Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions 8 acre pond at 10,000' - lots of aeration ?s

I am back from the mountains. Highflyer came out again and we got a bunch done.

DO levels were better than ever! We were at 9.0-9.5 PPM at the surface and 6.5-8.0 PPM at the bottom! I have never had readings like that at this time of the year. Leaves me excited to see what we can head into Winter with.

I did not have the "Green Slime" out break this year like in years past so that was a positive. The water was turning extremely green when I was leaving. Almost starting to look pea soup green in some areas. It has done that before, but I wasn't expecting it this year. Highflyer thinks the massive runoff this year helped with visibility. We are agreeing to disagree on that one. I do not think it helped and was disappointed in clarity. Secci disk read 30" when we tested it on ~8/22 but I think that number had decreased quite a bit before I left at the end of the month. I really thought the big runoff/flush would get rid of a lot of nutrients.

Once again made some major improvements that should help make this Winter a little easier to deal with. I redesigned the the valve system in the power shed and the valve system in the valve box. We are now on Version 4.1b- LOL. This new design dropped the PSI reading on the 1HP pump 3-4 PSI. This reduced the power draw from the pump almost 200 watts. That will help substantially over Winter.

Also added the Axial Flux wind turbine seen in the video below. Standing this baby up was NOT fun, although I think next time will be easier. This turbine ties into the existing power system (it's power will help charge the same batteries the solar panels charge). Hopefully this turbine will produce it's best power on days the solar panels struggle (when big storms are coming in/out). Unfortunately the turbine still needs a ton of work. Tail has to be redesigned and so does the hail shield. Also have to custom program the power curve in the charge controller that manages it. Anyway, on to the stuff pond guys care about. The charge controller for the wind turbine has a bunch of auxiliary functions. One of them is called Float High. This basically says IF: the batteries are in "float" (100% charged) and there is extra power coming in THEN: turn on this relay. I installed a second timer, separate from the 1HP pump, that controls a secondary pump. The second timer's hours are set opposite of the first timer. Basically if Timer 1 is on then Timer 2 is off. So if Timer 2 is on AND there is extra power coming from the turbine, that would otherwise be wasted, the relay turns on and activates the second pump for extra aeration run time that is totally automated and supplemental. This second pump's extra run time alone could provide a massive amount more aeration than we have ever had before especially over the Winter. This extra aeration should do a few things:

1) should not allow holes to close up as fast. When big storms blow in with a bunch of snow the holes seem to bridge over over night and take longer to open. This extra aeration should reduce that some amount.

2) the more we are running air through the airlines the less time any airline has to freeze up. With the 1HP pump running we measured the new metal valve system in the valve box and it was 10 degrees over ambient. Side note: We think this additional heat will help with lines freezing up this Winter.

3) IF the 1HP pump happened to go down this Winter we will already have a back up pump in place that will be providing some aeration. Totally automated and requires no one to make an emergency trip up the mountain.

As you can see I think we are more than prepared for this coming Winter. HOWEVER, every time I feel supremely prepared Mother Nature has a habit of slapping me around like a little baby so I am expecting more of the same.

Big thanks to Brian for all the help and talking about this project.