CLEAN-FLO Announces New Product for Algae Control

After a year of testing, we are very excited to announce the introduction of Lake Clear to our product line. Lake Clear is a proprietary blend of bacteria specifically formulated for filamentous, blue green and planktonic algae control. Lake Clear is a blend of 100% natural, non-toxic, non-pathogenic bacteria.

Use of Lake Clear results in dramatically reduced growth of algae, improved water quality, odor control and an enhanced appearance of a pond or lake.

Lake Clear works by outcompeting algae for essential nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus in the water and by digesting organic sediment. Through nitrification, de-nitrification, and rapid growth on soluble pollutants, Lake Clear will out-compete the excess algae for these nutrients. Algae will starve, die, and then be digested by other Lake Clear bacteria.

                     

Images: Before and after use of Lake Clear

Lake Clear is compatible with shading dyes. It is not compatible with aquatic algaecides or herbicides. These chemicals kill algae and weeds and also kill beneficial bacteria. When algae and weeds die, nutrients are released back into the water column and are available to be utilized again for repeated algal blooms. Repeated use of algaecides and herbicides reduces a pond or lake’s ability to regulate its nutrient level, causing it to be out of balance. If aquatic algaecides or herbicides are used, you should wait 2-3 weeks before applying Lake Clear.

Lake Clear will help bring the nutrient load back into balance and promote a healthy aquatic environment.

 

Understanding Water Sample Results for Oxygen

Oxygen is very important for a healthy body of water. Many times we are told that “my lake has plenty of oxygen” or “oxygen is not a problem in our lake”. Unfortunately water samples can be misleading unless you understand the dynamics of the changes in oxygen in a body of water throughout the day.

Oxygen in the air above a lake oxygenates the surface water of the lake. So do wind and waves and rain and even water runoff from the watershed. Algae and aquatic weeds also put oxygen into the surface water during the daytime through photosynthesis, but take much of that oxygen back during the night. On a sunny day when oxygen levels increase due to photosynthesis, levels will tend to be much higher than the levels in samples taken just before sunrise. Since most sampling is done during the day, the results are sometimes misleading.

For these reasons, a single surface sample means little when trying to evaluate oxygen levels.  

Let’s take sampling one step further. If you conduct sampling with a direct reading instrument, such as a YSI, you can obtain oxygen levels at various depths in the water column. In most cases, oxygen levels will decrease as the measurements get deeper, and many times will be very low or near zero 6” off the bottom. If the bottom is low in oxygen during daylight hours, chances are high that it will be even lower during the overnight hours.

The difference in all water quality parameters between surface and bottom water can be striking and is most likely linked to oxygen levels. Dissolved oxygen tends to be depleted in deeper waters because photosynthesis is reduced due to poor light penetration and the fact that dead plant materials and other organics fall to the bottom using up the oxygen as it decomposes.

This difference between surface and bottom waters is exaggerated in the summer when thermal layering occurs which prevents mixing. The surface may become supersaturated with oxygen (>100%) and the bottom anoxic with no oxygen.

Armed with this information you will now be able to question and evaluate water-sampling results on your water body.

  

Turnberry Lakes Turns to CLEAN-FLO & Lake Savers

Turnberry Lakes is a premier residential development in the Village of Lakewood, Illinois.

The community is built around four lakes that give this suburban community its distinctive natural character. Unfortunately, like most lakes in developed areas, all four Turnberry Lakes were suffering from an over abundance of nutrients and nuisance algae growth. Like many communities Turnberry Lakes implemented a lake management program that utilized aquatic herbicides/algaecides as the primary control for weed and algae growth.

Over several years the herbicide budget steadily increased, but unfortunately by the summer of 2008 results deteriorated to the point that mats of filamentous algae covered large portions of the lakes despite the aggressive herbicide program. At that time all lakes were characterized as eutrophic to hyper-eutrophic.

In 2009, Turnberry Lakes turned to CLEAN-FLO and Lake Savers. CLEAN-FLO completed the engineering and design work for Inversion Oxygenation Systems for all four lakes over the winter and Lake Savers installed the systems in early April 2009 and applied beneficial enzyme and bacteria treatments later in the Spring to reduce nutrient levels and organic muck on the lake bottom.

Two key factors led Turnberry Lakes to select CLEAN-FLO and Lake Savers as their partners on this initiative:

1. CLEAN-FLO’s ability to custom engineer systems for all four lakes that maximized oxygen transfer while delivering lower energy costs and minimizing the number of shore-based compressor stations.
   
2. Lake Savers innovative Full Service Leasing/Management Program that ensures that the systems will continue to operate at peak efficiency for many, many years.

Lake Savers’ development and successful implementation of the Full Service Leasing/Management Program on projects in North America is becoming a key factor in enabling larger lakes to access CLEAN-FLO Technology without having to make a large capital investment.

The approach did not result in an immediate “quick fix”. Turnberry Lakes still experienced some algae problems in 2009. However, water quality data showed that the lakes were steadily improving and more importantly organic muck reductions ranged from 11 inches in Lake One to 6 inches in Lake Three. This reduction significantly reduces the nutrient availability for future plant growth.

In 2010, Turnberry Lakes will be testing CLEAN-FLO’s new Lake Clear Bacteria Product for even better natural algae control and continue to implement shoreline and watershed best management practices as part of their comprehensive, community-based effort to preserve and improve the health, aesthetics and recreation quality of the four lakes that are the centerpiece of the community.

 

Black and Blue Dye Special

Has this winter been rough on you? It has probably also been rough on your lake or pond if you haven’t been operating a CLEAN-FLO inversion system during the winter.

CLEAN-FLO’s Sky Blue and Lochness Black organic lake dyes are excellent for coloring the water and reducing sunlight penetration in a water body. The growth of aquatic plants can be slowed dramatically by reducing sunlight penetration. By applying dyes in the spring, you can get a jump-start on preventing summer plant growth.

Now through April 15^th, for every quart of dye that you buy, you will receive a second quart at half price. One quart treats 4 acre-feet due to our concentrated formula, which also saves shipping space and cost.

You can view the special here:
http://www.clean-flo.com/specials/pond-lake-dye-special/

  

Upcoming Specials

 Watch for our popular bacteria and enzyme special starting on April 1^st. Our new product Lake Clear will be included in this special.

  

CLEAN-FLO Inversion – Not Just for Small Lakes and Ponds

                        

  Images: Collins Lake restoration, before and after.  

 From time to time we will be contacted by someone looking for solutions for a large body of water. One of their concerns is that aeration will not be effective in a body of water over a certain size. All we can tell you is, properly engineered aeration can be effective on any size body of water.

Aeration technology is not new. In fact, efforts to increase oxygen levels in water bodies can be traced back over 100 years. Over this long history of experimentation and implementation of various methods of aeration there have been many more failures than successes. While relatively simple in concept, proper aeration of large open-water systems has proven quite difficult in practice.

CLEAN-FLO has met the challenge of delivering consistent results through aeration system implementation by adhering to the following key principles:

The system and equipment must be custom-designed for each water body – a “kit” approach to aeration system design is not reliable. 

Simple is better… Aeration systems must operate continuously to be effective. The fewer the failure points in the system the more likely the system will be able to perform consistently over time.

 The “devil is in the details”… where a diffuser sits in the water body and whether it sits on the bottom or 12 inches from the bottom makes a big difference in system performance and results. CLEAN-FLO offers the best combination of system design, engineering, installation and service in the industry.

CLEAN-FLO’s approach to water body restoration is based on duplicating nature’s own design for keeping water bodies healthy and in balance. It is certainly no secret that dissolved oxygen is the cornerstone of maintaining water body health and balance.

Maintaining high dissolved oxygen levels throughout the water column from top to bottom (including the sediment/water interface layer) twenty four hours per day 365 days per year, delivers the following benefits to the water body:

Control of nutrients that lead to excessive aquatic weed and algae growth (P, N and CO₂).

Prevention of the formation of undesirable toxic gases, hydrogen sulfide, methane and ammonia, formed as a result of persistent anaerobic conditions.

 Prevention of the chemical release of Manganese, Iron and other metals through redox reactions under anaerobic conditions.

Increase in biological activity in the benthic layer accelerating the decomposition of organic “muck” at the bottom.

Fishery improvement as a result of enabling fish to live and feed all the way to the bottom of the water body.
 

                    
 Image: Restoration of Sihwa Reservoir.                                              Image: CLEAN-FLO reservoir restoration.

  

 Given these well-established benefits, it would seem obvious that artificial aeration would be a wide-spread management tool for improving water quality in ponds, lakes and reservoirs.

Unfortunately, as simple as artificial aeration is in concept, the vast majority of artificial aeration projects fail to deliver results as expected.

Three projects that we have currently underway that involve large bodies of water include two drinking water reservoirs and a recreational lake. The two drinking water reservoirs are 3,770 acres and 11,990 acres respectively. CLEAN-FLO was retained to increase DO levels, and decrease iron, manganese and hydrogen sulfide levels to improve water quality prior to the intake for treatment. The recreational lake is 1,920 acres in size and CLEAN-FLO was retained to solve weed and algal issues in certain sections of the lake.

The key to any large-scale aeration project is the work effort in the design process.

   

CLEAN-FLO Website Updated

Over the years our website has grown with information for education about our process and restoration of water bodies in general. We have recently completed an updating and reorganization of our site and hope that you and others will visit us at http://www.CLEAN-FLO.com.