A HISTORY OF AQUACULTURE POND AERATION RESEARCH  

Most of the effort on developing pond aeration equipment has been conducted in Asia and in the United States. In Asia, the effort apparently began with the Japanese water-mill aerator and lead to the development of the Taiwanese paddlewheel aerators, and finally the long-arm aerators such as those commonly used in Thailand. Asian aerators have low oxygen-transfer efficiencies and are of low quality construction. Nevertheless, because of their low cost they are widely used in Asia and also in other parts of the world. In the United States, paddlewheel aerators of good quality construction and based on a highly efficient design from research are used almost exclusively. These aerators are much more expensive to purchase initially, but in the long-term they actually are more economical than Asia aerators. Moreover, some producers are using oxygen sensors to control the run time of aerators to save energy and reduce costs. It is unfortunate that the aerator technology used in US aquaculture has not been modified to improve the efficiency of aeration in Asia.

Some research has been conducted, mainly in the US, on aerator placement, aeration rate based on feed input, and use of water circulators in daytime to lessen aerator use at night. But, producers have largely ignored the findings. Despite the importance of pond aeration, the large amount of energy used, and the high cost of this practice, a relatively small research effort has been devoted to it. Moreover, aerator manufacturers and aquaculture producers alike have largely ignored the research that has been conducted. Aeration is the most important water quality management tool available in feed-based aquaculture. Thus, efforts should be renewed to advance our rather limited understanding of the best ways of using aeration in aquaculture.