Aeration in the Winter

[ootyboy]

I recently purchase an Alita 80, with 4 airstones for my 8500 Gallon pond, and was thinking whether it would be an appropriate time to add aeration at this time? Or should I wait until the weather warms up.

I live in the SF/Bay Area, so the water temp is never below 45F.

As you might remember, this is a fairly new pond with very light fish load. Any advice would be appreciated.

[cindy]

Are you running a waterfall? Mine is 53 right now (heat wave) but my waterfall is off so I'm running airstones at half depth.

[ootyboy]

Yes, I am running a waterfall, and the airstones are running at full depth (6-feet). What is the benefit of running at half depth?

[cindy]

Mixed views, depends on who's teaching but supposedly with deeper ponds, water layers and the bottom layers stay warmer so by putting the air stone in at half depth, the warmer bottom layer isn't disturbed and the fish stay warmer.

[cindy]

duplicate ooop

[KoiCop]

Hello ob . . .

Like Cindy said, there are different schools of thought about running the stones at different depths during the winter, but that doesn't usually come into play above 40 degrees water temp.

As for whether to run them or not, there's no disagreement: Running them year round is beneficial.

[ootyboy]

Thanks for all the responses. My other question though is how many airstones do you add to the pond? I purchased 6 airstones -- 10" long -- and added 2 to the pond. My pond is 16' long and 11' wide with 6" depth.

Is there a rule of thumb to follow with the number of airstones? The pump is an Altia 80..so it has pretty good power.

Also, I saw a lot of recommendations on the site about adding aeration to your biological filter. I currently have a Oase Biosys 18 enclosed filter. Should I be adding an airstone to the filter as well?

[smithvillemike]

check out this thread...

Air Pump Size & Model Recommendations

Mike

[MCA]

If you are running air domes...ain't no layering of water. No themoclines.

In Koi 2 Kichi Waddy recommended keeping DO at min of 80% of saturation (which varies by temp). That is relative easy to do in colder water. Using a drop test you can get a reasonable measurement of the current DO levels.

The trick is in high summer when water is hotters....and demands are greatest. Waddy recommended pumping 40L for each 1000 UK gallons (1200 US gallons). In our 10,000 pond I have an 100L on each of the two BDs plus a 120L on each of the two Nexus.

Works for us.

[KoiCop]

Stones are generally rated for the flow of air they can handle; and the total for all stones should exceed the amount your pump produces; otherwise you get back pressure and problems. So it's not really about the number of stones as long as they can handle all the air.

If I was you, I'd check with whoever sold you the stones to find out what their capacity is.

Yes, I'd split the stones between your bio and your pond.

Finally, according to generally accepted guidelines, you need 40 lpm of air for every 1200-1500 gallons of water. That means you need to increase to between 5.5 and 7 X 40, or 220 to 280 lpm total as your fish and bio-filtration loads increase to maximum.