Does Your Association’s Fountain or Pond Stink?
Your Water Feature May be Gasping for Air. Patrick A. Simmsgeiger Diversifi ed Waterscapes, Inc.
Aeration introduces oxygen into an aquatic ecosystem through various methods, one of them being compressed air systems. Compressors produce large amounts of small bubbles that allow for effi cient gas exchange between the water and the atmosphere, introducing dissolved oxygen (DO) into the water column. DO is one of the most important facets of a healthy body of water since it affects water quality, fi sh and plant health, and overall aesthetics, just to name a few. A low-oxygen system will normally suffer from foul odors, sickly or dying fi sh and plants, and potentially accelerated sludge accumulation.
When low DO is a reality for a body of water, many negative effects become pronounced. To start, benefi cial bacteria active in water need oxygen to work. These benefi cial bacteria (aerobic bacteria) are key in the degradation of organic matter as it settles to the bottom. In a healthy ecosystem, these bacteria slow down the accumulation of solids at the bottom, helping to cut down on odors and maintain the desired depth. When DO levels drop, these bacterial species use the next available source to function, nitrates. Nitrates are vital to plant survival, and if most bacteria and plants are utilizing the same resource, plants tend to start dying off. Once nitrates become scarce, bacteria will move on to processing sulfates. Unfortunately, the byproduct of sulfate use is hydrogen sulfi de, which is very toxic to fi sh and other aquatic organisms and gives water the characteristic sulfur smell of rotten eggs. This entire process creates a downward spiral in which bacteria are not processing organic matter as it sinks to the bottom, and more and more decaying organic matter is added as the system suffers.
10 November | December 2023
Continuing along this unfortunate path, algae blooms tend to accompany any major shift in organic matter in water. If there is a large infl ux of decaying matter left since bacteria cannot keep up, algae populations will respond by exploding in number. This increase in algae leads to further drops in DO and nutrients as the algae grows faster than the system can keep up with. Once the carrying capacity of the water is exceeded, the algae starts to die off. However, the system is already incapable of handling the decaying organic matter, so organic matter buildup continues unabated. This is why maintaining healthy DO is vital to water. Without it, the series of events that can occur are hard to mitigate.
So how do you stop this problem at the source? Probably the most cost-effective long-term solution is installing an aeration system. In many bodies of water, a process called stratifi cation is a natural phenomenon. This is the way water splits into layers based on depth and temperature. Anyone who has dove down in any relatively deep body of water has probably noticed that as you descend at a certain depth the water suddenly gets much colder. This is you experiencing stratifi ed water. Stratifi cation is a normal process, but in some lakes, this process leads to oxygen being depleted. This is where aeration comes into play. Aerators work by pulling water from the bottom of the water column and bringing it up to the surface. This creates a constant exchange of water between the surface and bottom, mixing oxygen levels and water temperature into a more even distribution. Making this change allows aquatic organisms to survive a wider range of environmental pressures, such as
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