pond aeration

How To Choose The Right Pond Air Pump

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Small Pond Aerator

Not every pond will need aeration, or adding air and circulation to the water, but every pond will benefit from it.  There’s no question about that.

If you look around online, or even at some local pet or hardware stores you’ll find a ton of different aerators for small ponds or water gardens.  There are so many that it can get really hard to choose which one to buy that will find your pond and needs just right.

In this post I want to share with you what I think are the things you should look for and consider when buying an air pump and system for your pond.

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Winter Pond Aeration – Is Ice In Your Airline?

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Aerating your pond in the winter time is useful at keeping ice from forming at the surface.  It’s crucial that fish get adequate oxygen from the atmosphere, even in colder weather, so keeping a spot of ice open is very useful.

You can use a pond heater of course, but many people also like, and might even prefer a small pond aerator to do the job.  Some advantages are they can use the device year round, and they usually cost less to operate than a heater.

But there are potential challenges with them.

First, just like an electric heater, if your power goes out, you may find that your pond can freeze over pretty quickly.  You can often get around this with a small generator.

The other issue we see from time to time is that ice can form in the airline and block airflow to the pond.  This happens because condensation forms in the airline, and once it’s cold enough it will freeze.  Initially, the problem is that you’re not getting any air or agitation into the pond, but if this goes on long enough, damage could occur in the pump itself.  Usually the diaphragm will be damaged and would need to be replaced.

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Pond Muck Reduction And Cleaning

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Ponds, simply due to their structure of being a big depression in the ground, are catch-all’s for a lot of things. Unfortunately a lot of this accumulation is organic debris that will eventually break down into a messy muck or sludge.

It’s been said that one of the pond owner’s main goals, if not THE main goal is to slow this process of “filling in” down as much as possible. Once this muck starts to rot and stink, it’s built up to the point where the pond’s natural assimilation processes just aren’t able to keep up with it any longer.

What’s unfortunate is that this mucky compost doesn’t just affect the bottom of the pond. And while it’s true that it serves as a really easy place for weed seeds to get established and rooted, it also releases so many nutrients that algae will often form below and above the water’s surface.

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Stacking The Odds Against Pond Algae – The Introduction

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Over the years, the use of beneficial bacteria in ponds has helped to clear up, clean up, and restore a number of ponds, and in doing so, algae has been reduced too. This has been one of the positive “side effects” of treating a pond naturally or organically.

Compared to even 10 years ago, the use of the good bugs has grown to the point where most pond owners have at least heard of some of the benefits, whether they may believe in it or not is another thing. Suffice it to say though that the commonly used chemical algaecides, so widely used in the past, are not as favorable as they once were.

There is a growing awareness (which is a good thing) that oftentimes chemicals are not the best solution to the problem, and that addressing some underlying causes may just make more sense. It’s not just in ponds where this is happening of course. Home owners are looking for more natural alternatives for lawn care, pest control, and many other things. Go to any WalMart today and you’ll find some organic produce too, which you never would have imagined seeing “back in the old days”. Sam Walton would probably be proud.

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Working Against Algae In A Large Pond

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Large ponds have special challenges when you’re dealing with an algae problem. Compared to small ponds where you can remove some of the stuff pretty easily, a large body of water doesn’t always make this all that easy. Although there are similar reasons why algae might thrive in any pond, the fact is that large … Read more