to get back to where I can rent tanks for diving. And cleaning the diffusers when the time comes will not be so easy because of my present setup. Its seems it is not so easy to grow a lot of DD lmb.

Tracy

snrub and others who dive, I have a question for you.

If the diffuser picks up clay and sediment from the bottom and brings it to the surface, wouldn't the diffuser, after a day or two or running lift up all the material that it could from around itself that it could?

Since the water plume goes out a ways from the diffuser once it reaches the surface, wouldn't some/most of the particulates precipitate out from the plume and settle far enough from the diffuser to NOT be picked up again?

If clay were to be picked up, and stay suspended in the water, I think it's more of a ionic imbalance correct?

If it is muck, then wouldn't moving the particles around cause the muck to be digested quicker by the bacteria due to more of the muck's surface area being exposed to more O2?

If you guys do want to get the diffuser up and off the bottom of the pond, and are using membrane diffusers, here's a tip.

Membrane diffusers are like a balloon when in use. They float. That's why you need ballast - to keep them on the pond bottom. Why not make your weighted air station base, then take a piece of weighted air line and run that to the diffusers? If you wanted the diffusers 24" off the bottom of the pond, use a 24" piece of weighted airline.

FWIW, one 9" diffuser will "float" at least 5' of 5/8" ID weighted airline.........

All this talk of pans, flat pieces of plastic, etc. is too much work for this guy. If I was worried about keeping the diffusers up off the bottom of the pond (and I'm not for summer aeration) AND I was doing a DIY system, I'd take the weighted airline and put a 90° fitting on the end of it. Tie that fitting to a cinderblock or two, and then put another length of air line on the fitting that goes to the diffuser/diffuser assembly. I'd make that piece of air line the length that I wanted the diffusers up off the bottom. Drop it in the pond and be done with it.

esshup, thanks for your response and suggestion here. Question? did I understand that u do not care for summer aeration? Right now, I have mixed emotions about aeration, I never had a fish die off when running well water until the diffusers were added and ran at the same time the water was being added. I did the aeration to control the water clarity for the better and for increasing the number of pounds per acre of fish.(lmb,cnbg,hsb,Tfs,Res,Tp) Visibility went from 13" to 18" after adding the diffusers. And like you, I thought eventually the diffusers would stop moving the clays around and colloidal clays would settle out away from the diffusers. They do seem to be settling out around 15' from the diffusers, based on the cloudy water color distance from the diffusers. The whole 3.5 are pond has picked up some of the colloidal clays because I can see a change in the water, it's not that bad, but there is now some suspension that was not there prior to the diffusers being added to the pond. I think the pond being only a couple or yrs old this would not be muck but is picking up a fine clay. The water in the pond remains an olive green color with a consistent 18" visibility,due to fertilization and a fairly heavy cnbg feeding with 3 TH feeders. If things continue with the disturbed clay I might consider adding some gypsum, to floc the clays and to increase my water hardness, its around 40ppm now. Pond management takes more time than I thought it would, maybe I should not manage it so much

Ps, Flame sorry for the hyjack

Tracy

That would probably work Esshup. With a dual diffuser I would want to make sure when it floated up it would not turn sideways. Having the two 9" sitting flat I would think be important to get maximum water flow.

I keep my diffuser on the bottom other than the height of the diffuser base which I would guess at about 7or 8". I want it as close bottom as possible.

The only one I have noticed bringing up some sediment is in my sediment pond. It is a single 9" round diffuser with a home made concrete base pictured in my forage pond thread. It is probably only 5 or 6" off bottom and the base size is small making it subject to sinking in the mud. It is the one I would like to put a plastic larger base under. Have the base, have not done it yet. This pond, being a sediment pond, gets some sediment and you can see the diffuser mixing it after a large rain. It will settle back out in a week or two. You are right that it does eventually move the clay away fromm it. It is not that big of deal, but if I ever make another concrete base I will provide a larger surface to sit on the bottom.

As far as too much work, you probably still have to work for a living so that is important. I'm semi retired and have to look for interesting things to occupy my time. I have a younger generation that does the real work. I would just bulldoze the pond back in if it were work I was trying to avoid. Like my motorcycle riding, the journey IS the destination for my ponds. I don't have goals for record breaking fish or anything like that. I just like the challenge of the learning process.

second pic 004 and below home made diffuser base
The post describes sediment being stired by the diffuser.