Air stones in autumn - do I switch off ??

[nick0007]

Hi , could anyone please advise me what to do with my 3 air stones that have been running all summer now that the temperature is dropping ? I have a 1000 gallon pond and 10 fish - mixture of goldfish and Koi and one Orfe - I've been advised to keep them running till frosts arrive - I live in Surrey England - any advice would be very much appreciated indeed .

 

[bettasngoldfish]

I leave mine running all year.

 

[Tula]

I too leave mine on all year. I switch to a smaller one, once cold weather arrives and suspend it about 12 inches into the water.

 

[Jersey_Marine]

Hi , could anyone please advise me what to do with my 3 air stones that have been running all summer now that the temperature is dropping ? I have a 1000 gallon pond and 10 fish - mixture of goldfish and Koi and one Orfe - I've been advised to keep them running till frosts arrive - I live in Surrey England - any advice would be very much appreciated indeed .

Id keep 1 or 2 on to keep a hole in the ice throughout winter depending on the circumference and depth of the pond. You probably only need one for 1000 gallons but you definitely need at least one throughout the winter to keep a hole in the ice to allow the ammonia gasses to escape or your fish will die. No hole your fish will die and too much aeration and the water will stay too cold for them. You need to look at the size of the pond and make a decision. I have a 5000 gallon pond. 22ftx18ft about 3.5ft deep and I will be running 2 air stones on each side of the pond. Part of that reason is if one pump goes during the winter I will still at least have 1 keeping a hole in the ice allowing the ammonia to escape. I saw where my fish huddled throughout the winter last year in the pond almost the entire time. I will be placing them on the opposite sides of where they were huddled last year.

 

[Dave 54]

We run ours 365 days a year nick , when the covers go over the pond all we do is turn the flow from the bottom drain bubbler down a little.
However all the airstones in our filtration unit are on full 365 days a year.
They recomend however to raise your airstones off the bottom of the pond by about 10" or so .
As to temeratures dropping off the outside air temperature on our new Malibu Pond/indoor/outdoor remote thermometer is now 12.2c but the pond is holding its own up at 17.5c
Nick our ponds are both the same gallonage so should be acting in very much the same way however yours should be warmer than our own simply because its that much warmer where you are in Surry during the daylight hours


Dave

 

[sissy]

I turn mine off and store it in the basement and turn on my 1000 gph pump right under my pond heater .But my winters are not that cold but I don't want to make water colder than air temps.

 

[Mmathis]

I leave mine running all year.

Me, too.

What kind of winters do you get there?

 

[bettasngoldfish]

Me, too.

What kind of winters do you get there?

We live in the snow belt and get lake effect snow. This past February we had the coldest weather on record for Cleveland with 10 days of subzero weather and 3 weeks not above freezing. It was a tough winter to say the least. I think they said we got a total of 65 inches of snow for the season. It's hard to say what the typical weather is because it seems to have been changing so much. But as far as temperatures go we get freezing weather and snow. Could start pretty much anytime in November and last until at least March. Once April hits we may get the occasional day of freezing weather and possibly snow but it doesn't normally stick on the ground at that time.

Here is a little info on what lake effect snow is: http://cleveland.about.com/od/northeastohioweather/p/lakeeffect.htm

 

[nick0007]

Many thanks for all the advice , much appreciated - I'll keep one air stone running thru winter as I've only got 1000 gallons

 

[Jersey_Marine]

Many thanks for all the advice , much appreciated - I'll keep one air stone running thru winter as I've only got 1000 gallons

Nick just ensure you keep the air stone only 10-12 inches below the water surface throughout the winter so it keeps that hole in the ice

 

[Mmathis]

Nick just ensure you keep the air stone only 10-12 inches below the water surface throughout the winter so it keeps that hole in the ice

And there are many ways to do this, but what I've done is by using pieces of a pool noodle as floation, zip ties, and [maybe] fishing line. No right or wrong way, just be as creative as necessary until you get it where you want it. I think what I did was made a small donut with the pool noodle and suspended the air stone so that the bubbles would come up through the donut hole.

 

[MitchM]

Just wondering -

Why do you folks want to keep the airstone suspended off the bottom of the pond?

.

 

[Jersey_Marine]

Just wondering -

Why do you folks want to keep the airstone suspended off the bottom of the pond?

.

If you want to keep a hole in the ice you want to keep the airstone 10-12 inches below the surface of the water. Suspended or not suspended but usually a pond is obviously more than a foot deep. I was going to rest my airstone on 1 or 2 milk crates but the floating pool noodle idea is something I may do instead

 

[MitchM]

If you want to keep a hole in the ice you want to keep the airstone 10-12 inches below the surface of the water. ...

What is the reasoning, though?
Is the air pump not strong enough?

 

[bettasngoldfish]

I use four air stones in my pond during the winter and they all fall in place at different levels of the pond (though none of them go to the very bottom) I recently ordered an air pump that sits on the bottom of the pond but I intend to use that during the summer months. I also have on order two air stone discs which I thought might be a better option to put at the bottom of the pond rather than the type I have now.

These are what I use now, 2 of these: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=23555 and two of these: http://goldfishconnection.com/shop/details.php?productId=13&catId=20