Excuses are a way of life for much of the human population. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but at times it can have problematic consequences. Pond aeration is no exception to this rule. Here’s a breakdown of the top 5 reasons that you should aerate your pond today. Not tomorrow, next week, next month, or once the birds fly south so you don’t bother them. Today.

1. It takes awhile for aeration to kick in.

There are no miracle workers when it comes to getting rid of your algae and making your pond healthy. You can use chemicals, such as copper sulfate. That will certainly sterilize your pond in no time. Be advised, though, the algae will return more swiftly each time and with a fierce vengeance. Oh, and you’ll be slowly killing any sign of aquatic life in your pond. Aeration is the safest and most environmental way to make your pond look (and be) healthy. Unfortunately, it takes a little while to undo all of the bad in your pond and instill some good. So, the sooner it gets started, the better, and the longer you’ll have to sit back and enjoy the scene of aquatic bliss before you.

2. You won’t like the way your pond looks in the dog days of summer.

Buying an aerator on August 5^th will do very little to clear up your pond by August 10^th when you’re hosting that birthday party. Buy it on May 5^th instead. Better yet, buy it on March 5^th. I’ll tell you what, give it to yourself as a Christmas present and get things rolling so your pond is the talk of the town come summertime when everyone is hanging around outside. The bottom line here is that it takes time to break down the algae-forming nutrients that have been building up in your pond for years, and the greater head start you give your pond before the hot, humid, suffocating days of summer arrive, the better it will look.

3. Think of your fish!

Imagine the pain that you would feel if you were forced to walk around gasping for air all day long. What if you were struggling to breathe, and every minute was a fight for survival because there simply was no oxygen in the air? Would you want the person in charge of your ecosystem to “get around to it next week?” No. Emphatically, no. You would want to breathe today, yesterday, or even the day before that. Fish kills happen because of pond owners that put off aeration for too long and eventually it ends in catastrophe to the tune of dozens, hundreds, thousands of dead fish. All the more reason that you should aerate your pond today, yesterday, or even the day before that.

4. The right aerator will be an investment, not a burden.

It’s true, making a commitment to aerate your pond can be expensive. However, the right aerator choice will only be a noticeable entity in your bank account once—at its initial purchase. This differs from chemicals, which tend to make medium-sized dents in your pocketbook numerous times a year, adding up to one gigantic dent over multiple years. A reliable aerator that will stand by you in sickness and in health, through good times and bad is the one that you want to find. In this case, you’ll pay the initial price of the aerator and then ideally be able to watch it work its magic over the next umpteen years. Then you can join in poking fun at the dilettantes who are still pouring thousands of dollars into their pond each year in the form of chemicals.

5. It feels good.

What’s better than checking something off of your perpetually growing to-do list? Pull the trigger on your aerator, check it off the list, and feel one of the many weights on your shoulders lift. Feels great, doesn’t it?

Instead of thinking in “what ifs” or racking your brain for reasons why an aerator simply won’t work this year, try thinking of reasons why it can work. You and your pond will both be very happy.

Presumably, everyone desires a healthy pond. However, as is true with most things, this is much easier said than done. The treasured vault that holds the secrets to a healthy pond is stubbornly locked to most pond owners. Mixing is the key that can open that vault.

When it comes to breaking down nutrients, there are few things more important or successful than mixing action. There needs to be a mixing of pond layers, a mixing between nutrients and oxygen, and a mixing to create intimate contact between aerobic, decomposing bacteria and the pond specimens waiting to be broken down.

Nothing takes down algae and sludge like a good old-fashioned mix.

Behind the Scenes:

It’s really great that we know what needs to be done, but unfortunately (once again) this is easier said than done. How exactly is this accomplished?

One specific mixing aspect that the MARS Aerator utilizes is a synergistic Venturi Effect. The coarse bubble static tube makes up the core of the MARS Aerator, and is placed with 8 inches of clearance between the notorious pond-bottom sludge and its base. When air is pumped through the static tube, it creates a vacuum (or Venturi) effect, which then gently pulls water from beneath the MARS unit through its core.

This Venturi Effect does much to agitate the water, and even carries liquefied sludge with it to be broken down, which otherwise would have continually accumulated at the bottom of the pond. When the sludge and excess nutrients are pulled through the static tube, they are partially broken down by the mixing action. Next, when they come in contact with the oxygen rich water created by the fine-bubble aeration, they are broken down even more. As the Venturi Effect continues working, the water in the pond is consistently circulated and mixed. Due to this, nutrients are more effectively broken down and pond layers are destratified.

A Helpful Metaphor:

The relationship between mixing and oxygenating a pond can be compared to washing your hands. The fine bubbles (primarily oxygenating) will be represented by soap and water. The coarse bubbles (primarily mixing) will be represented by hand-scrubbing.

Picture yourself having just come inside from the muddiest work you have ever done. You walk straight to the sink, your hands caked with an odorous, gristly layer of mud. Water rushes out of the faucet and you place your hands underneath it, adding a few squirts of soap every few seconds. You hang your hands in the sink limply and let the water and soap run over them. Alas, while some of the mud and stench disappear from your hands, they are far from clean. You’re doomed to live the rest of your days with pungent, muddy hands.

However, there may be hope still. In scenario number two you walk to the sink, turn on the water, apply the soap, and scrub your hands vigorously. Voila. Your hands are pristine, and you can live a life full of happiness and cleanliness. All because you scrubbed.

The same is true for pond aeration. You can add all the oxygen you want through fine bubble aeration, but if you don’t mix it with the rest of the pond, spread it about, share the wealth with all of those in the pond who need it, you won’t produce the results that you’re hoping for. You will have one extremely oxygen-rich area in your pond, and the rest will remain stagnant and mostly unaffected. However, once you add in the mixing factor through coarse bubble aeration, your pond begins to experience the benefits of oxygenation throughout its layers and regions. And there is much rejoicing.

Don’t Worry, It’s a Common Misunderstanding

Most laymen who simply dabble in the science behind pond aeration would assume that oxygenation is far and away the main benefit of aeration. This is the very reason that they are referred to, and will continue to be referred to, as laymen. Because they’re wrong.

It’s true that oxygenation is obviously essential to the process. Without it, there would be much less nutrients and sludge broken down.  However, without any type of mixing action, the presence of oxygen is negated quite a bit. The real bottom line is that you cannot properly, effectively, or successfully oxygenate without some type of mixing action utilized in conjunction.

If you don’t believe me, just try washing your hands sans scrubbing.

The Setup

We keep saying “Our MARS Aerator utilizes Patented Double-Bubble Technology to both mix and aerate your pond.” That’s all well and good, but what do we really mean? Let’s see if we can clear that up…

A very brief introduction to diffused aeration: There are two types of diffused aeration. These are 1) Coarse Bubble Aeration and 2) Fine Bubble Aeration. The coarse bubble aeration technique utilizes fewer, larger bubbles. Outside of the MARS Aeration technology, coarse bubble aeration is rarely seen in the pond aeration field. Conversely, fine bubble aeration employs the use of more, smaller bubbles in order to aerate.

Due to the science behind these techniques (stay tuned!), coarse bubble aeration will never oxygenate as well as fine bubble aeration. Likewise, fine bubble aeration will never mix as well as coarse bubble aeration. There has to be some give and take either on the side of oxygen output or mixing action. That’s the way it’s always been.

I say thee nay!

This aeration-world status quo wasn’t good enough for us, and this dissatisfaction is what eventually lead us to Double-Bubble Technology. I’ll now see if I can try and explain how we (and you) are able to have our cake and eat it too.

The Players

Bubble #1: The Coarse Bubble.

Size: Larger than 2mm in diameter.

Skills Include: Mixing Water, Destratifying Pond Layers, Breaking down Nutrients

Catch Phrase: “Bigger is better.”

The Coarse Bubble is expelled from a tube in the middle of the MARS Aerator. Being a larger bubble, it causes a more violent displacement of water to occur. This water displacement results in a mixing of the pond water.

Think about heating water on the stove. As little bubbles start to rise, the water in the pot remains relatively still. But once the water begins to boil, larger bubbles are formed and rise to the surface. Then what happens? The water begins to churn about and you can see there is a definite mixing action occurring in the pot. The same basic principle applies to the effect of the coarse bubble on your pond. This not only reduces pond stratification, but also causes bacteria to come into close contact with nutrients, which helps to break them down more quickly.

Additionally, the larger displacement of water creates a suctioning effect that will gently pull excess sludge and stagnant water from the bottom of the pond. It will then be mixed in with the rest of the water and broken down by bacteria, leading to a much happier, healthier pond ecosystem.

Bubble #2: The Fine Bubble.

Size: Smaller than 2mm in diameter.

Skills Include: Possessing a High Oxygen Transfer Efficiency, Maximizing Surface Area, Long and Leisurely Trips to the Surface

Catch Phrase: “Less is more.”

The Fine Bubble is released through diffuser membranes, which expel up to 30-50 thousand bubbles per second. That means that in under a day and a half, fine bubble diffusers can release as many bubbles as there are people in the world today. In three weeks it can release as many bubbles as there are stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. Through an increased number of small bubbles, versus a decreased number of large bubbles, fine bubble aeration is able to release more oxygen into the pond due to its greater surface area.

Think about one large bubble, floating to the surface of a pond. How much overall bubble is touching the water? Now break that one bubble into a thousand little bubbles. The overall bubble-to-water contact clearly increases. More bubble-to-water contact means more opportunity for oxygen to be transferred. Additionally, fine bubbles rise to the surface of the pond much slower than coarse bubbles. By spending more time in the water, fine bubbles have more opportunity to transfer their oxygen to the pond. These are the main concepts behind fine bubble aeration and why it has a higher oxygen transfer rate than the coarse bubble. The higher the oxygen transfer rate, the more oxygen is released into the pond, and the healthier the pond becomes.

The Result

Double Bubble Technology

With the combination of the coarse bubble and the fine bubble, pond aeration has never been more effective and efficient. The mixing of the coarse bubble combined with the oxygenating of the fine bubble creates an aerating force the likes of which have never been seen, in the form of the MARS Aerator.

You’ve got algae on your pond—or maybe you have nasty pond odors wafting into your house and mosquitos taking over your yard—and the solution you keep running into time and time again in your research is something called aeration.

But what is aeration? What does it do for your pond? How do you aerate a pond? These are all good questions, the answers to which escape most pond owners.

In order to help the average pond owner understand aeration a little bit better, we’ve put together a crash course:

What is pond aeration?

Pond aeration is a process by which oxygen is added to water, effectively raising the level of dissolved oxygen.  This dissolved oxygen is what fish use to breathe, and what other organisms use to keep your pond clean.

Two things are crucial in this process: aeration efficiency & mixing action.

High efficiency ensures that you’re imparting the most water at the lowest energy cost (basically getting the most bang for your buck), and the mixing action make certain that this highly oxygenated water is spread throughout your entire pond.

What does pond aeration do for me?

Aeration is integral to maintaining the appearance and aquatic health of your pond. The Mixing and Aerating actions perform four key roles:

1.  Reduce algae and clarify water by providing oxygen for beneficial bacteria to breathe—when these bacteria thrive, they rapidly consume the nutrient material in your pond that would otherwise fuel algae blooms and cloudy water.

Algae is also reduced through mixing. The mixing action both creates a turbulence that disrupts the algae habitat and circulates oxygen throughout the entire water column, allowing the safe bacteria to outcompete algae for food pond-wide.

2.  Get rid of pond odors by facilitating oxygen breathing, or aerobic, bacteria growth. When bacteria break down nutrients without oxygen, they release horrible pond odors!

Aerobic bacteria actually breakdown nasty pond odors before they reach the surface, keeping your pond smelling fresh.

3.  Provide fish the ideal habitat with aeration by ensuring that they have ample oxygen throughout the pond to breathe.

Fish health is also improved by the mixing action, as this destratifies the water column and avoids pond turnover (a twice-a-year phenomenon that sometimes causes the death of all your fish!)

4.  Limit mosquito breeding by mixing up the stagnant water they thrive in. What’s more, the oxygenating abilities of good aerators expand the fish habitat, allowing them to travel into shallow water and eat up the nuisance mosquito larvae.

What types of Pond Aerators are there?

On- Surface Aerators

Fountains: Pond fountains claim to aerate by launching water into the air. While this may look nice, it is relatively poor at adding oxygen to the water and costs a huge amount of money in electricity costs.

At the same time, fountains are unable to adequately mix lower levels of the pond. Between its poor aerating ability, its inefficient operation, and sub-standard mixing, fountains are a bad aeration choice.

Surface  Aerators: Surface aerators work in a fashion similar to that of fountains, except for they don’t offer a visually appealing spray pattern. So, not only is a surface aerator a bad, inefficient aerator—it looks ugly to boot!

Subsurface Aerators

Standard Diffused Aerator: Standard diffused aerators sit at the bottom of your pond, and are powered by a compressor onshore.

They release fine (tiny) bubbles at the bottom of the pond, which is fantastic at adding oxygen to your pond, but lacking in mixing—this is because the microbubbles rise too slowly to create a sufficient mixing action.

Windmill Diffused Aerator: Windmill aeration works exactly like standard diffused aeration except for one part—it uses a windmill instead of a compressor to push air.

Not only is the performance of this unpredictable because of the inconsistency of the wind, it also produces very small quantities of air (not nearly enough to oxygenate your entire pond!).

MARS Double Bubble™ Aerators: The MARS works just like a standard diffused aerator with a compressor onshore and a fine bubble diffuser on the bottom—gaining excellent oxygen transfer.

The advantage of the MARS is in its Double Bubble™ Technology, which combines both fine bubble efficiency with a component designed specifically for superior mixing ability: the coarse bubble static tube aerator.

This patented, synergistic combination allows the MARS to Mix & Aerate your entire pond, making it the most effective and efficient aerator on the market today.

For more information on the MARS Aeration system, visit our home page and watch the video on Eco-Friendly Aeration.

Environmentally friendliness has moved from just a ‘fad’ to a part of our everyday lives—SUV Sales are plummeting and most homeowners are switching over to CFL light bulbs.

Gone are the days where money was spent on a whim, without regard for the environment. Homeowners are now looking for ways to save money & protect the environment at the same time.

Pond management is quickly moving to the forefront of this money and environment saving push.

But in order to fall into the eco-friendly category, pond management options must simultaneously accomplish three things:

1. Get the Job Done by reducing algae, odors, and mosquito breeding, and stopping fish kills
2. Minimize Resource Use by being efficient and self-sustaining—avoiding waste and saving money
3. Do No Harm to the ecosystem

So, what is the most eco-friendly pond management system available? Let’s take a look at how the conventional options stack up:

Chemical algaecides and herbicides are generally good at one thing: decimating the ecosystem in your pond. They will kill the growing algae and a few mosquito larvae, but does nothing to mitigate pond odors or fish kills.

In this regard, they certainly do not fit the requirements of “Do No Harm” and they barely “Get the Job Done.”

What’s more, chemicals don’t meet the “Low Resource Use” condition as their application can never be stopped—costing you more and more money into perpetuity.

Fountains lack adequate aeration, and basically perform no full water column mixing whatsoever, so pond management performance is quite limited.

In addition, throwing water into the air with a motor is energy intensive business—consuming as much as 3x more electricity than other pond management options and, therefore, wasting resources.

Fountains typically do not harm the environment, unless the pond owner makes up for its poor performance with toxic pond chemicals.

After purchased, windmills basically use no resources. But, their performance is absolutely minimal even when running at 100%–and that’s contingent on the wind blowing full speed all the time.

In reality, windmill aeration is inconsistent and underpowered at best. What good is an eco pond management system that simply doesn’t work the way you intended?

Spending money on something that doesn’t do much is certainly not eco-friendly.

The MARS Aeration System combines two components integral to pond management, the patented combination of Mixing & Aerating, and the synergistic use of the Triplepoint MARS Blend Probiotic.

The Mixing & Aerating dissuades algal growth, disrupts the mosquito breeding environment, oxygenates and freshens the odors, and prevents fish kills.

The Probiotic factors in as a ‘double whammy,’ using the Mixing & Aerating of the MARS to consume excess nutrients in your pond that would otherwise fuel algae growth, lead to pond odors, and contribute to fish kills.

This successful combination of Mixing, Aerating, & Probiotic is not only effective—but its energy efficient and eco-friendly as well!

Not only does the MARS System “Do No Harm,” it actually benefits your pond’s natural ecosystem.

As it stands, the MARS Aeration System is the only Eco-Friendly pond management option that can get the job done right, efficiently and effectively.

To learn more about the MARS, visit our home page and watch the introductory MARS Movie by clicking here: Eco-Friendly Aeration.