Why aerate pond

Water enters the pond from a waterfall or fountain, then moves through the pond to the skimmer box or filtration intake, which sends it back to the waterfall. This creates a water movement channel that should do a fair job of circulating the water in your pond. Most ponds, however, will have two major dead zones where water is circulated much less effectively. First, unless the pond is designed in a very particular way, there will be areas of the pond that are further away from the main channel, such as corners, coves, or other oddities of shape.

Second, and more important, water tends to flow along the upper third or so of the pond between the waterfall and skimmer. The deeper water of your pond gets much, much less circulation. Each bubbler that you add to your pond adds an additional vector of water circulation, from the bottom of your pond upward. This directly reduces the dead zone at the bottom of your pond where pollutants and debris will otherwise settle down to contribute to your sludge layer.

The upward vector of circulation also complicates the existing channel of water movement, which helps to push circulation into the dead areas around the fringe of your pond.

All of this movement of water keeps algae from building up excessively especially string algae , and also keeps mosquito larvae from making a home in the more stagnant areas of your pond. The upward movement also prevents your pond from having temperature and oxygen gradients. Those gradient layers, with cooler water on top and the warmest water on top are especially exacerbated in summer, with the hot air and sunlight warming only the top of the pond.

Differing levels of warmth and oxygen levels cause your bacteria to be far less efficient at cleaning your water, and stress your fish as they move from layer to layer.

The bubbles rising from your aerator not only circulate the water, but also break up the surface tension as they break the surface. This has a few beneficial effects. First, it prevents some water-walking insects from taking advantage of your pond. The most important of these, of course, is mosquitos, which can otherwise use your pond to lay eggs. The lowered surface tension also facilitates gas exchange between your pond and the air around it, getting out the carbon dioxide that your fish produce and even allowing the increased release of some pollutants.

Finally, the bubbles are effective at keeping your pond from freezing over completely in all but the very coldest conditions. An ice cap over your pond can cause serious problems with gas exchange, even causing your fish to suffocate in extreme cases.

It also prevents some pollutants from dispersing out of the water, building them up over the course of winter. Preventing the ice cap from forming in the first place is the best way to deal with it, as breaking up ice manually is potentially dangerous for your fish.

Join The Pond Club [Free]. What is an aerator? What does an aerator do for me and my pond? Aeration systems are generally considered beneficial for warm water fish as they require adequate dissolved oxygen levels and struggle to survive in an oxygen-deprived habitat.

Dissolved oxygen is higher in colder water and the process of aeration will distribute cooler oxygen-rich water to areas of warmer water and lower dissolved oxygen, thus breaking down the stratification present in the water column. Aeration allows fish to inhabit the entire lake as opposed to only a certain stratified layer, and also improves conditions for organisms that fish prey on.

Water quality is also greatly improved through the use of aeration. Under oxygen deprived or anoxic conditions, lake-bottom sediments release various gases and metals that can cause water quality problems. Proper aeration will allow for many of the factors contributing to poor water quality to be released at the oxygen-water interface.

Aeration cannot only enhance water quality by stabilizing pH, reducing alkalinity, and removing carbon dioxide, but can also greatly decrease the cost of pond treatments. Aeration can also reduce the amount of pond algae through a variety of processes.

Through aeration, algae spores can be mixed towards deeper lake and pond areas, reducing the amount of time it is exposed to valuable sunlight and availability to grow. Higher dissolved oxygen levels can also lead to a shift from harmful blue-green algae to less-noxious green algae. Another important benefit of aeration is the reduction of Phosphorus P concentrations in ponds.

Adequate levels of oxygen are required to support life within the pond ecosystem. Fish need oxygen the same way we do, the main cause of fish kill in ponds is due to a lack of oxygen. Bacteria also require oxygen to allow respiration. Bacteria play a key role in ponds to break down organic matter in the water to reduce muck and sludge from settling on the bottom of ponds.

Fountains and bubblers are two types of surface aeration systems that work by agitating the surface of the pond to mix oxygen into the top layer of the water. Fountains pump water into the air, creating small droplets that collect oxygen from the atmosphere and fall back into the water. Bubblers or jets work in a similar way, by bubbling and mixing the surface of the water, catching air from the atmosphere and infusing it into the top layer of water.

Surface aeration will help control top level algae and weeds but they do not aerate down to the bottom of the pond where oxygen is needed most. Typically, water at the bottom of ponds is colder and contains less oxygen naturally, this is occurrence is called thermal stratification and it can put your fish at risk. If a pond is stratified fish will hang around the top layers of a pond where there is more oxygen.

But, if a wind or rain storm occurs and the stratified water is mixed it can cause a mass fish kill because the destratification will mix the oxygenated water with the depleted bottom layers, lowering the overall oxygen content.

The bottom of ponds is also where dead organic matter such as weeds algae and other nutrient waste sink down to decay. If there is no oxygen at the bottom of the pond to support the bacteria breaking down waste, a build up of muck and sludge will occur and require costly dredging to remove. Bottom up Aeration systems are times more effective than surface aeration.

These systems work by compressing oxygen and pumping it into the water through diffusers that lie at the bottom of a pond, lake, or dugout.