Need help on pond aeration

[PineRidge]

Need to add some aeration to our pond. I'm not talking about a decorative fountain but rather a bubbler type arrangement.

Are the diffuser stones or the new membrane diffusers more practical for pond use and why?

What sort of life should we expect to see on these products running 24/7 in the spring/summer/fall months only. We will not be aerating in the winter unless we have an extreme snow build up on top of the ice.

 

[ronjhall]

My pond is not as large as yours. But I use this place for help with my garden pond. Pond Guy

 

[PineRidge]

Thanks Ron I'll see if those guys can give some advice.

 

[EddieWalker]

Mike,

I have a small 3/4 acre pond and I'm building a 5 acre one. Neither have aeration, nor was I planning on it, but this may be a mistake on my part.

How do you know you need to aerate your pond?

It's not done in nature, and for hundred, if not thousands of years, people have raised fish in ponds, tanks and resevoirs without aeraiting.

Is it one of those things like feeding catfish? You do it because they will grow bigger allot faster. Do you aerate so you can have more fish in a certain sized pond?

When I had a few goldfish ponds, the experts said that if the goldfish were coming to the surface for air, than your water lacked enough oxygen for the number of fish in the pond.

Thank you,
Eddie

 

[sendero]

Most people aerate to reduce the algae growth in the water.

But there are other ways /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[caylor]

Mike,

I saw an ad in Progressive Farmer for a windmill driven bubble difusser aeration system. Here is the link:

Windmills

Seems like a nice idea for areas where power availability is limited. I think the site says that the system is good for ponds up to two acres depending on depth. The complete system starts around $1,100 bucks for 12' windmill.

 

[SPIKER]

ome friends bought one similar to the windmill ones, work well and so far it seems to run constantly with a breeze, (though when windy the natural movement of the waves airiate the water. most ponds of large size don't need air, it is when you add LOTS of fish to a small pond that it really becomes needed. over stocking is bad for the fish anyway due to health & waste problems ect. controlling algie is often done using blue/green water collerations...

mark M

 

[PineRidge]

Eddie that's a fair question.

For the past 2 years we have been plagued with watermeal. I manually pull it out of the pond using a super-fine net and it's not unusual to fill a 55 gallon container once a month with the way this crud multiplies. It is bright green, no visible root system, floats on top, and feels like grit between your fingers. YUCK!

I believe that the watermeal is flourishing because of nutrient rich water. My garden is on high ground and it gets lots of horse manure so I'm betting rain runoff is adding to my algae headache.

I have heard that with proper aeration the nutrient level in the pond will be reduced. Watermeal also needs still water to multiply at rapid rates. And since my pond rarely tops the overflow I'm thinking a little more water movement can't be all that bad for the fish either.

As a last resort I'll nuke the watermeal with a chemical called Sonar which as I understand should easily knock it out without a fish kill, but it comes at a steep, steep price of roughly $1600.00 a gallon. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Caylor my next door neighbor has a brand new windmill for his pond, unfortunately it only runs about 20% of the time at best. It wouldn't even pump enough to keep the ice open this past winter. Guess we don't see as much wind as we might need to power one correctly. I have a rebuilt antique Aeromotor windmill with an 8' wheel and that's the only thing thats kept me from erecting it on the lot.

Spiker we use Aquashade on a regular basis and it seems to have little effect on this type of algae. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[lhfarm]

Check out Pond Boss and their forum. There is a whole section on aeration. Lots of good pond information.

 

[Egon]

There is an area in Alberta where there is no ground water. Most people use dugouts for domestic water. Most of the dugouts have Windmill Aerators on them.

Egon /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif