Considerations When Buying a Windmill for Pond Aeration

Pond Owner Magazine talks a lot about pond aeration and why it is so critical to the health of ones pond. There are many factors to consider when purchasing an aeration system.

Types of Aeration Systems

Windmill aeration systems and electrical aeration systems are the main ones. Of those, there are bottom up aerators and surface aerators.

Pounds-Force Per Square Inch (PSI) for Pond Aeration

The one specification that we have not educated pond owners on is the PSI – spec.

Pounds-Force per square inch measures – gauge pressure plus local atmospheric pressure. This specification is extremely important – depending on the depth of your pond the PSI spec on the aeration system will determine if the equipment you install will even work in your pond. The higher you are up in the mountains the more pressure you require.

PSI levels that provide higher pressure can aerate deeper water areas. Studies have shown that for every 2 ft of water that you place an aerator in it requires at least 1 PSI to pump air to that level.

For example, a pond that is 20 ft deep would require an aeration system that can produce at least 10 PSI. Even at 10 PSI – you would receive very little oxygen at that level so your really need to have 2:1 Ratio for this to be an effective aerator.

As a result, to aerate a pond at a 20 ft depth you would ideally require an aeration system that produces at least 20 PSI.

Many aeration systems today are built to produce 6-10 PSI which limits the areas of your pond that you can aerate. May work in ponds that are up to 12 ft deep but at the deeper levels you will only receive minimal amounts of air. There are however, some very reputable aeration products that have been on the market for several years that produce 30 PSI. Vendors that come to mind are companies like Koenders Windmills and Superior Windmill.

© 2006, Pond Owner Magazine.
www.pondowner.com

Canadian Geese and Wild Ducks in your Pond

We all enjoy watching and listening to Canadian Geese migrate. Its great to have them fly in and vacation in your pond, however, like any visitor, if there are too many of them, or if they out stay their welcome, then they become a nuisance.

Pond owners are frequently asking us two questions;

• What are some ways they can limit the number of Canadian Geese visitors?
• How should they maintain their ponds to deal with the increased amount of Goose droppings?

Waste matter from runoff and pond waste droppings cause a depletion of oxygen in the water and the additional levels of organic matter promote the growth of unwanted aquatic vegetation and pond algae. Some pond owners are hosting up to 100 geese in their pond at any one time.

Once geese have noted your pond on their virtual maps its difficult to get them to change their annual vacation plans so you may be stuck with them for a while. There does not seem to be any quick fix to this problem so here are some preventative measure suggestions:

• Reduce the amount of food around the pond (Canadian Geese love grass turf).
• Keep the banks of your pond steep so that its difficult for them to get in and out of the water.
• Get a pet, border collies have been known to be extremely good chasers of geese and geese do not like to be harassed.
• Install overhead wires to prevent the geese from flying into the pond is an extreme measure but can work.
• Keep your pond frozen over in the winter.
• Do not feed the geese.
• Avoid planting certain crops, crops such as corn and soybeans are favorites of geese, if you are planting these you may want to consider planting them away from the pond.
• Remove old goose nests.
• Install a fence around the perimeter of your pond or plant shrubs around it. Geese like to move easily from water to food and this can act as a deterrent.

Try a multitude of these ideas for best results. You may also want to consider aerating your pond to help manage the decomposition process of your geese droppings. This will prevent your pond from growing over with algae and it will keep your fish alive. Pond aeration keeps water healthy and clean and burns off excess organic matter that is derived from the additional waste entering a pond. Windmill pond aeration is an excellent solution that only requires the wind to operate – eliminating any costs of operation.

Remember that Canada Geese are a protected species by state and federal law which requires pond owners to have a valid permit authorizing any restricted activities. For more information you may want to contact your regional Wildlife Service Office.

© 2006, Pond Owner Magazine.
www.pondowner.com

How to Avoid Fish Kill

Pond owners stock their ponds with fish for a number of reasons;

• To raise and eat them as a source of food
• To raise and fish for them as a form of recreation
• So that the fish will control the amount of algae in the pond by eating it
• So that the fish will eat the mosquito larvae that is floating on surface of the pond
• To act as a food source for surrounding wildlife
• For the shear beauty of nurturing wildlife in their ponds

A simple measurement to go by in order to determine the appropriate number of fish to stock in your pond is to add one fish for every square foot of surface area in your pond.

Now that you have your pond stocked with fish the next challenge is to ensure that they stay healthy and alive. Fish kill can be caused by a number of factors and the presence of dead fish in your pond should be taken seriously. A pond owner should act quickly to determine the cause.

Potential Causes of Fish Kill

• Is there any other water entering your pond and is there runoff coming into your pond? If so perhaps a toxic substance has entered into your pond water.
• How many fish are in your pond? Could it be overcrowded and if, so perhaps a lack of food exists to feed all the fish.
• Has there been a heavy rain storm in the middle of an extremely hot weather stretch? If so perhaps your water has turned over and depleted all of its oxygen. If this has happened you would see a mass fish kill, not just a few being affected.
• Have you had extremely high temperatures making your water very hot and reducing the water’s oxygen levels.
• Does your pond have high amounts of algae? If so this can also deplete the level of oxygen in your pond, causing stress on your fish.
• Does your pond have high levels of nutrients and organic matter such as phosphorous? If so this can take up a lot of oxygen in your pond not leaving enough for all your fish to survive.
• During spawning season you may also have some fish die due to the stress it has on the fish.

Many regional governments track the number of reported fish kills in their regions and its been found that the majority of them could have been avoided by simply providing additional levels of oxygen in the ponds. Pond aeration is a critical component to maintaining a clean, healthy pond which in turn will keep your fish alive. Having said that if your pond is extremely shallow like 2-3 feet you should consider digging out an area that is 8-12 feet deep – this will give your fish an area of the pond to go to that is cooler so they do not bake in the heat. By aerating this area of the pond with a bottom up pond aeration system you will provide oxygen to your fish and also circulate the cooler water around the pond which will help bring down the pond temperature. There are both windmill aeration and electrical aeration systems that can help you with this.

The second highest cause for fish kill is pollution. Pollution from industrial waste, pool overflow, sewage inflow, runoff are some of the key contributors to pond pollution. Again, depending on the severity of the pollution in flow, pond aeration can help minimize the damage it causes on fish by ensuring the pollution is burned out of the water source before it kills all the fish.

© 2006, Pond Owner Magazine.
www.pondowner.com

How to Attract More Wildlife to Your Pond

Many duck hunters are asking us what they should do in an effort to attract more wildlife to their ponds, ducks predominantly. To help in this regard, make sure that your ponds stay clean and healthy so that the ducks can see down into the pond. Ducks like to feed on vegetation and need to see it in order to eat it.

There are a few other things that should be considered – make sure that your pond has some long grass at the sides and there are a few steep slopes around the ponds’ edges so that predators cannot hunt the ducks easily – when they are swimming near the sides of the pond.

The other item that is extremely important is to make sure your pond stays open in the colder winter months. This again provides them with safety from their natural predators and gives them a place to land in the water.

The simplest way to keep your pond clean and clear in order to attract wildlife such as ducks is to aerate your water. Pond aeration will not only provide this benefit but it will also keep your pond water open in the cold winter months provided you choose the right pond aeration system.

Many pond owners do not realize this but if you use bottom up aeration in the cold winter months your pond will stay open. This is an extremely important consideration when trying to attract ducks to your pond.

© 2006, Pond Owner Magazine.
www.pondowner.com

Pond Water Levels a Real Challenge

When it comes to the amount of water one has in their pond – pond owners face two main challenges:

• Too much water and how to deal with the overflow
• Not Enough water and where should they get it from so that their ponds do not dry up

Too Much Water In the Pond

Having too much water in your pond is a much easier issue to deal with. Look for ways to leverage the excess water, whether that means watering the garden, allowing your neighbors to pump water from your pond, pumping the water into a nearby river or sewage. To pump water into nearby water ways or sewage systems a pond owner is required by law to obtain a permit from the regional authorities.

This is to prevent aquatic disease from spreading from one water source into others and is strictly enforced.

Losing Pond Water

Tackling the issue of not enough water can be expensive, however, Koenders Windmills, an innovative manufacturer that has been in this business for almost 20 yrs, has developed some innovative water pumps and water pumping methods to help pond owners cost effectively deal with this challenge.

Lack of water in ones pond is because of a pond leak, not enough rain coming down to fill the pond, no streams or springs around to feed the pond.

If your pond has a leak you may want to consider a pond liner . Pond liners have come a long way over the last several years and there are excellent quality, long lasting, environmentally friendly liners available on the market. The other alternative is to find the leak, easier said than done, and then fill in that area of your pond bottom with clay.

You can also look at ways to pump water into the pond quicker than its leaking out in order to maintain a constant water level.

Water Pumps

There are several ways that you can pump water into your pond. If there are no streams, springs or creeks to draw from you will need to drill a well. Depending on how deep the water table lies will correlate directly with the price of the water pumps.

For shallow wells and to pump water from creeks of lakes we suggest you consider a Koenders Windmill Water Pump. These are completely air driven windmills that have a water pump attachment to them. By far the most reliable and cost effective water pumps on the market today. They draw up to 4 gallons per/min of water and only have 3 moving parts.

There is also a pumping method called the air-lift pumping method to be used to pump water from wells. This is the same method that miners used to use to draw water out of mine shafts.

In addition, there are electric water pumps that submerge into water or which such water hundreds of feet up from a well. The costs of purchase is far less than the costs of ownership for these units but a pond owner needs to do what needs to be done in order to have water.

By the way, the nice thing about the windmill driven water pumps is that they also come with windmill aerations systems included. So you can pump water into your pond and make sure the pond water stays healthy clean and well circulated.

© 2006, Pond Owner Magazine.
www.pondowner.com

How to Clean Your Pond

The majority of pond cleaners on the market today are either a chemical quick fix to an underlying bigger issue or like most pain killers, provide temporary relieve to a nagging problem.

It’s like perfumes and other cosmetics, which are used to cover up all ones blemishes without really dealing with the root cause of the issue.

Pond owners need to stop thinking about short-term fixes to their pond problems and deal with the main issues.

For example, pond owners who have algae are continually writing us to say – we spray copper sulphate into our ponds as an effective means to control pond algae. This kills off all the algae and sinks to the bottom of the pond so the pond looks fresh and clean.

Well the realty is that the killed off algae sinks to the bottom of your pond where it decomposes and while doing so it depletes the oxygen in the water and emits additional organic matter. This process provides fuel for yet a new batch of algae to thrive in just a matter of a few weeks time.

This vicious cycle must end if you are ever going to have a healthy pond eco-system.

We have mentioned this so many times and we keep coming back to it for we believe, especially during this time of year as things heat up for summer, that pond owners need to start thinking about long term pond management.

Priority for a healthy pond is to first install and aerating system. You need to aerate your ponds. This is the most critical component to the health of your water, without an aeration system you will never get rid of pond algae and other aquatic vegetation.

The next component that you should consider, which more and more companies are starting to offer are pond conditioners, as opposed to pond chemicals. These conditioners are natural bacteria, enzymes and dyes that combined with pond aeration can provide an excellent and sustainable alternative to the harsh use of pond chemicals.

In addition, to being environment friendly, they are less expensive, non-toxic, non-polluting, and do not require regional herbicide permits to administer.

© 2006, Pond Owner Magazine.
www.pondowner.com

Copper Compounds for Ponds

Many pond owners are resorting to various pond chemical treatments to deal with the issue of pond algae. Copper has been used for many years as an effective algaecide to treat farm and residential ponds.

The problem that we face is that there is a narrow margin for error when treating your ponds with chemicals such as these. For example, too much copper in the water can cause a massive fish kill, destroying all your aquatic life such as trout, salmon etc… Copper compounds come in many forms, the least expensive and most commonly used is copper sulfate. Usually available in crystals or powder form (called bluestone).

Unfortunately, due to the wide spread availability and costs, the addition of copper still remains a common practice for many pond owners and often the instructions and product literature does not consider the water alkalinity or the presence of aquatic life in the pond that is being treated. Depending on the alkalinity of the pond will dictate the degree of sensitivity the fish may have to a treatment of copper sulfate.

You should register all the chemical products that you use in your pond with the local government pest management or control office. Many regional authorities require you to apply for a permit to use chemicals in your pond, especially if your water feeds into other streams or rivers.
You need to be aware that treating the algae alone with copper chemicals is not going to solve your problem. Once treated, the algae blooms will die off and as it decomposes will deplete significant amounts of oxygen in your pond causing potential fish kill.

So instead of using copper compounds as a first step in controlling algae, perhaps one should consider the longer term effects and review solutions that can alleviate algae problems before it becomes an issue. Algae problems can be addressed in the following ways listed in order of priority:

• Pond Aeration Systems – injecting oxygen into water will help cool the pond, circulate the water, replenish water with healthy levels of oxygen for fish and aquatic vegetation
• Good Watershed Management Practices – ensure that fertilizers and other run off can be diverted away from the pond
• Try adding Barley Straw To The Pond Water (economical and environmentally acceptable) – a chemical in the straw is released which inhibits additional algae cells from multiplying
• Last Resort – pre-approved chemical treatments in very small dosages at the early stages of algae development. Conduct at early stage where very little chemical is need to kill off algae. Install a pond aeration system before applying these chemicals

© 2006, Pond Owner Magazine.
www.pondowner.com