Aeration: Wind vs. Electric

[BeckyK]

For our future 96 foot by 64 foot pond (which I'm calling a mini lake) would you experts go with wind or electric aeration?

My husband and I found a pound supply store about an hour and 45 minutes from us. We decided to take a trip and check it out and ask some questions. It seems everything we are finding online is for a much smaller scale than what we will have, so getting some face time with an expert was invaluable. His main recommendation was a $1200 electric aerator which will require a $75 replacement kit to address bearing fatigue about every 18-24 months.

In researching other options, my husband came across wind aeration systems. We are thinking that may be more economical even though the up front cost will be a bit more. We feel wind will eventually pay for itself over time. My concern is, even though there's usually at least a breeze where we live, what about the handful of days there is none? Considering the size this pond will be, I was hoping to have oxygenating submerged plants but I'm finding that most of the options that are highly recommended are either restricted or straight up prohibited in Wisconsin.

So since there are so many pond experts here, I thought you all may have opinions from your experiences or research that you wouldn't mind sharing that may help us make a final decision.

Thank you in advance!!

 

[BeckyK]

Shoot...I forgot to include that the pond will be kidney shaped. I found a picture i took of my rough sketch showing the concept we're working towards

 

[brc]

Are you building a new house? That looks like it's gonna be awesome!

I have seen those used in big ponds, mainly in the winter to keep a hole melted in the ice for air. The rest of the year, the pond has the whole surface to breathe through. Throw in a waterfall, and it's all the air you'll ever need.

Most of the time, there isn't anything like that installed (and there never is, in natural lakes), and everything is fine. Fish are essentially hibernating in the winter, and use a lot less oxygen than normal. The same is true of bacteria. At the same time, that cold water is far more willing to dissolve oxygen than warm summer water is.

Maybe if you're planning on having a lot of big fish in there, then it'd be a good idea. But, I'd also shop it around - see who's offering what on the same size pump.

Also, is this gonna be a liner pond? Because it will be interesting getting that big of a liner delivered / installed! I'm sure people do it - just not sure how lol.

 

[BeckyK]

The house was just finished at the beginning of March. We moved in March 16th to be exact. We have a lot of water to manage here, and we also need a vast amount of fill around the house. We decided if we dig a pond we can use the ground from that for fill and address the water st the same time...which is why it's going to be so large.

We won't be installing a liner because under the topsoil is mostly clay in our backyard. It was interesting because the front yard is mostly sand. But nonetheless, we don't have to worry much about water retention back there.

You hit on the exact reason we're doing some research and why I'm posing this question. The lakes and ponds that occur naturally don't have added aeration. But I will be putting fish in there when the pond is ready for them, mainly to help control the mosquito population, but I don't want them to die off because I didn't offer them a good habitat.

We are leaning towards wind power, but since everything is already tore up I wanted to run electric just in case we need it in the future. I do want a waterfall at some point, so i know we'll need to pump water up through it

Big project, but I'm excited to get started!

 

[brc]

I would absolutely run electric to anyplace you think you might want it - you don't want to be out there digging ditches again after it's all planted and polished!

 

[BeckyK]

I would absolutely run electric to anyplace you think you might want it - you don't want to be out there digging ditches again after it's all planted and polished!

Exactly the argument I gave to my husband! lol

 

[macktyner]

For our future 96 foot by 64 foot pond (which I'm calling a mini lake) would you experts go with wind or electric aeration?

My husband and I found a pound supply store about an hour and 45 minutes from us. We decided to take a trip and check it out and ask some questions. It seems everything we are finding online is for a much smaller scale than what we will have, so getting some face time with an expert was invaluable. His main recommendation was a $1200 electric aerator which will require a $75 replacement kit to address bearing fatigue about every 18-24 months.

In researching other options, my husband came across wind aeration systems. We are thinking that may be more economical even though the up front cost will be a bit more. We feel wind will eventually pay for itself over time. My concern is, even though there's usually at least a breeze where we live, what about the handful of days there is none? Considering the size this pond will be, I was hoping to have oxygenating submerged plants but I'm finding that most of the options that are highly recommended are either restricted or straight up prohibited in Wisconsin.

So since there are so many pond experts here, I thought you all may have opinions from your experiences or research that you wouldn't mind sharing that may help us make a final decision.

Thank you in advance!!

The $1200 seems excessive. I have a 30,000 gallon pool with 100 catfish in it.... now 5 years old. I use pump aeration with two 400 GPM submersible pond pumps that came from ebay for $15 each. The critical time for low oxygen is right before dawn, when there likely will be no wind.... that would be my worry. With the electric, I can time the pumps with a timer so that this period is always covered. The only risk is if we have a hurricane (we are in florida) and our power goes out for a week, like it does every year or two.

 

[BeckyK]

The $1200 seems excessive. I have a 30,000 gallon pool with 100 catfish in it.... now 5 years old. I use pump aeration with two 400 GPM submersible pond pumps that came from ebay for $15 each. The critical time for low oxygen is right before dawn, when there likely will be no wind.... that would be my worry. With the electric, I can time the pumps with a timer so that this period is always covered. The only risk is if we have a hurricane (we are in florida) and our power goes out for a week, like it does every year or two.

Thank you for your input. Maybe we can find a windmill for less on Ebay or some place similar, buy an aerator kit to hook up to it and an electric aerator for back up. I'll have to do some research on that.

 

[macktyner]

For our future 96 foot by 64 foot pond (which I'm calling a mini lake) would you experts go with wind or electric aeration?

My husband and I found a pound supply store about an hour and 45 minutes from us. We decided to take a trip and check it out and ask some questions. It seems everything we are finding online is for a much smaller scale than what we will have, so getting some face time with an expert was invaluable. His main recommendation was a $1200 electric aerator which will require a $75 replacement kit to address bearing fatigue about every 18-24 months.

In researching other options, my husband came across wind aeration systems. We are thinking that may be more economical even though the up front cost will be a bit more. We feel wind will eventually pay for itself over time. My concern is, even though there's usually at least a breeze where we live, what about the handful of days there is none? Considering the size this pond will be, I was hoping to have oxygenating submerged plants but I'm finding that most of the options that are highly recommended are either restricted or straight up prohibited in Wisconsin.

So since there are so many pond experts here, I thought you all may have opinions from your experiences or research that you wouldn't mind sharing that may help us make a final decision.

Thank you in advance!!

All the books on Commercial fish ponds state that the most efficient way to oxygenate a pond is with a Paddle Wheel. That makes some sense since it doesn't take much energy to Splash water around and it creates a lot of foam and Bubbles which is where the oxygen absorption takes place. However, I have never figured out how to incorporate that in my system. The water level tends to go up and down about 5 or 6 in for me depending on how much rain we get and so the Paddlewheel would have to be on a floating device I think. That makes it a little harder. Then you have the issue of an electric motor on the surface of the water, where it could short out if it got wet or become a hazard. One could use a 12-volt motor with a 12-volt solar system and a battery to keep the thing running through the night, which is when you really need the aeration. Commercially the big operators tend to use diesel or gas engines to power the paddlewheels and they monitor the oxygen level through the night and turn it on at 5 a.m. if the oxygen runs low. I have never wanted to cut the risk that close. These little submersible pond pumps as they are called, have a a variety of sizes and they last for several years in my experience. They can plug up if you have a lot of debris so the filter system that comes with the pump is of some importance.

 

[baker_eliz]

You didn't mention the depth of your proposed pond. I'm no expert by any means and have no solutions to offer (if anyone has a solution for us, please proffer it!), but here is what we have found. We have a large pond, what would be called a farm pond,approx. 130' x 74'. The pond was built after WWII when the government had the Army Corps of Engineers going around installing ponds for farmers and ranchers. It was originally about 20' deep. It is in a hollow, surrounded on three sides by gentle hills, and a dam on the fourth side, upon which the house is built with the deck cantilevered over the pond. It is quite beautiful.

The problem is that runoff from the surrounding hills has gradually filled in the bottom of the pond to the point where it is only 7' at its deepest now. My husband tells me he and his brother used top run off the deck and jump into the pond when they were young adults right after the house was built in the 70s, so it was quite deep even then.

We have 12 quite large koi, easily 24", a number of bass, turtles and frogs, so the pond is quite healthy, but with the koi always digging up the bottom, the water is pretty murky these days. We have a slight problem with algae but not too terrible. His parents had a pump in the pond that would shoot water up and over for aeration (possibly, but probably because it was pretty), but it just stirs up the bottom now. We put a pump with bottom aerators out last year, but that seemed to make things worse.

We would dredge it, but there is no way to get heavy equipment in there because of the steepness of the terrain.

So now my husband is working on a filtration system. He has a large filter left over from when we installed the whole-house water filtration system and will be placing a pump in the pond to run pretty much constantly for a while and see if that helps.

So I guess the moral of this story is make sure you have enough depth if you have a sizeable pond and any kind of runoff coming into it, or those koi will keep your water murky. They just love to dig up the bottom! 'Course, you may not have these problems with a clay bottom and your terrain is flat. In that case, I say "Lucky You!"

 

[JamieB]

You didn't mention the depth of your proposed pond. I'm no expert by any means and have no solutions to offer (if anyone has a solution for us, please proffer it!), but here is what we have found. We have a large pond, what would be called a farm pond,approx. 130' x 74'. The pond was built after WWII when the government had the Army Corps of Engineers going around installing ponds for farmers and ranchers. It was originally about 20' deep. It is in a hollow, surrounded on three sides by gentle hills, and a dam on the fourth side, upon which the house is built with the deck cantilevered over the pond. It is quite beautiful.

The problem is that runoff from the surrounding hills has gradually filled in the bottom of the pond to the point where it is only 7' at its deepest now. My husband tells me he and his brother used top run off the deck and jump into the pond when they were young adults right after the house was built in the 70s, so it was quite deep even then.

We have 12 quite large koi, easily 24", a number of bass, turtles and frogs, so the pond is quite healthy, but with the koi always digging up the bottom, the water is pretty murky these days. We have a slight problem with algae but not too terrible. His parents had a pump in the pond that would shoot water up and over for aeration (possibly, but probably because it was pretty), but it just stirs up the bottom now. We put a pump with bottom aerators out last year, but that seemed to make things worse.

We would dredge it, but there is no way to get heavy equipment in there because of the steepness of the terrain.

So now my husband is working on a filtration system. He has a large filter left over from when we installed the whole-house water filtration system and will be placing a pump in the pond to run pretty much constantly for a while and see if that helps.

So I guess the moral of this story is make sure you have enough depth if you have a sizeable pond and any kind of runoff coming into it, or those koi will keep your water murky. They just love to dig up the bottom! 'Course, you may not have these problems with a clay bottom and your terrain is flat. In that case, I say "Lucky You!"

You could fix that by planting good ground cover plants to prevent erosion, as for digging out the bottom, you’d have to drain it, let it dry, and then any good earth work guy will be able to make a path in to dig up and deepen the pond.

 

[mgmine]

What would the wind one look like? I'm thinking it wouldn't be something easy to conceal.

 

[BeckyK]

Thank you to all of you for your thoughts and insight. We will be going as deep as it takes to hit water. When they excavated for our house they hit a lot of water about 4 feet down, so the basement on the back side is 4 feet above grade.

Our lot is not hilly, but there is a gradual, natural grade from front to back of the lot. So we're expecting the pond to be about 8-10 feet deep based on the neighbor's depth. It will also be collecting the water from the two sump pumps we have, as well as runoff from the eaves. All of that will be piped underground to force it to the pond. The ground would stay too wet otherwise.

The windmills that we've seen in our research look like those you'd expect to find on an 1800's farm. We have a modern farmhouse theme inside, so to have a little rustic farm feel outside will play off the inside. Plus we can landscape to blend it all together.

I do plan to have fish when the water is ready for them but not koi. I just want them to help keep the mosquito population in control.

But i am concerned about wind power. We seem to always have a breeze, but i know there could be a day or night now and then that is too calm. I guess I thought adding submerged plants would help balance that. Maybe I'm wrong?

 

[Sisha]

Thank you to all of you for your thoughts and insight. We will be going as deep as it takes to hit water. When they excavated for our house they hit a lot of water about 4 feet down, so the basement on the back side is 4 feet above grade.

Our lot is not hilly, but there is a gradual, natural grade from front to back of the lot. So we're expecting the pond to be about 8-10 feet deep based on the neighbor's depth. It will also be collecting the water from the two sump pumps we have, as well as runoff from the eaves. All of that will be piped underground to force it to the pond. The ground would stay too wet otherwise.

The windmills that we've seen in our research look like those you'd expect to find on an 1800's farm. We have a modern farmhouse theme inside, so to have a little rustic farm feel outside will play off the inside. Plus we can landscape to blend it all together.

I do plan to have fish when the water is ready for them but not koi. I just want them to help keep the mosquito population in control.

But i am concerned about wind power. We seem to always have a breeze, but i know there could be a day or night now and then that is too calm. I guess I thought adding submerged plants would help balance that. Maybe I'm wrong?

Submerged plants make oxygen during the day but use it at night. Your large surface area shouldn't be a problem with oxygen but a waterfall would help and look so good. Native fish to your area would do the job great but don't ever use mosquito fish if you want a natural pond with frogs etc.

 

[BeckyK]

Submerged plants make oxygen during the day but use it at night. Your large surface area shouldn't be a problem with oxygen but a waterfall would help and look so good. Native fish to your area would do the job great but don't ever use mosquito fish if you want a natural pond with frogs etc.

I didn't know the submerged plants would not help with oxygen overnight. Thanks for that info!

I do want a waterfall, but it may be next season before we have the funds to do it. I definitely want natural with this pond. I haven't researched fish yet, only because with the permit process we have to follow it isn't going to even be excavated till early August. Thanks for the advice on fish. I am not sold on any particular breed. As long as the type we select eats mosquito eggs or larvae I'll be happy with that.

But I feel like it may be 2 seasons before I'm ready to introduce fish. Maybe I'm being overly cautious, but I've never even had a decorative pond before. I want to make sure I have a good understanding of the ecosystem first.