Aquascape Pond Air 2 & 4 - For Water Garden, Sm Pond & Rainwater Collection Aeration

Garden Pond Aerators

• Comes with a small air compressor generating 4000cc/min. x 2 outlets and uses 6 watts (0.055 amps) per for the Pond Air 2, and 3500 cc/min x 4 outlets and uses 11 watts (0.1 amps) of power for the Pond Air 4 
• Includes (2 or 4) winter-resistant air lines, pre-assembled check valves and weighted 4" air stone disks
• Extremely energy-efficient & quiet providing years of trouble-free operation.
• Mount the aerator compressor in a dry location and feed the air lines into your pond. (see suggestion below)
• Plugs into any 110 VAC standard wall outlet 
• 3 Year Warranty
• Replaceable Airstone Disc(s) available 
• During the warmer months, the air stone discs should be in the deepest part of the pond to add oxygen to the stagnet areas. This additional oxgyen will help breakdown fish waste and other decaying organic matter much quicker. Your pond and it's inhabitants will be much better for it.
• During the cold winter months, raise the air stone disks to a shelf that is around 12 inches from the surface. This will keep the warmer water down in the bottom of the pond so your fish won't freeze, but yet keep a hole open in the ice so the harmful gases form the deacying organic matter can vent to the atmosphere.
• If you notice after several years that your pump is losing air pressure or simply doesn't work as well as when you purchased it, a simple, inexpensive renew kit is available. Replacement Diaphram(s) are available from TJB-INC. The Pond Air 2 uses 1 diaphram and the Pond Air 4 use 2 diaphrams.  After installing the renew kit, your pond air pump should be as good as new.
• We also carry the replacement 2" Round Air Stones & Replacement Diaphrams for the original PondAir 2 & 4 aerators for owners of older units looking for parts..

Available in 2 Sizes:

• Pond Air 2 : (2) ¼" nipples, (2) 30' x ¼" Air Lines with built-in check valves, (2) Replaceable 4" air-stone discs.  This Pond Aerator is good for pond up to 800 gallons.
• Pond Air 4 : (4) ¼" nipples, (4) 30' x ¼" Air Lines with built-in check valves, (4) Replaceable 4" air-stone discs.  This Pond Aerator is good for pond up to 2000 gallons.  

SUGGESTION FROM SHOPTJB

To make the aerator last longer, protect the aerator unit from the elements.  We place the aerator on a brick to raise it off the ground.  Then we cover the unit with a plastic or clay pot to keep it dry.  Becareful not to pinch the air lines.  This protects the aerator from the weather and allows the unit to be placed closer to the pond. As stated in the product description, the compressor portion of the aerator must be kept out of the elements.  That is why we provide such a long (30') airline.  You can install the unit next to a pond and cut the tubing length as long as you cover the compressor unit with a pot, bucket, or cooler to keep the unit dry.  The reason is the one-way valve inside the compressor is susceptible to damage if it gets wet.  This is not covered under the warranty and will require the user to replace the diaphragm unit.

A proper pond aerator is vital to having a healthy koi pond, water garden or lake no matter what time of year it is.  Use a pond air pump during hot weather to provide the necessary oxygen.  During the winter an air pump will keep an opening in the ice, add oxygen and help gas off toxins.

Any system will benefit from adding an aerator.  An air pump will also help the growth rate of your fish, both koi and goldfish.  Adding an aerator will also help the biological process within your pond.  Biological filtration requires  large amounts of oxygen so pond air pumps should be used.

A fish pond can never have too much oxygen! Never has a truer statement been made. It is needed by aquatic life, pond plants and by the beneficial bacteria responsible for removing poisonous ammonia from your pond water.

A sure sign that your pond could do with more oxygenated water is when your Koi and other fish can be seen gulping for air at the pond surface. This is more likely to happen in warm weather conditions as warm water cannot hold as much oxygen as colder water.

Atmospheric air contains approximately 21% oxygen. This oxygen is absorbed into the pond where it is used up rapidly. In hot weather conditions, as mentioned earlier the oxygen is not absorbed as easily.

For this reason it is always a good idea to incorporate a waterfall or fountain into your pond, as this causes turbulence at the water surface. This turbulence makes it easier for oxygen to be absorbed into the water.

In a previous article I discussed the importance of removing ammonia from your pond as soon as it appears by installing an adequately sized biological pond filter. It isn't actually the biofilter itself that removes the ammonia and nitrite, but rather the nitrifying bacteria (Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter) that live on the pond filter media housed in the biofilter chamber.

It is fair to say that without these friendly bacteria it would be extremely difficult to prevent your fish succumbing to ammonia poisoning.

You are probably wondering what these bacteria have got to do with an article relating to the importance of oxygen to a biofilter. Let me explain ...
Unlike large lakes and ponds found in nature that have a small population of inhabitants compared with the volume of water the average garden fish pond has a large population of aquatic life in only a small volume of water. Due to this small volume of water the levels of ammonia are proportionately very high. If the ammonia wasn't removed by a biofilter then you would start to see dead fish.

Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter bacteria convert ammonia into nitrite and then into nitrate (plant food). The chemical process involved in this conversion process is known as the Nitrogen Cycle and requires vast amounts of oxygen, in order to be carried out effectively.

The process requires a constant supply of oxygenated water. This is why it is important to never switch off the pump supplying water to the biofilter. If you were to switch off the pump the colonies will start to die off after only 5 to 6 hours. The net result is a rapid increase in ammonia levels, particularly if you continue to feed and encourage metabolic fish waste.

Oxygen in ponds comes from two sources--photosynthesis and diffusion from the air. The most important source, photosynthesis, is the process plants use for manufacturing food. In the presence of sunlight, plants (especially algae) add oxygen to water as a by-product of photosynthesis. At night, no oxygen is produced, but respiration of algae, fish and bacteria continues to remove oxygen from the water. Most of the time there is a desirable balance between how much oxygen is produced and how much is used, but under some conditions, the balance can be upset, and the oxygen concentration becomes low enough to stress or kill fish. The amount of oxygen in pond water can vary considerably from pond to pond and from hour to hour. Typically, however, oxygen concentrations are lowest at dawn and highest during late afternoon. 

The amount of oxygen water can hold is dependent upon atmospheric pressure, salinity and temperature. Water can hold less oxygen as altitude increases. Salinity is not important for most freshwater fish producers. The most important factor is water temperature. As temperature increases, water can hold less oxygen. Most low oxygen problems occur from June through September. The reasons for this are: 

• Water can hold less oxygen as it becomes warmer.
• Respiration rates of both plants and fish increase with the warmer water, so more oxygen is used.
• Summer's still, hazy or cloudy days may reduce the amount of oxygen produced.
• Large amounts of feed given to fish at this time of year result in large quantities of fish waste which create a higher demand for oxygen.

Winter Fish Kills, They Don’t Float With Us!
You’ve waited all Winter long for the ice to melt over your water garden so you can run your waterfalls and enjoy your finned friends. Instead, you find your fish floating at the ponds surface, victims of a winter fish kill. What is this phenomenon and how can you prevent it?

Make Some Holes
When a layer of ice forms over the surface of you water garden, it essentially eliminates any transfer of air to or from your pond’s water. What this means to you is that, as debris decompose and your fish consume oxygen, byproducts are produced in the form of gasses that are toxic to your pond’s inhabitants. These gases are trapped under the ice and cannot escape; fresh air from outside the pond cannot reach the water either and so begins the process of the winter fish kill. Keeping a hole in the ice will allow the bad air in the pond to be replenished with good air. Some pond guys and gals use pond De-Icers to maintain an open hole, but many more rely on their aeration systems to do the job.

Pass The Bubbly
We’ve discussed in our past blogs the many benefits of aeration in your water garden. It circulates the water in your pond, infusing it with oxygen which is beneficial to your bacteria and fish. The constant bubbling produced by an aeration system will also keep a hole open in your water garden in the winter months, ensuring the release of those harmful gasses.

Watch video below to learn how to change the Pond Air Diaphram(s)