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

Thanks for the info Bill! "Unfortunately, I didn't see this before I left and was pretty darn scared to get too close to the holes. We spent a week up there for Christmas.

I have to say this was an EXTREMELY informative trip. I actually made a shocking discovery.

For about 10 days or two weeks leading up to the trip the holes in the ice appeared to be frozen up. When we got there, there was a small hole open in the deep water above the quad diffuser. Snow that night covered it up and that hole was never to be seen again. The pump was running as normal, PSI gauge looked good and I was confused. Where was all the air going? My brother in law and I got out on the ice to measure the DO and we were at 1.5 PPM and temp was 33.6 F. Very disappointing, but I was assuming it would be bad with the lack of open water. While we were on the ice we started thinking we were seeing a "hump" in the ice. We debated back and forth for most of the day whether it was a hump or shadows playing tricks on us. The next day I got a rifle out and took a shot at it and IT "BLEW UP"!! I use "blew up" because I can't think of a better way to describe it. It did not make a sound or literally explode, but it WAS dramatic. After it happened, there were chunks of ice several feet away from the hole. There was still no open water, but all of the snow/ice was laying in the hole like broken glass and there was and obvious depression in the shape of a circle where the dome had been. Unfortunately, no video of the shot because I really didn't think anything was going to happen. Here is a pic right after the shot.



So what was the shocking discovery.....???

I learned that for the last two years I have been chasing the wrong problem. I thought I was fighting frozen airlines due to condensation when in actuality the ice doming up was the real problem. Year one, the airline did freeze, but years two and three (I relocated valve box after year one)appear to have been doming. I cannot say how many hours of mental energy were wasted trying to devise a solution for the frozen airlines. Talk about frustrating. At the same time that I am frustrated, there is a certain amount of relief now knowing exactly what I need to solve. I was on the road for almost 40 hours to get back to Atlanta and spent a considerable amount of time talking to MNFish (who I wish would spend more time on Pond Boss!!!). He made a couple statements that stuck with me (I hate to use quotations because it may not be an exact quote, but close enough).

"Finding solutions is easy. Finding the correct problem is the difficult part".

This statement really struck me for us Northen guys.

"If you use intermittent aeration YOU WILL HAVE DOMING". Wow - if only I had heard that two years ago!!

At least now I know the correct problem I am trying to solve!!!

Couple pics from the trip because everyone loves pics....

The machine we took up. A 1984 Tucker 1544. Borrowed from a buddy.


Halfway there


Made it to the cabin


Amazing sunrises!


The kid ice fishing at a buddy's cabin