Can You Over Aerate A Pond?

[@LittleCabin]

Just wanted to post a follow up based on the back and forth we had earlier this year. I've been running our EasyPro PA6SWN only about 4 hours a day, and the pond seems to be doing quite well. There are no more more signs of leaves around the edges of the pond, and limited algae around the edges. We figured we'd start slow with the number of hours of run time, since the pond is pretty small, and then ramp up the time if needed, but seems to be holding its own right now with no chemicals or other organic additives. Thanks again for the input/advice!

[@klmponds]

This is great to hear things are going well! Keep up the great work and thank you for the update!

[@BeautifuLakesStreamsBiologists]

The more you know the more you can get away with. It all depends on the situation. A clean lake will tolerate "excessive" aeration and actually benefit. A dirty lake will suffer from the sudden disturbance of sediments. Temperature tolerance increases with the level of biological cleanliness of the water column. 20 years ago we created a sustainable trout lake in Georgia that routinely sees temperatures over ten degrees warmer than the usual tolerance limits. 68 degrees is only going to be a problem for rainbow trout if the habitat and water are biologically dirty. A little guidance goes a long way in the realm of lakes and fisheries.

[@TheHavocdog]

I noticed that you didnt mention that fountain style aration will provide a small amount of cooling effect. The falling spray through the air causes evaporation, and the water that doesn't evaporate ( about 95%) is cooler.

[@klmponds]

Good point...in some cases every little bit could help.

[@tannerochel]

Helpful video! We have a limited budget for a 4 acre neighborhood retention pond in Florida, max depth 30 feet, 18 years old. Would something like your Kasco RA2 be sufficient to provide significant benefit for the cost? Does the entire pond have to turn over every 24 hours, or would getting a good portion of it circulating help enough? We mainly want to address muck and stratification (almost 15°F temp difference from the surface to the bottom in my rudimentary testing), but don't want to waste money if UNDER aerating isn't worth it. We have grass carp to manage invasive plants, and recently put in some native plants along the shorelines. The algae is already pretty much under control, and we hope adding aeration will be the best next step. Based on your other comment, we would probably slowly introduce muck remover pellets with the aeration, as the pond bottom is THICK with black muck.

[@klmponds]

Hi Tanner...good question. If you would...shoot me an email to mark at klmsolutions.com and in that, include an address or location so I can view the pond on google earth. Let me know where your deeper areas are...mainly lets say we split this pond into two sections, and lets see if there's a deep enough spot in each to get the coverage you want out of each diffuser. By doing an aerial mapping and running some calculations we can see if we would be in the ballpark with two diffusers. At the very least I can tell you what it will take to aerate the pond properly. With that kind of depth, you may be able to do it. I will say as ponds get larger, the turnover rate target is a little longer...like 36 hours lets say so we have a bit of room to play with in that regard.

[@haamidsharif4974]

Yes, you can drive out too much CO2 from the water column, if you over aerate your pond. Also, your aquatic plants will suffer from too little CO2, they will not to be able to uptake the nutrients that are in the water column properly. Slow and steady will always win in the end.

[@NaturePondAdventure]

Would it be best to over spec a shallow depth but a relatively large surface area with several diffusers? Around 2000 square feet surface area but only around 3-4 feet deep. Thanks

[@klmponds]

Yes, for sure...really you would have to, because at 4' of depth a diffuser just can't affect very much area. The deeper they go the better coverage you get. What we would typically do is look at the pond from google earth and map out coverage based on it's size, shape and depths (that would have to be provided of course)...and any power locations nearby. With that info we can run some numbers and figure how many diffusers would be needed, and based on that what pump would be required. Reach out to me on the website if you'd like help with that...but the short answer is, yes, large ponds with shallow depths would not get much out of a single, or even a couple of diffusers most likely.

[@NaturePondAdventure]

@@klmponds great thank you!

[@carladerhold5141]

Hi Mark. Been watching your vids over the past couple of years, learned a bunch and while I really see the advantages of Aeration, I haven't pulled the trigger yet. Small pond (0.6 acres) 10-12 feet deep. If I recall, in one of your older vids you suggest that the summer is the most important time to aerate. The logic made perfect sense, but I was always concerned about what you cover in this vid (upsetting the stratification of the pond), but also inducing hot air into the pond which would make things even worse. I get the science: the colder the water, the more dense the water (down to 39.5) the less oxygen, but in the summer, pond temps aren't even close to that temp. I do like the idea of moving the aerator to shallower depths potentially leaving the colder water intact. Am I "off" on my thoughts?

[@klmponds]

Hi Carl...thanks for the comment. So keep in mind the conditions that would constitute "over aeration" are kind of specific. Shallow ponds are more susceptible because the lack the cooler or cold water that a deeper pond does. By shallow I mean around 8' or less usually. But you could give or a take a bit on this depth and probably fall into the category. Thing is temps have to be very warm, usually ongoing, and where I've heard of this happening is normally in the southern US. But in theory, we've even been hot enough in Iowa for short periods. Anyway to the best of my knowledge I have never had a customer of ours with this issue (and we have customers in every state). Some of this is due to the fact that we try to size the systems properly...not too big, not too small. The aerators are introduced properly because we instruct people on that. And I suppose in some respects maybe we've just been lucky too. But this isn't a super common thing...but it can happen. So, in hot weather you definitely want to support DO levels. Without that you certainly can lose fish in hot weather. The key is to support good DO, and provide some subtle mixing (which also has many benefits)...and if times get tough, then adjust the approach to limit the mixing...just to protect the fish during really stressful periods. That's probably as simple as I can describe it. But most of the time, you would run normally and have happy healthy fish. One exception is trout who are super temp sensitive. Often we will go to the surface unless a pond is quite deep (and cold) and then we could still use sub surface but not at the max depth in the pond. I hope this helps for you and thanks again for the comment!

[@D.J.60]

Why are hot summers more of a concern than cold winters?

[@klmponds]

I would say it comes down to the oxygen holding capacity of water. Above 78 degrees, water starts to lose it's ability to retain oxygen. As temperatures go up the saturation point of dissolved oxygen also drops. This can take you closer to a threshold, where if you cross it, fish can start to suffer and die pretty quickly. It can be precipitated by weather events, algae and weed growth (and die off), among other things. In winter, the biggest risk is just having ice completely cover and lock up the pond from air and gas exchange at the surface...if this goes on too long, then sure, fish can die from that. But it doesn't seem as common as the risks you see in the summer. Aeration can be helpful and protective in both of the seasons of extremes.

[@LittleCabin]

We have a small pond (fed by overflow from our spring-fed water storage tank), located in the mountains of SW Virginia. I would estimate it to be roughly 30 ft, diameter, and about 6 ft max depth. So, comparing it to our 24'round above ground pool, guessing it's somewhere around 15,000 gallons. Is something like the EasyPro PA6SWN way overkill??? Curious what type of system you would suggest to help control algae? We are in the middle of the woods, so lots of leaves fall in the pond in the fall -- I do my best to mechanically remove leaves as well as algae, but feels like I'm losing the battle. I have used some "muck" removal additives, but think some aeration will help -- just curious if you have any thoughts/suggestions. Thanks!

[@klmponds]

Thanks for the question. So if the pond is 30' in diameter and 6' of depth you'd be closer to 30,000 gallons. Granted if the depth is really variable that will cut into that number a good bit. But lets say 30K max. and its surely no more than that. Anyway, for us this is kind of a tweener size of pond...in that there are some small aerators rated for up to 15K gallons that we've used before but I think they would be a bit too small here. The PA6SW is capable of aerating a larger pond for sure, but in terms of air output, it's pump puts out about 3.1 cfm, and in comparison the smaller pump I metnioned for 15K gallons puts out about 2.1 cfm. So not as big a difference as one might think for the coverage ratings. The important thing to me is the reason for aerating, which is water quality or condition and for that you may want to go little larger rather than smaller on the aeration. My only caution would be if you have fish in there...and what kind...and just take into consideration their wellbeing before getting anything. We have PondBiotix ME muck reduction pellets that can be used for cleaning up the bottom. And another microbial for more pond wide cleaning called the Biosphere Pro for small ponds. I don't know that you'd need to use them together, but for overall cleaning of the pond, I would probably start with the spheres.

[@LittleCabin]

@@klmponds Thank you for the reply! The pond is quite shallow at the edges, so that is why I estimated around 15,000 gallons. There are just 2-3 fish in the pond at the moment -- some variety of trout the previous property owner had stocked it with. There were closer to 10 or so about 3 years ago, but some of that attrition is quite likely due to to bears or other wildlife in the area (I have only seen/removed one floating fish over the last few years). Just to give you an idea of the design, the pond is fed with overflow from the storage tank, then overflows via a culvert pipe into a creek. So, to make sure I'm following correctly, are you recommending just sticking with muck tablets versus the need for an aeration system at this point?

[@LittleCabin]

This video actually shows the pond: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nWjOYpWeh9uUqqs

[@klmponds]

@@LittleCabin looks great, and the bear is a plus:)

[@LittleCabin]

@@klmponds I was searching for a good picture of the pond, and that was the best view! Clean in that video a couple years ago, but gets quite covered in algae throughout the year.

[@roughwater3454]

Stout video.