Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions 6 acre Ice lake Solar System - best set up?

Hi All, I know much of the solar topic has been covered but I am finding that there are new products coming out often and setups are being tweaked - and..every situation can be a little different as well.


My situation:

Lake drained by otters 2 years ago and tidied up the beaver goo with an excavator to gravel clay, holds water very well. Work finished end of july and was near full by end of august 2023

Lake specs: 6 acres, 8 feet to 12 feet deep, sunfish, some bass, just put some trout in it, tons of minnows. Some inflow, some spring action, 8ppm DO this fall, ph 7.8

Long kidney shaped lake 400 meters long

I just checked DO yesterday and it's 4ppm. I put cams underwater a couple of weeks ago and saw tons of sunfish and minnows hiding about 4 feet in brush and some old grassy areas.


I am off grid and I have a bunch of solar components so I slapped together an aerator system that ive been running since the fall I have 2 small areas about 10 feet round in one end of the lake. two diffusers set 3 feet below the surface. Ice is 12 inches thick

I'd like to optimize what I have and can add components to upgrade the system...I can spend about another 1000 where needed.

What I have on hand:

SOLAR CHARGE CONTROLLER #1.

New Renogy MPPT Solar Charge Controller 40A 12V/24V, Solar Panel Controller Charge Controller with Auto Parameter Adjustable & LCD Display for Gel Sealed Flooded & Lithium Battery

Nominal System Voltage: 12/24V (Auto-Detect for Non-Lithium types)
Rated Charge Current: 40A
Max. PV Input Voltage: 100 VDC
Max. PV Input Power: 12V/520W, 24V/1040W
Power Consumption: < 100mA/12V; < 58mA/24V
Max Battery Voltage: 32V
Ground Type: Negative
Electrical Protection: Overcharging, over-discharging, overload, and short circuit.Capable of charging over-discharged lithium batteries.

Charge controller # 2. (in use currently in aerator system)

Solar Charge Controller 80A PWM 12V 24V 1920W Solar Panel Charger Discharge Regulator with 5V USB Output Multip Circuit Protection Anti-Fall Durable ABS Housing Discharge Regulator for Lighting System

Charge Control Mode: PWM
Rated Current : 80A
Rated voltage: 12V/24V Automatic Identification
Max input Power: 960W(12V), 1920W(24V)
Installation Cable Area: 3# AWG (25mm2)
Maximum Voltage of solar panel: 48V
Float Voltage: 13.8V/27.6V
Low Voltage Disconnection: 10.7V/21.4V
Low Voltage Re-connection: 12.5V/25V
No load loss: <30mA
loop voltage drop:<200mV

INVERTER1

New Renogy Pure Sine Wave Inverter 1000w Power Inverter DC 12v to AC 110v, Solar Inverter 12v to 110v Converter with 5V/2.1A USB Port, 2 AC Ports, Remote Controller

Inverter 2. (Currently in use with aerator system)

BESTEK 300W Car Power Inverter, DC 12V to 110V Car Inverter with 2 AC Outlets and 3.4A Dual USB Ports, Car Plug Adapter Outlet Converter

PANELS:

2x Canadian Solar. CS6K-270P
270W each
Vmp 30.8
Imp 8.75A
Voc 37.9
Isc. 9.32
Max Sys voltage 1000V
max series fuse 15A

100 feet weighted 3/8 hose
2 x rootscape difusers - these seem to be garbage

BATTERIES #1 currently in use:

2X Costco 6V golf cart batteries:

Battery Specs Kirkland Signature GC2 Golf Battery
Amp Hour 210
BCI Group Number GC2
Reserve Capacity 105 Minute
Voltage 6 Volt


Batteries #2

I just bought 6 good used massive ROLLS batteries.

Model Number

4 KS 15P

Flooded Lead Acid

Nominal DC Voltage 4V

https://rollsbattery.com/battery/4-ks-21p/

Cold Crank Amps (CCA) 0°F / -18°C 2754
Marine Crank Amps (MCA) 32°F / 0°C 3443
Reserve Capacity (RC @ 25A) 2756 Minutes
Reserve Capacity (RC @ 75A) 919 Minutes
Capacity Affect by Temperature 40°C
(104°F) 25°C
(77°F) 0°C
(32°F) -15°C
(5°F)
105% 100% 75% 50%
Hour Rate Capacity / AMP Hour Current / AMPs
@ 100 Hour Rate 1481 AH 14.81 A
@ 72 Hour Rate 1401 AH 19.45 A
@ 50 Hour Rate 1326 AH 26.52 A
@ 20 Hour Rate 1148 AH 57.41 A
@ 15 Hour Rate 1068 AH 71.19 A
@ 10 Hour Rate 1022 AH 102.19 A
@ 8 Hour Rate 987 AH 123.43 A
@ 5 Hour Rate 919 AH 183.71 A
@ 1 Hour Rate 517 AH 516.67 A




AIR PUMP #1. Currently in use

VIVOSUN Air Pump 15-102W for Aquarium and Hydroponic Systems

90LPM 1427 GPH


AIR PUMP #2

EcoPlus ECOair 1 Commercial Grade Air Pump 793 GPH - 18 Watt Single Outlet


The current system of 12V (2x6v) batteries and 2 x270W panels gives me about 8 hrs on a decent sunlight day.

I know the question will be what do I want out of the system ie. how many hours of aeration per 24hr cycle etc but im putting the cart before the horse on this one because I already have components and would like to work with what I have with minimal dollars spent If you know what I mean. All that being said Id like to optimize the system and keep more area open for longer.

With these new to me 4V batteries I could make a 12 or 24V system, I could add another coupe of panels to max out the charge controller input of about 1000W, add more pumps...or just make a second system and aerate the far end of the lake as well....honestly I just need some to tell me what to do lol.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Here are the sunfish a few months ago....I hate to have a winter kill...

Great video, and nice report!!

I know nothing about solar, unfortunately,

Tinylake, welcome to the forum! I don't know much about solar aeration, but I know about aeration. Something to keep in mind when designing your system; you know what you have now, and how many CFM of air it makes. (or cubic meters of air), and what size hole it opened up.

For your body of water, you will need approximately 2,800 square meters of open water. You might be able to get by with half of that, but I would try to get as close to that figure as possible. Try to get the open water areas right up to the shoreline, so if anything were to go in the water that it would be able to walk out without having to climb up on top of the ice to get out.

Thanks for the info! I was thinking that for the short term while I am building my new system I would open up a water pump and create a current to open up the water, does that make sense?

HiFlyer is our well experienced solar expert. Hopefully he will see this and jump into the discussion. He is frequently away flying so it might be a several days.

Yes, that makes perfect sense. Additionally, if the ice is clear and sunlight can get through it, then all you need to do is remove the snow. If it's white cloudy ice, then the ice should be melted.

In that case, instead of creating a current, shouldn't he pump water on TOP of the ice. I think that would melt and re-freeze the snow cover and allow more sunlight through? And perhaps also melt a little surface ice?

Well it still gets to about minus 10 Canadian here at night so if i do that I just end up making more ice and surprisingly not a lot melts...it's how we make rinks on the lake actually. That would be the easiest though

Upon reflection and a little research it looks like I might be able to get away with a system that could run up to 300watts of aerators for 6 to 8 hours. If I had to do 200watts of aerators for that time I could probably make it work with a generator as a supplement the odd time.

So here is my maths:

300w x 7 hrs 2100 watt hours
3 days without sunlight in the winter
24V system
requires 879 amp hours or 21100 watt hours (online calc)

peak sun hours = 4 hrs. So 800 watts of panels needed

So based on the online calc I could find i'd need:

1000 watts of panels
40amp charge controller

Im having a little bit of an issue determining battery bank size. Although if my bank is 6x4V batteries then that's what I have to work with...but is it too much battery for the 1Kw array?

Hopefully HiFlyer chimes in - I've seen his posts!

Cheers.

But if the ice on the pond had snow on it and water pushed up, then froze the snow/ice then the ice would look like milk. The ice has to be clear for it to work, or non-existent.

To follow up on esshups post, there is about 3 inches of clear ice with about 8 inches of milky ice on top of it. With my water pump running it takes about 2 hours just to burn a small area down to clear ice, flooding definitely would not work. I just keep working the edge around and ive made a pretty large area, I bought actual aerating hose, 100 feet of it and ill be making my own today, the pondscape aerators are poor quality, i think one was actually 3d printed....

At this time of year, would laying out a big black tarp at one your melting pond edges (directed at the thinnest ice) melt some significant ice?

Hmm, id try that. The pump is working well and the new aerator hose does a great job