PLANTS IN PONDS

By Clifford Woods

Plants in ponds will reduce the amount of algae that is able to grow, but also use the waste from the fish to give a natural water filtration system.

Plants below the water:These plants are the major contributors to water quality. They will oxygenate the water during the day and provide oxygen for the fish as well supplying excellent shade. Submerged plants compete with algae for use of nitrogen produced from fish waste and decaying plant material.
If you pot these plants it will allow for easy removal for thinning or when winter comes.

A few examples

Jungle Val - Hornwort - Cabomba

Floating and Surface Plants
Pick plant species that grow flowers and leaves on the surface of the water. The difference between floating and surface plants is that floating plants float freely on the water’s surface without attached roots, while surface plants have roots that extend down and anchor into the pond’s soil. Remember to remove plants if coverage exceeds two-thirds of the pond's surface area.

A few examples

Floating Plants:Duckweed - water lettuce

A few examples

Surface Plants: Hawthorne - Four Leaf Water Clover- Water Lotus

Side or Marginal Plants
Plants that grow well in moist or soggy soil or that grow well in standing water. Plant them along the side or edge of your pond. They will root in the soil and their foliage will spread out over the water. Careful to not choose plants that grow rapidly or that will spread to much and too far.

A few examples

Western Blue Flag Iris - Sweet Flag - Dwarf Bamboo

Advice: cleaning your pond and using only organic pond cleaners, makes for healthy ponds, happy fish and thriving plants and it also contributes towards a safer environment for any adults, children or pets spending time in the yard.

Clifford Woods is the CEO of Effective Environmental Services

and Organic Environmental Technology.

We brew Beneficial Microorganisms that eat toxins and offer Environmentally Friendly products.

How Does Phosphate Get Into A Pond

By Clifford Woods

Ponds under attack from green water, poor coral growth, algae and cyanobacteria and are the things that are responsible for your dying fish. These are factors that generally leave aquarists frustrated, and most of them, are brought about by the presence of phosphate in water.




What Are Phosphates?
Phosphates are naturally occurring compounds, which commonly form in water bodies. This is largely due to a number of sources, the major one being water sources. Soil and salt mixes that are swept into the water as a result of rain or wind are a major reason for phosphate infestation in ponds and these are usually harder to control than aquarium water.

It’s important to note that phosphates are the active ingredients in fertilizers. That being said, salt mixes that could be found in rocks surrounding the pond may be the reason why your water is choking.

How Can You Identify High Phosphate Levels?
Identifying the signs of high phosphate levels can be obvious (if you know what to look for), or they might be a bit more subtle and hard to recognize but here are a few:

1. The water color
2. Predominant presence of nuisance algae
3. Poor coral growth

Your water could indicate the presence of phosphates and if your pond is pea green, you need to think about phosphate testing. Nuisance algae predominance is also a good sign that your water is thriving with phosphates, since like already mentioned; it is the active ingredient in fertilizers and therefore, encourages growth of plants. And Algae of course is a plant.

Types of algae to look out for are black hair algae and slime algae as well. You can also identify signs of poor marine, such as unhealthy corals and poor survival rates of invertebrates, such as shrimp and snails. There is several phosphate testing kits you can use to identify phosphate presence in your water.

How to Remove Phosphate
Eliminating phosphates can be quite tricky and before you can conduct any elimination process, you need to first identify the cause. If you throw frozen foods into your ponds, this may the reason why there are high levels of the compound.

You may want to consider rinsing foods before feeding your fish or simply avoiding frozen foods. The water that frozen foods are frozen in sometimes has high phosphate concentrations. Are there golf courses, farms or even fertilized gardens and lawns around your pond? If yes, run offs from the rain are washing these phosphates into your pond.

Once you’ve identified (and hopefully eliminated) where the phosphate is coming from, you can start getting rid of what you already have. Water changes with phosphate-free water can help cut down on your levels but can take time before you see a noticeable difference. In saltwater aquariums, protein skimmers can help remove wastes and decrease the phosphate levels, and refugiums can be used in freshwater and saltwater tanks. There are various products in the market that can help you get rid of phosphates. These mediums act to absorb the compound or trap it for removal.

When a phosphate remover is applied into the water, it basically traps the phosphates and immobilizes them, making them insoluble nutrients. Phosphates in ponds are harder to eliminate, since you cannot control what products people use in their lawns and farms.

That said, you can control the levels by always ensuring that your pond is clean and using a phosphate remover often. With persistent testing and removal, your pond can have a good water quality for your fish and other marine species to thrive better.

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Clifford Woods is the CEO of Effective Environmental Services and Organic Environmental Technology
Find out more about our Organic Pond Cleaner - Pond Magician
We brew Beneficial Microorganisms that eat toxins and offer Environmentally Friendly Products

Organic Versus Chemical?

By Clifford Woods

The world, for almost the past two decades, has become highly aware and concerned about health and environmental issues. Though people were concerned about such issues earlier as well, they definitely lacked the means of raising their voice in this regard. With social media becoming one of the most influential tools in educating people, the advocates of organic have become very active in this dominion and quite rightly so, because there is no reason to doubt the accessibility and effectiveness of this medium.

So, what exactly is it about this organic food?

Well, in the simplest scientific explanation, any food substances that are carbon based, which are known to be the basic building block of life, are referred as being organic. Many carbon compounds that are human-made, or synthetic are organic compounds too. Plastics are organic, and so are most synthetic wonder drugs, as far as chemists are concerned. So a Chemist would even say most of the synthetic fertilizers, the ones that “organic” gardeners don’t use, are organic too. This is because synthetic fertilizers are made of molecules that are made of mostly carbon atoms. By this definition, almost everything that we consume as food is technically organic.

However, it is the agricultural context of food consumables that differentiates organic from inorganic or chemical produce. Organic food must not contain synthetic chemicals at all, starting right from the ground level, as early as a farmer preparing his fields for cultivation of any kind. He needs to stay away from using in his soil any petroleum based fertilizers or any other material that is chemically altered. To make it easily understandable, compost and manure are to be resorted to as natural fertilizers, but Miracle-Gro is to be totally avoided. As a matter of fact, the use of chemicals is unacceptable even for disease and pest control.

When treatment is needed, the farmer is expected to treat the crops with insecticidal soap as well as Neem oil, but the store-brought chemical based sprays are prohibited when it comes to organic. Organic food has to be all natural and totally free of any kind of genetic alteration. Instead of achieving the desired results through unnatural ways, organic produce requires resorting to conventional hand pollination and selective breeding procedures.

The GMO foods (genetically modified) are known to have gone through some tempering at a genetic level. For example, in order to produce higher yields or making the crops drought resistant, the genetics of GMO food products are tempered with, which makes it devoid of organic certification. As a matter of fact, it is not only about how organic produce is farmed; one also needs to make sure that organic food does not come into contact with non-organic food. For that, one also needs to ensure separate packaging and shipment of organic food, avoiding any contact with any types of chemical ingredients at any level.

People advocating organic produce not only recommend it for its chemical free nature, but they also deem it as more nutritious and tasty, as also backed up by the results of several studies and researches taken in this regard. For instance, a study conducted at the Newcastle University, United Kingdom reported a boast of about 40% in various nutrients (such as zinc, iron, as well as vitamin C) in organic produce compared to inorganic produce.

Though there is ample room of further research in the domain of organic versus chemical, one cannot deny various health benefits resulting from following natural ways and staying away from chemicals and any genetic modifications.

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Clifford Woods is the CEO of Effective Environmental Services and Organic Environmental Technology
Find out more about our Organic Products
We brew Beneficial Microorganisms that eat toxins and offer Environmentally Friendly products