I’m in the process of setting up a aeration system for my 2acre pond, its 70+ years old, has a max depth of 12’ , located in northeastern PA at 1500’ elevation. I have a Gast ½ hp air compressor and looking at getting a Atlantic Diffuses AB-70006 12” , putting it about in the middle. My main reason I am installing this I don’t want a winter kill of fish. I stocked a lot this past spring and they seem to be doing fine so far. Now I understand the whole principal of not shocking the pond by over aeration all at once, and plan to bring it up slowly over then next 6 weeks. ( its 100miles from my home so I only get there weekly) My plan is: to start with 30min a day (10 mins on 4 hrs off 3 cycles) Week 2 - 60 mins a day ( 15 min on, 4 hrs off for 4 cycles ) Week -3 90 mins a day ( 15 min on, 4 hrs off for 6 cycles ) Week -4 120 mins a day ( 20 min on, 4 hrs off for 6 cycles ) Week -5 150 mins a day ( 25 min on, 4 hrs off for 6 cycles ) Week -6 180 mins a day ( 30 min on, 4 hrs off for 6 cycles ) Does that sound like a good plan ?
Most important over the cold months is that enough or should I add more hours when the pond ices over?
Here's the start up procedure that is recommended by Vertex.
Day 1 15 min. Day 2 30 min Day 3 1 hour Day 4 2 hours Day 5 4 hours Day 6 8 hours Day 7 16 hours Day 8 let it run 24/7.
One caveat, if you smell Hydrogen Sulfide, (rotten egg smell) run it the next day the same length of time that you ran it on the day that you smelled it. Only continue lengthening the run time when the smell goes away. In your case since you are only there for (I'm assuming) the weekend, you could run it the schedule for day 1 and 2 the first weekend, then put it on a timer to run 30 min/day every day until you come out the next weekend, then do the 1 hr/2 hr over those 2 days, leave it run for 2 hr/day the next 5 days, etc. If you get there Friday afternoon/night and don't leave until Sunday, then you could knock out 3 days of the start-up procedure every weekend.
For the winter, you should NOT have the diffuser placed in the deepest part of the pond, it should be 1/4 the total pond depth. In your case, @ 3' depth.
Typically you want late Spring/Summer/early Fall aeration to bring the complete volume of water in the pond to the surface at least once per day. So, that means getting in touch with the diffuser mfg and finding out from them how many gallons of water per hour (in your case) @ 12' depth it brings to the surface. Then do the math and see if one diffuser will be enough. I'm guessing not.
For the winter, you only need to have 10% of the surface area of the pond ice free.
Run it long enough to keep an ice free area that's about 10% of the total pond surface. You might be able to get away with 5% but I'd err on the side of caution. No specific run time.
I am lazy, I let mine run 24/7,
The most important time to run them is at night into the early morning hours.
