Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Aeration Strategies

Bob, the Sep/Oct 2023 issue of POND BOSS contained your article entitled Fall Aeration Strategies beginning on page 40. Part of a paragraph on that page reads: That's a big reason we preach about putting aeration systems on a timer in the hottest part of summer, from 9pm to 9am. That way, water temperature isn't as influenced by the hottest part of the day.

Just to be sure, you are talking about the aeration system is turned ON from 9pm to 9am?

Belated congratulations to being inducted into the hall of fame! Well deserved for sure.

Charles Milam

Regarding the time, yes. BUT I'd like to add a few points of interest here. 1) Most aeration systems are designed to run 24 hours a day. You design a system to bring "X" number of gallons of water to the surface of the pond in a 24 hour day. Running them less than that can lead to worse nutrient loading and it's associated problems. 2) I think Bob is talking specifically about ponds in Texas where the get a lot of days in excess of 100°F.

My personal observations regarding running aeration systems at night when the temps are cool (specifically in May and June when night time temps are below 70°F to keep the pond water cooler) was just the opposite. The overall O2 level in the pond was slightly lower than running 24/7, and the pond seemed to warm up faster. At least the trout died earlier in the year than running the aerator 24/7.

A member here did a great graph chart showing his water temp running the aerator 24/7 and running it only at night. It should be in the aeration section of the forum. It might have been gehajake that did the graph.

I'd love to see Bob's data on water temp profile to support what he's saying. I think the depth of the pond also plays a part in water temp in the summer too.

There are O2 systems out now that will aerate the water below the thermocline and they won't disrupt the thermocline, so you have the best of both worlds in keeping a pond cool and oxygenated for the fish.

Esshup can you describe a system like that

Rather than me type it all out, here are a few examples and different ways to achieve it.

It's called "Hypolimnetic Aeration", and it is a technique that adds oxygen to deep water without disturbing the water's natural stratification. It's often used in lakes and reservoirs to maintain water quality and protect ecosystems.

https://naturallake.com/ost-aeration-solution/ They use a pump to suck water from the bottom of the pond/lake, inject O2 from an O2 generator then pump the water back to the bottom of the pond/lake. Their system can be controlled from your phone, and it can be set up to inject alum to mitigate nutrients or clear the water. One of their test lakes in Florida could go from 3' visibility to 8' visibility by adjusting how much alum was injected.

Here are some other ways that use a typical bottom diffusion compressor.

Look under section 4.2
https://pubs.sciepub.com/aees/2/1/1/index.html

Then this was discussed 6 years ago: https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthre...;Board=11&main=39045&type=thread

Thanks for the information sounds like it might be fairly expensive to set up and use