If you have a pond, it is important to aerate the water as much as you can. This can be a very time-consuming process. In general, aeration should last as long as 24 hours, depending upon the size of the pond itself. Without aerating, your fish will not have proper amounts of oxygen in the water. However, there are certain ways that this can be done to maximize your results. You need to consider several factors such as how long should you run a pond aerator, how much is too much, and how to measure how much oxygen is in the pond once the process is over.
How Long Should A Pond Aerator Run?
In general, a pond aerator should only be run intermittently for about a day at a time. This will give the aeration system plenty of time to run through all of the water in the pond, and this will lead to a healthy environment for your fish. You must consider the size of the aerator, how quickly it can pull the water into the system itself, and how effective it is at adding oxygen. You can find much of this information on websites that will display the websites.
Can You Aerate Water Too Often?
One of the things that you need to be concerned about is putting too much oxygen into the water. This can cause it to become turbid. That is why it is recommended that, as a general rule, the aeration device should only run for about 24 hours. If it is a smaller system, and not as efficient, you may have to run this a couple times a week in order to have a proper amount of oxygen.
What Is A Proper Amount Of Oxygen?
The oxygen level of any pond should never drop below 3PPM. This is the minimal amount of oxygen that is required. Anything below that can lead to fatalities for most fish that you would have in the pond. You will be able to tell if it is missing a proper amount by looking at the interactions of the fish. Fish may become stressed, move erratically, and they may also come up to the surface of the pond, appearing to gasp for air. These are signs and indications, without actually measuring the oxygen levels, that there is a depreciation of oxygen in the water itself.
Ways To Improve Oxygen Levels In A Pond
There are several techniques that you can use to increase oxygen levels in a pond. First of all, you should provide some type of covering. This will prevent the air from leaking out into the surrounding atmosphere, and it will also minimize often you will have to aerate the water. Using a heating system, combined with an aerator, is something else that you can do. Typical heat exchangers can be set up in the pond keeping the temperature at higher levels. This can maximize the amount of oxygen that you have in the water, plus it will serve as a deterrent for ice forming. Adding an air compressor to the aerator can also increase the amount of oxygen and speed up the process by which aeration actually occurs.
Using these simple strategies for aerating your pond water, you can ensure that the environment for your fish is always maintained at maximum levels. If you have not done this in quite some time, or have not done it at all, you will see a noticeable change in the activities of your fish and the quality of the water in the pond. At the very least, you will eliminate the probability of ice forming over the top, and diminishing levels of oxygen in the water throughout the year. Although this will take some time, and a moderate investment into different machines, you will make your pond a much safer environment for your fish every year.
