Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions New pond aerator water clarity

For a new pond, I usually do not recommend aeration, at least bottom aeration, until the silt settles and the water is allowed to clear. Aerating is designed to mix or circulate the pond water. Silt in suspension will tend to remain in suspension if one is constantly or even daily circulating the entire pond volume. Winds during open water season also help mix the upper pond layer and keep microfine clay in suspension. Let things settle and clear at least until the water has 2 ft of clarity, then start aeration. Suspended solids will settle as layers with heaviest settling the fastest and smallest colloidal clays slowest and in the last layer. Sometimes these microfine particles will not settle until ice cover eliminates the wind circulation action. Aerating before all the heavier particles settle just brings all this cloudy layer back to the surface.

The other water clarity problem that can occur in a new pond is the raw dirt basin does not have a natural biofilm layer on the bottom. This biofilm layer tends to seal the microfine bottom layer from the overlying water. This helps keep sediments on the bottom not in the water column.

Sometimes or often a new pond does not need to be bottom aerated until it is one year old or more. After one year old a pond as it ages continues to develop a noticeable biochemical oxygen demand that progressively consumes a significant amount of dissolved oxygen especially in the deep non-mixing layer and or layer that does not receive enough light for photosynthesis. This BOD process continues to increase as the pond ages thus the need each year of aging for more bottom to top mixing. The rate of BOD increase is based on the pond's productivity (eutrophication).

So IMO I would turn off your bottom aeration or operate it only few hours a day until your pond achieves 2 to 3 ft of clarity. In the meantime spend all your effort getting the watershed fully planted and grassed. It also helps a new pond to establish shoreline emergent vegetation or rip-rap the shoreline to minimize wind -wave action that resuspends clay from open mud shorelines.

Also I do not think it is a good idea to stock a new pond that has continually muddy pond water that has visibilities of less than 12"-16". Fish generally do not thrive in ponded muddy water, but can thrive pretty well in muddy water stream conditions due to higher oxygen concentrations due to flow and current. Significant muddy water is a stressor for fish and fish food development (invertebrates - plankton) and tends to inhibit their growth and pond productivity in general.