Aerator in Wildlife Pond w/ Fish - Too Much Churn

[DbitMichigan]

We recently constructed our second pond, it's a wildlife pond so there is some nutrient deficient sand and bottom matter that is planted into, but it is somewhat hybrid because we do have a small amount of fish, snails and tadpoles. It is approximately 925 gallons and has a lot of shallow shelves for wildlife to approach, drink and bathe. We live in Michigan so winterization is necessary.

Last year in our smaller hard shell pond (that is built on these same principles) we ran a small pond de icer over the winter and everything seems to have lived. However with this pond being larger we also wanted to run an aerator. We purchased the Alita AL-6 pond pump for the aeration, it is their smallest linear offering for ponds under 1500 gallons, and a rubber disc aerator with lots of holes to disperse it (links below). However the churn is pretty crazy, approximately a quarter of the pond surface area appears to be a serious bubbling cauldron and we fear the churn is too disturbing to our fish and to the bottom matter.

We purchased the AL-6 because we were told by our local supply shop that it is repairable, will last many years if maintained properly, and is close to the same price of other cheaper aerators that will only last a season or two.

Can anybody tell us if this pump is simply too strong, if the dispersion disc is possibly the wrong type (it was matched to the pump for us by support at Webbs Water Gardens online), or if we need to use something like a reducing valve on the output? That seems like it could possibly work, but also seems like then we're just throwing away wattage.

Any and all help and ideas are much appreciated!

Disc:

Matala 5" Disc with Weighted Base

3/8" connector barbed fittingEPDM rubber disc diffuserSuper easy to cleanVery low back pressureGreat choices for small ponds

webbsonline.com

Pump:

Alita AL-6A Linear Air Pump

Alita Air Pumps are designed to deliver a high volume of steady airflow at low-pressure ranges, ideal for koi ponds and water gardens. Alita air pumps are high efficiency, low energy consumption and are very quiet in operation. With no sliding parts and oil-less components, they require no...

webbsonline.com

 

[combatwombat]

Welcome. That does, indeed, sound like "too much air" for your taste. At 10 LPM, that is certainly a tiny air pump. You can get smaller, though. Could try am aquarium air pump. General wisdom is to never choke down an air pump (reduces lifespan), but you could split the output and find something else to do with the excess, even if it's to just send it to waste. Your pump is only using 9 watts max, so it's not like you're wasting enough energy to mine bitcoin or something.

 

[DbitMichigan]

Awesome! Thank you for that advice! Would it be enough savings to mine etherum after they transition to proof of stake? I keed, I keed, I know that's a non-sequitur (mining/POS)!

We currently have the aerator disc lower in the pond, the help desk at Webb's mentioned that we don't want to mix the warm bottom water with the top water and that moving the disc towards the top of the pon should improve churn. We're going to try that first, and if it doesn't help much then I think we're going to try a manifold and open a couple of valves and see if that does the trick. If you have any other thoughts let us know, and thanks again!

 

[brokensword]

Awesome! Thank you for that advice! Would it be enough savings to mine etherum after they transition to proof of stake? I keed, I keed, I know that's a non-sequitur (mining/POS)!

We currently have the aerator disc lower in the pond, the help desk at Webb's mentioned that we don't want to mix the warm bottom water with the top water and that moving the disc towards the top of the pon should improve churn. We're going to try that first, and if it doesn't help much then I think we're going to try a manifold and open a couple of valves and see if that does the trick. If you have any other thoughts let us know, and thanks again!

you'd need 10-13' minimum to have any kind of temp stratification and even then, other factors will mitigate that, so you're being told incorrect info from the get go. Just do as CW suggests; smaller pump or tee valve and send the unwanted someplace else. Too, you COULD have a wall of floaters which would limite the churn over all the surface but won't do much relative to the substrate. Raising would do some, but again, seems like you just want/need less flow, imo.

 

[Mmathis]

Just curious, but what material have you used as the liner?