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

Starting to get a little action.... MAYBE I will have some open water in a week!! Holes have grown nicely over the last couple days and there are some really warm temps in the forecast for the next several days.

After reading Lusks' article on "Aeration Strategies" in the latest PB magazine, I have another new idea. My DO levels seem to do really well from ice off until late August or early September. Each September the DO drops into the mid 4's and stays there until it starts to climb back up in October. I think there must be some kind of die off that is happening and my Gast 1550 cannot keep up with the Oxygen demand. This year, all Summer and maybe all Winter too, I am going to run a second air pump into my main airline to increase my CFM per disc. I am running the Gast 1550 that produces 15 CFM and I am going to add my Gast 0740 that produces 6 CFM. Unfortunately both those numbers are at sea level. At my elevation there is a 33% de-rate so I will be looking at 14 CFM at zero PSI for both pumps combined. I think adding the 0740 will increase my CFM ~40%. I am hoping this increase in CFM is enough to push my DO levels through the annual DO slump in September. Both pumps have backflow preventers inline and from what I have read running both into one airline should not be a problem. I am going to find out.

In the Winter I am also going to SUSPEND my diffusers in shallower water. I am currently thinking 5' or 6'. This should help on multiple fronts. One, per the article and per a guy from MN, I should not be directly feeding O2 to the bacteria on the pond bottom. I am hoping to put a rear naked choke on the aerobic bacteria and have it choked out early in the fall/winter. Hoping the bacterias' ability to consume O2 will be significantly reduced or even eliminated. Two, the reduced PSI on the pumps will increase their CFM output and I should move more water and chew through the ice easier. Three, the reduced PSI should substantially reduce the amount of power each pump will consume and since I am on solar power this means I should be able to run my pumps longer therefore moving more water and eating more ice. The reduced power consumption also means I can possibly run both pumps this Winter at maybe close to the same power consumption as the 1HP this Winter while aerating in deep water.

Love to hear some thoughts!