Fountains are aesthetic. Aeration is mechanical.

Both have a place, and they are not interchangeable. We size, install and service both, and we will tell you which one your pond actually needs before you buy either.

What happens at the bottom of a pond in August

Warm water sits on cold water and stops mixing. The lower layer uses up its oxygen and does not get any more. Without oxygen, the sediment starts releasing the phosphorus it was holding — which feeds algae at the surface — and the deep water becomes uninhabitable. When the layers finally mix, often after a storm or a cold snap, the whole pond briefly goes short of oxygen at once. That is when the fish kill happens, and it is why it seems to come out of nowhere.

Diffused bottom aeration works against exactly that: air released at the deepest point lifts water from the bottom and keeps the column mixed, so the layers never get the chance to separate.

What we install and maintain

• Diffused bottom aeration — design sized to depth and surface area, installation, and seasonal service.
• Decorative fountains, lighting and controllers, including repair of units somebody else installed.
• Dissolved oxygen, nutrient and clarity monitoring, recorded over time so you can see whether it is working.
• Winter shutdown, spring startup and compressor rebuilds.

The part most owners find out too late

Aeration equipment is a compressor, a cabinet, tubing and diffusers sitting outdoors on Delmarva. Diffusers foul. Cabinets overheat when the filter is never changed. Compressors fail in their third or fourth summer if nobody has rebuilt them. The equipment is cheap to keep running and expensive to replace, and the difference between the two is a seasonal visit.