Why do you need a pond aerator
The artificially created landscape with artistic relief, pond and walking peacocks looks attractive only with proper care. A pond aerator will saturate the water with air and life. Without renewal, stagnant water will bloom, become covered with an unpleasant slimy film and acquire a bad smell. All living things need oxygen. A pond inhabited by fish and water lilies can be created only with the use of aeration.
Objective reasons for aerating stagnant water
Supply air to pool, to install a pond aerator you must:
- The warmer it is outside, the less solubility of the gas and the poorer in oxygen the pond becomes.
- Spent microorganisms sink to the bottom in the form of silt and begin to rot in the absence of oxygen.
- To prevent stagnation, the movement of water in the pond is necessary.
- Biological processes are active in oxygen-rich water.
If there is not enough oxygen in the water, the fish swim on the surface and stick in their mouths to catch air. Snails that clean the pool by eating plankton tend to climb over the surface of the plants.
If for years the pond has not experienced oxygen starvation, at some period this happened, analysis is required. Any ecosystem can carry a certain load. The pond could be overgrown, too many plants are using oxygen, and it's not enough. The reason may be excessive feeding of fish in the pond, the mass turns sour and uses oxygen. Excessive fish cutting also has a detrimental effect on the system.
Methods of air supply for aeration
Any pond aerator must mix the layers of water while simultaneously saturating them with oxygen. But depending on the volume of the pond, different methods of aeration are used from its inhabitants:
- surface;
- injection;
- bottom;
- combined.
Surface air compressors are units that float on the surface of water. They can create fountains... Drops of water falling down are saturated with air, mixed with the layers. Another type of such installations can be propeller driven, which mix water like a fan and air, while simultaneously drawing gas above the surface. The process is noisy and the inhabitants of the pond do not like it.
The injection method is based on the entrainment of incoming air into the swirling water flow. Based on this principle, the Turbo Jet units, Aqua Handi have a submersible floating motor with an impeller, which forms a funnel, into which the air carried by the jet is sucked in. The mixture of water and air has a directed radial movement of the funnel, the formation of stagnant zones is excluded. These aerators are suitable for fish ponds, they are quiet and emit a low hiss during operation.
The bottom method is most often used for aerating ponds.In this case, the method can be used when the compressor is on the shore, and the air is transferred through the hose to the comb in the bottom zone. Bottom-mounted submersible pumps are used. They drive air through hoses with air fittings. Aerators stir the water, gasifying and equalizing the temperature. Submerged in water in winter, they will not allow a crust to form on the surface.
Combined units have an onshore compressor and surface air supply. When using an additional pump, a gas-water mixture is obtained.
Which of the ways of arrangement artificial reservoir to choose - it is decided for each pool, depending on the size and living creatures. But it is necessary to provide air supply taking into account climatic conditions, preventing the pond from freezing. In winter, a pond aerator will save the reservoir from freezing, and fish from death. Due to the fact that the water is constantly renewed, rises upwards, there is no possibility of ice formation on the surface of the mirror.
Installation selection criteria
Each compressor is designed for a specific volume of water. For the inhabitants of the reservoir, excess oxygen is as harmful as its lack. It is necessary to take into account the need for oxygen in different climatic periods of the year.
If you need to choose a good quality air compressor, a German manufacturer is preferred. The price of a pond aerator depends on many indicators:
- air compressor power;
- possibility of use at different temperatures;
- the noise of the unit;
- reputation of the manufacturer.
Summer aerators for small decorative ponds can be bought at a price of 4-10 thousand rubles. For artificial reservoirs of medium size, prices for pond aerators start at 40 thousand rubles. Stocked large ponds with winter air supply from well-known producers cost over 100 thousand.
For example, the OASE Aqua-Oxy CWS 2000 pond aerator is suitable for supplying oxygen to 20 cubic meters of water. The installation costs 12 thousand, it includes an engine with two aeration nozzles and hoses 2 and 5 meters long. The installation consumes only 250 W and is quiet. The length of the wiring to the source to the outlet is 120 meters. The energy part can be located on the shore and even below the pond level, since a check valve is provided in the line. The set includes two decorative stones stylized as bumps with grass.
Do-it-yourself aerator installation
You don't have to buy a rig. It is enough to know the principle of operation of an air compressor and have a long-term supply of tools that have outlived their life. You can create an aerator for a pond with your own hands if the farm has:
- a drainage pump, which is used to swing flooded pits after a flood, it can be used with installation under water;
- inch sewer pipe - 2 m;
- branch pipe with a cross section of 32 mm, length 30-50 mm;
- tee with outlet 450;
- corner;
- waterproof wire in double insulating tube.
We proceed to the installation of the unit. To do this, connect the tee to the hose connection. On the other hand, a branch pipe is inserted into the tee. Turn the bend 45 degrees and insert the large pipe. Connect the adapter to the assembled unit. A check valve must be installed in the structure.
All submersible pumps have a sealed casing. The lead wire is made with a double sheath and hermetically sealed.
After that, carry out waterproof wiring. Drive the installation pipe into the ground and attach the structure to it, so that the air intake pipe is slightly above the water level. In order to cover the structure from fish, put it in the net. The pipe should be inclined so that the air smoothly enters the water stream and mixes with it. We received an injection mixer.
If you have a deep pump in stock, you can build a picturesque house on the shore for it.Put a check valve and a protective net on the branch pipe and connect a hose for outlet to the pond. In the right place, the pond aerator hose is decorated, and a small waterfall or something similar is organized, depending on the designer's imagination. When starting, the hose must be under the fill so that an air lock does not occur. The same unit with a pump must be submerged in water in a protective mesh casing.
Do you have a compressor? Then we make a submersible aerator. It doesn't matter, from a car with a receiver or from a refrigerator, we will arrange them on the shore, connect them with RET bottles with hoses and place these devices along the bottom of the pond. In the holes pierced by the needles, the air will continuously rise upward in a stream. But in order not to overheat the motors, you will need to set a timer to periodically turn on.
The compressor will successfully replace the motor from the vacuum cleaner, attach an eyeliner to a corrugated hose, create a comb for air outlet, fill the bottles with pebbles to submerge them, and let them swim with the fish under water.
Can be assembled with a wind drive. Such aerators for fish ponds are useful in winter. Wind aerators have long been successfully used in winter pits where fish rolls. And it doesn't matter what the propellers will be made of - a sheet of metal or a cut barrel. They must rotate on the shaft and transmit rotation to the submersible mixer. The installation itself can float on a pond on the surface, driven by the force of the wind, or be tied to one place. Usually, the rotating mast is fixed on a wooden raft. The rotating rod is clamped by a sleeve in a plain bearing. The lower mixer is three-bladed, made of tin or plastic.
Another noteworthy design is made on a battery-powered electric motor on a foam raft. Light four-bladed turbines are driven from the horizontal axis in rotation, the raft moves independently along the pond. Surface aeration. The engine is in a closed housing, stability is maintained by attaching the turbines to independent floats, on which the rotating shaft is attached.
Using the information, any summer resident will be able to build the smallest decorative pool from old car tires, equip a corner with a waterfall created by an aerator from improvised material to the delight of children.