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

Thanks for the kind comments everyone! This has definitely been a learning experience. I tell Highflyer all the time... I don't want to get any smarter, I just want it to work!!!

Gehajake - the trout species is a Brook Trout.

Canyon - Diffusers floating up: I already had the diffusers attached to the old style gravel filled bases vertex used to sell. The bases are very heavy. Maybe too heavy. It is a struggle to get the quad out of the water. So far it seems like the weight from the bases hanging there is enough to keep the diffusers right where I put them. I initially thought they might want to rotate around the pipe, but it never happened. I think the weighted line also helps keep them "pinned" where you put them. Critters: This was again another "best ever" for critters. All my rip rap is full of baby crayfish. There seems to be more scuds this year than last year and I seem to have said that for the last couple years now. The fatheads seem to be following the same trajectory as the scuds! And finally, maybe the best news in the critter department, the leeches have almost completely vanished!! I am sure some folks remember me complaining about the leeches. At night you could walk down with a flashlight and with just a few steps you could count hundreds of leeches. I went down with a flashlight this trip and didn't see a single leech!! I am assuming leeches have been on the menu for the fish and the crayfish. It has been a while since I have laid eyes on a salamander. Not sure if they are still present or not. So, the forage base is more than set! Now all I need is baby Brookies!!! Grass Blade: I spent considerable time working on attempting to pump out the grass blade bloom. I ended up with the dewatering bag hanging over the water from the tractor forks on the East side of my peninsula. The pump intake was on the West side of my peninsula. I let the pump run for 1.5 hours. I watched as the intake hose was sucking up tons of grass blade algae. After the test run I shut the pump off to inspect and there was ZERO algae in the bag. The bag had a filter size of 470 microns IIRC. It was plenty tight enough to catch the algae. All I can figure is the pump completely obliterated the algae as it passed through and that allowed it to pass through the bag. That experiment was a definite fail unfortunately. Pipe/Buoy color: I do not think the pipe or buoy heating up is what is helping break the dome. I am pretty sure it is a mechanical advantage of sorts. I think the ice begins to lift from the aeration and it slides up the pipe. I think this movement up the pipe creates a fracture OR the ice moves enough to create a gap that allows the air to vent and that keeps the ice from lifting off the water. Since the aeration keeps the ice thin around the pipe the ice can't get a good "hold" on the pipe so it seems no risk of the ice lifting the pipes up. I can always go back and paint black if need be next year.

JQ - I do run the small pump at night. I have it set for two one hour time slots. Throughout the winter my air temps never get that extreme. I would say my average low through the winter is around 10F. At this point, especially with the new setup, I am less concerned about water temps and more concerned about DO. I think this night time running will help keep any ice that is able to form between runs very thin and keep that DO as high as possible.