Breathers and aerators

[Fishfinder]

I was researching aerators and read that someone lost fish using an aerator.

I am really sorry the person lost the fish. How terrible and heartbreaking.

I thought about getting an aerator, but not at the risk of harming the fish. How did the fish die by using an aerator? How is a breather better than an aerator? Is a breather a disc shaped thing that heats ice to keep a bit of water open so gasses can escape? We have one in the pond now.

So if an aerator might not be safe, how could I encourage water flow and oxygen generation?

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Is a breather a disc shaped thing that heats ice to keep a bit of water open so gasses can escape? We have one in the pond now.

Sounds like you're describing a pond heater.

A breather only keeps a tiny hole open inside of the breather itself. The outside freezes up and even freezes the breather right into the ice. This is a pond breather:

Judging by what you're asking, a breather might be what you want. It keeps a tiny hole open and water is a constant trickle.

 

[Fishfinder]

TY for your reply. How is the breather different than the heater if their jobs are the same -- both keep holes in the ice?

 

[MitchM]

The 2 biggest differences between a breather and a heater are the amount of power they consume and that using a heater relies on passive gas exchange while a breather employs a more active method.

A breather uses 40 watts of electricity. A heater can use as much as 1500 watts of electricity.
A breather uses a pump to constantly expose circulating pond water to open air. Using a heater, only the open pond water surface is exposed to the open air.
How much gas exchange the pond water benefits from is dependent on how much pond water is exposed to the open air.

A floating heater comes with a 5 foot electrical cord.
A pond breather comes with a 15 foot electrical cord.
( Someone may need to confirm those lengths for me)

I have found that a pond breather works in extremely cold temperatures with ice as much as 2 feet thick.
I have also found that a floating heater will ice over in extreme cold weather, rendering it useless.
Extreme cold weather in my case is -40.

 

[MitchM]

I was researching aerators and read that someone lost fish using an aerator.

I am really sorry the person lost the fish. How terrible and heartbreaking.

I thought about getting an aerator, but not at the risk of harming the fish. How did the fish die by using an aerator? How is a breather better than an aerator? Is a breather a disc shaped thing that heats ice to keep a bit of water open so gasses can escape? We have one in the pond now.
So if an aerator might not be safe, how could I encourage water flow and oxygen generation?

Using an aerator was not defined as the reason for the fish loss, it's just that the wintering method for that pond was the use of an aerator.
Many people use an aerator for the winter with no problems.
The reason for the fish loss in that case is unknown.

I think aerators are fine for milder climates, they use about the same amount of electricity as a breather.
The problem I have with an aerator is that if there is a power outage during a colder weather event, they could freeze up and not work again until they thaw out. It depends on the climate you live in.

 

[Lisak1]

I thought about getting an aerator, but not at the risk of harming the fish. How did the fish die by using an aerator?

An aerator won't harm your fish - we have aerators that are set to turn on at night during the warmer months to increase oxygenation in the pond. Our fish actually love when the bubblers come on - they take turns swimming through the streams of bubbles like a bunch of kids playing in the sprinkler in the yard.

I think what you read is that someone was relying on an aerator to keep a hole in the ice during the winter months. In some climates that may be enough, but if you live in an area where you get a heavy layer of ice on your pond (like MitchM) and aerator wouldn't begin to do the job. The pond would ice over completely and the fish would be at risk of dying due to the build up of gases under the ice.

The year we shut our waterfall off for the winter, we used a pump set about a foot under the surface with the outlet directed upward to create a fountain effect to keep a hole open. Two things happened - a large dome of ice formed over the water that was being sprayed into the air and the pond felt constantly agitated to me. Not at all the desired effect. The fish were fine come spring, but we did worry.

We have also used a deicer set over an aerator that was just under the surface of the pond - that worked better, and seemed calmer to me. (I don't know if the fish cared, but I did!) The past few years we've kept our waterfall running all winter - the best solution (for our pond) of any we've tried.

So don't fear the aerator! Just know your purpose for using it and make sure you are choosing the right tool for your intended purpose.

 

[addy1]

I was researching aerators and read that someone lost fish using an aerator.

A guy here in Maryland, lost all his fish last winter. He was using an aerator to keep his pond ice open. His pond was around 11000 gallons, it hit -15 here, right after that the fish bodies started showing up, by March all had died. He was using a ap 100, might have been too much air. He did have some of the air just going out, not into the pond.

 

[Tula]

I'm using an areator, while I wait for my defective Pond Breather to be replaced. I don't live in a harsh climate, but we do get very cold snaps. I keep my pond de-icer over my air stones and I don't use my big areator...just a smaller one. So far, so good

 

[JBtheExplorer]

TY for your reply. How is the breather different than the heater if their jobs are the same -- both keep holes in the ice?

Breathers aren't designed to heat the water, it only keeps a small hole inside of the breather so the trickle of water doesn't freeze, which is the second difference. Breathers have a pump that moves water into the clear plastic part so oxygen gets mixed in and gases escape. Pond heaters don't do anything other than warming the water enough to keep a hole open. In a sense, a pond breather sort of hits two birds with one stone.

Here's a short video of it working which might give you an idea of what it does.

 

[slick]

Hi out there our winters aren't now where as cold as yours ( thank the koi god) but what I do is place the out let pipe just below the surface with a venturi fitted and a small pond heater placed next to it, I once relied on a areator but the warmer air produced buy the pump caused condensation in the air line which later froze pump blew up no air no opening in the ice,

 

[Lisak1]

Pond heaters don't do anything other than warming the water enough to keep a hole open

When people say "pond heaters" I think of a pool heater. I know what friends pay to heat their pool in the SUMMER in our climate - I can only imagine if you were trying to heat a pond. Yikes! I've always heard it referred to as a de-icer, which is what I think you're referring to also. Ours worked to keep a hole open but then we got two feet of snow. Since it only heats underneath itself, it was hard to say what was going on under the snow.

A guy here who sells koi also stocks natural ponds. He has a dozen big ponds filled with trout and bass and other pond fish. Those ponds they just allow to ice over. The plants - cattails and what have you - that grown around the edge keep the ice from completely sealing the pond he tells us, plus the volume of water compared to the number of fish is so huge that they gas build up isn't an issue. So I guess it's all relative.

 

[slick]

The pond ( heater) is a small disc that floates only around 9watts but used in front of a water current, it multiplies it's proformance , but 2 feef of snow and ice then id be worried, prob tell a small child or the wife to sit round the pond and keep it from freezing over, don't think that us Yorkshire men are thoughtless id give her a warm hat and coat!!!

 

[JBtheExplorer]

When people say "pond heaters" I think of a pool heater. I know what friends pay to heat their pool in the SUMMER in our climate - I can only imagine if you were trying to heat a pond. Yikes! I've always heard it referred to as a de-icer, which is what I think you're referring to also.

Yes, its a de-icer, but uses heat and sits in a pond, so I call it a pond heater.

 

[sissy]

I have mine tied over my pump ,but so far this winter only had to use it one night .I have a switched out let it is plugged into and if I look at the camera and think it needs to be on I just turn the switch on .

 

[Dave 54]

I was researching aerators and read that someone lost fish using an aerator.

I am really sorry the person lost the fish. How terrible and heartbreaking.

I thought about getting an aerator, but not at the risk of harming the fish. How did the fish die by using an aerator? How is a breather better than an aerator? Is a breather a disc shaped thing that heats ice to keep a bit of water open so gasses can escape? We have one in the pond now.

So if an aerator might not be safe, how could I encourage water flow and oxygen generation?

We use an areator throughout the year winter and summer 24/7 365 days a year with no problem.
Just remember to turn the areator down a little during the winter month than you would nomally have in the summer .
We run a bottom drain bubbler and control the airhose with a stop cock that allows us to turn the air flow up or down in the winter we turn to down to a slow stream of bubbles then up again as the spring moves into late spring early summer .

Dave