Stock ponds are Outdoors.

I'm about to buy an aerator for our stock pond. Plenty of options out there, but I'm leaning towards a surface aerator instead of the compressed air bottom aerator or fountain. Anyone have experience with a surface aerator? Plus's / minus's? The one I'm looking at is the Kasco 1hp. It has an optional bottom screen for an extra $200 which seems ridiculous for a frikin screen part, but I'm assuming is necessary to avoid sucking in smaller fish and debris.

The more common small air compressor, bottom aerator seems like a maintenance hassle, plus mounting the compressor and listening to it while fishing seems like it would be irritating. I've got electrical run to the dock, so that is not an issue for any options out there.

How deep is the stock tank? With a surface aerator, you'll certainly get O2 into the surface layer. Bottom based aeration helps mix up your lower layers which are devoid of oxygen and prevent lake turnovers which kills everything. I'd recommend bottom based unless your pond is shallow.

We bought a pond aerator from henneke fish farms. They are in hallettsville. They are very responsive to email and phone calls. I'd give them a ring and explain your situation and they could make some recommendations.

Worked for a little town up here in north Texas, they had a pond system for their wastewater. Every summer when it got hot, the last pond in line, that was supposed to be final effluent, would just be pea green. So we ordered the Kasco, pretty sure it was a hp, and pulled it out sort of centered on the outflow. Helped immensely. Brought our dissolved oxygen levels up to acceptable levels, and made the water much clearer. I can't really say it had a screen on the bottom, more like a cage. Ran 24/7 for 2-3 years, till they had a new system built.

I use a regular utility 1/2 hp pump I got at Home Depot. Have 1 1/2 discharge that is connected to a fire hose nozzle. It runs of elec. which I have near my pond. It works great I have been using it for about 2 years now without an issue. The pump is about $100 but you will need to buy the discharge pipe, connectors and fire hose nozzle. My pond is about an acre and I run the pump from 6am to 6pm on a timer.

Those guys are great folks and extremely knowledgeable.

I've got one too from Henneke. I just had to rebuild it after several years of it running.

Thinking about putting an aerator in two of our stock tanks now they we have water again and are starting to re-stock.

How do you run these if your tanks are remote and electricity isn't an option?

A solar panel will run the compressor during the day.

You can do a couple of things for pond aeration with no access to elec. I have a neighbor who has a trash water pump that he discharges back into his pond with a fire nozzle. He starts the pump and lets it run until it runs out of gas. You also can use a portable generator and let the utility pump run until it runs out of fuel. A solar pump is also possible but I have no idea of the cost. Plenty of diy ideals on line if you search.

I've aerated my pond off and on over the last 15 years or so. I found that the pond aerators do not last as long as the aerators built for septic tank aeration. I have one built for septic tanks and it has 2 discharges so I use them both. It runs 24/7 and has been for about 3 years now.

I just think that septic tank aerators are built to run 24/7 and are more robust than the ones built for pond aeration.

Who might I contact to get aseptic to aerator? Any random septic tank co? In Plano Tx TIA