The Setup

We keep saying “Our MARS Aerator utilizes Patented Double-Bubble Technology to both mix and aerate your pond.” That’s all well and good, but what do we really mean? Let’s see if we can clear that up…

A very brief introduction to diffused aeration: There are two types of diffused aeration. These are 1) Coarse Bubble Aeration and 2) Fine Bubble Aeration. The coarse bubble aeration technique utilizes fewer, larger bubbles. Outside of the MARS Aeration technology, coarse bubble aeration is rarely seen in the pond aeration field. Conversely, fine bubble aeration employs the use of more, smaller bubbles in order to aerate.

Due to the science behind these techniques (stay tuned!), coarse bubble aeration will never oxygenate as well as fine bubble aeration. Likewise, fine bubble aeration will never mix as well as coarse bubble aeration. There has to be some give and take either on the side of oxygen output or mixing action. That’s the way it’s always been.

I say thee nay!

This aeration-world status quo wasn’t good enough for us, and this dissatisfaction is what eventually lead us to Double-Bubble Technology. I’ll now see if I can try and explain how we (and you) are able to have our cake and eat it too.

The Players

Bubble #1: The Coarse Bubble.

Size: Larger than 2mm in diameter.

Skills Include: Mixing Water, Destratifying Pond Layers, Breaking down Nutrients

Catch Phrase: “Bigger is better.”

The Coarse Bubble is expelled from a tube in the middle of the MARS Aerator. Being a larger bubble, it causes a more violent displacement of water to occur. This water displacement results in a mixing of the pond water.

Think about heating water on the stove. As little bubbles start to rise, the water in the pot remains relatively still. But once the water begins to boil, larger bubbles are formed and rise to the surface. Then what happens? The water begins to churn about and you can see there is a definite mixing action occurring in the pot. The same basic principle applies to the effect of the coarse bubble on your pond. This not only reduces pond stratification, but also causes bacteria to come into close contact with nutrients, which helps to break them down more quickly.

Additionally, the larger displacement of water creates a suctioning effect that will gently pull excess sludge and stagnant water from the bottom of the pond. It will then be mixed in with the rest of the water and broken down by bacteria, leading to a much happier, healthier pond ecosystem.

Bubble #2: The Fine Bubble.

Size: Smaller than 2mm in diameter.

Skills Include: Possessing a High Oxygen Transfer Efficiency, Maximizing Surface Area, Long and Leisurely Trips to the Surface

Catch Phrase: “Less is more.”

The Fine Bubble is released through diffuser membranes, which expel up to 30-50 thousand bubbles per second. That means that in under a day and a half, fine bubble diffusers can release as many bubbles as there are people in the world today. In three weeks it can release as many bubbles as there are stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. Through an increased number of small bubbles, versus a decreased number of large bubbles, fine bubble aeration is able to release more oxygen into the pond due to its greater surface area.

Think about one large bubble, floating to the surface of a pond. How much overall bubble is touching the water? Now break that one bubble into a thousand little bubbles. The overall bubble-to-water contact clearly increases. More bubble-to-water contact means more opportunity for oxygen to be transferred. Additionally, fine bubbles rise to the surface of the pond much slower than coarse bubbles. By spending more time in the water, fine bubbles have more opportunity to transfer their oxygen to the pond. These are the main concepts behind fine bubble aeration and why it has a higher oxygen transfer rate than the coarse bubble. The higher the oxygen transfer rate, the more oxygen is released into the pond, and the healthier the pond becomes.

The Result

Double-Bubble Technology

With the combination of the coarse bubble and the fine bubble, pond aeration has never been more effective and efficient. The mixing of the coarse bubble combined with the oxygenating of the fine bubble creates an aerating force the likes of which have never been seen, in the form of the MARS Aerator.

Believe it or not, the below freezing days of winter are coming to an end! With warmer temperatures comes the ability to enjoy your pond. This Spring Pond Checklist is designed to help give you a head start preparing your pond for a beautiful growing season.

Spring is one of our favorite times of the year; birds are singing, flowers are sprouting and the sun is shinning – perfect conditions to enjoy your pond. But beware, without taking a few critical steps early, your pond enjoyment could be ruined by flooding, fish kills, and algae!

Here is our checklist for preparing your pond for an enjoyable spring and summer:

1) Check over your pond

With spring comes rain. Check your spillways for blockages – often trees can fall or beavers can dam-up spillways preventing the free flow of water. Any blockages can cause flooding that can kill surrounding plants, cause fish kills and damage electrical infrastructure near the pond among, other things.

Check the pond banks for signs of erosion – spring rain will exacerbate this. A short-term prevention method is laying sod on the bare banks. For the long term, consider planting native prairie grasses in the worst effected areas; they will not only help to prevent erosion, but will also act buffer to limit algae fueling nutrients getting into your pond.

2) Avoid Spring Fish Kills

If your fish are still alive, they’re lucky to have survived the arctic winter. Unfortunately, it only takes a spring without sufficient aeration for their luck to run out.

As temperatures increase, the different layers of the water column will begin to mix. As a result, the water at the bottom of pond then becomes warmer and, initially, the level of oxygen increases.

Bacteria at the bottom of the pond will then wake up from their cryogenic state and begin rapidly consuming the nutrients (leaves, waterfoul excrement etc.) that are present at the bottom of the pond. Before too long, oxygen levels plummet and a mass fish kill can occur.

By installing aeration early in the spring season, you will begin to mix the different layers of the water column while directly adding oxygen. We recommend the MARS 1500 Aeration System as the Patented Double Bubble Technology is specifically designed to Mix and Aerate (add oxygen to water).

3) Get Ahead of the Algae Game

As spring gives way to summer, the increase in temperatures coupled with the nutrient runoff of fertilizers, waterfowl excrement, leaves etc. from spring rains becomes a toxic combination. Inevitably algae blooms will occur that create pond odors, mosquito infestations and poor water clarity.

Give your pond a head start by boosting levels of beneficial bacteria, such as Triplepoint blend Pro-biotic. When used with proper aeration, bacteria will begin to consume nutrients and prevent them from fueling algae blooms when summer arrives.

To the uneducated pond owner, winter aeration may seem like a waste of time and energy. It is too cold in the wintertime for algae to grow and mosquito’s to proliferate. Moreover, the top of the pond will often freeze in northern climates – so you can forget about poor water clarity and pond odors!

In some respects, this conventional line of thinking is understandable. Conventional technologies, like fountains and circulators, cannot function in below freezing temperatures – pond managers have no choice but to take them out.

However, the time and costs of removing, storing and replacing equipment can often erase much of the potential power cost saved by not aerating in winter. Moreover, this conventional approach fails to take into consideration any potential benefits of aerating in the winter.

By aerating with the MARS 1500 Aeration system you can prevent winter fish kills and give your pond a head start for the summer. While at the same time attract winter wild life and prevent your dock or boat from becoming damaged.

Here are four reasons the pond experts at Triplepoint believe winter aeration is a good thing for your pond:

Reason #1: Prevents Fish Kills

When the surface of your pond freezes, fish are essentially sealed away from their oxygen source, and once they consume all of the oxygen in the water, a fish kill from suffocation will occur.

Fish can also die when the pond turns over in the spring. In northern climates, your pond becomes stratified during the winter months – where layers of the water column separate into different layers of temperature and dissolved oxygen.

When the ice melts and temperatures increase, these different layers mix with each other. As they mix, the overall water temperature increases and bacteria that lay dormant all winter begin to aerobically break down organic material. In this process, the bacteria consume oxygen – and in a matter of hours can deplete dissolved oxygen levels to the point where fish suffocate and die en masse.

The MARS 1500 Aeration system can prevent fish kills because it adds oxygen to the pond all winter long – keeping an opening in the ice and ensuring your fish have the oxygen needed to breath. Moreover, because the MARS utilizes patented Double Bubble Technology™ it not only adds oxygen, but also mixes and circulates the water column at a rate of 2,200 gallons per minute. The MARS will turn a typical 1-acre pond over 4 times a day! This ensures that spring turnover does not take out your entire fish population.

Reason #2: Gives Your Pond A Head Start Next Summer

Because cold water is better able to absorb dissolved oxygen than warm water, winter aeration can often be twice as effective as summer aeration at raising the D.O. of your pond.

The MARS 1500 Aeration system transfers 18.7 lbs of oxygen into a typical 1-acre pond per day – that’s 1,683 lbs of oxygen over the three months of winter!

When spring arrives your pond will be full of oxygen and ready for the upcoming growth season. When it becomes warm enough in the spring for bacteria to begin breaking down the nutrient material on the bottom of your pond there will be plenty of oxygen for them to breathe. This gives your pond a head start for the summer and will help to ensure that it is well prepared for the algae season.

Reason #3: Attracts Wildlife

The cold and desolate days of winter can sometimes seem lifeless and dry. Winter aeration with the MARS Aeration System will help remedy this by maintaining open water on the surface of your pond. Open water typically attracts waterfowl that seek safety from predators on the open ice. As a result, you can enjoy the beauty of nature as you look out over the pond – giving even further utility.

Reason #4: Protects Boats and Docks From Freezing

Pond or lake owners who have boats and/or docks face a real risk of damage as the water freezes over the winter months. When ice freezes and expands around your dock or boat, it begins a low crushing action and causes permanent damage. Ice also tends to shift slowly over time. As the water level below the ice attached to your dock fluctuates, it can rip pilings out of the bottom and render your dock useless.

By installing a MARS aerator under your boat or dock you can avoid potential damage due to water freezing. The patented MARS Double Bubble Technology™ is powerful enough to maintain an opening in the ice as large as 50 feet in diameter all winter long.

For more information on the MARS Aeration system, visit our home page and watch the video on Eco-Friendly Aeration.

You’ve got algae on your pond—or maybe you have nasty pond odors wafting into your house and mosquitos taking over your yard—and the solution you keep running into time and time again in your research is something called aeration.

But what is aeration? What does it do for your pond? How do you aerate a pond? These are all good questions, the answers to which escape most pond owners.

In order to help the average pond owner understand aeration a little bit better, we’ve put together a crash course:

What is pond aeration?

Pond aeration is a process by which oxygen is added to water, effectively raising the level of dissolved oxygen.  This dissolved oxygen is what fish use to breathe, and what other organisms use to keep your pond clean.

Two things are crucial in this process: aeration efficiency & mixing action.

High efficiency ensures that you’re imparting the most water at the lowest energy cost (basically getting the most bang for your buck), and the mixing action make certain that this highly oxygenated water is spread throughout your entire pond.

What does aeration do for my pond?

Aeration is integral to maintaining the appearance and aquatic health of your pond. The Mixing and Aerating actions perform four key roles:

1.  Reduce algae and clarify water by providing oxygen for beneficial bacteria to breathe—when these bacteria thrive, they rapidly consume the nutrient material in your pond that would otherwise fuel algae blooms and cloudy water.

Algae is also reduced through mixing. The mixing action both creates a turbulence that disrupts the algae habitat and circulates oxygen throughout the entire water column, allowing the safe bacteria to outcompete algae for food pond-wide.

2.  Get rid of pond odors by facilitating oxygen breathing, or aerobic, bacteria growth. When bacteria break down nutrients without oxygen, they release horrible pond odors!

Aerobic bacteria actually breakdown nasty pond odors before they reach the surface, keeping your pond smelling fresh.

3.  Provide fish the ideal habitat with aeration by ensuring that they have ample oxygen throughout the pond to breathe.

Fish health is also improved by the mixing action, as this destratifies the water column and avoids pond turnover (a twice-a-year phenomenon that sometimes causes the death of all your fish!)

4.  Limit mosquito breeding by mixing up the stagnant water they thrive in. What’s more, the oxygenating abilities of good aerators expand the fish habitat, allowing them to travel into shallow water and eat up the nuisance mosquito larvae.

What types of Pond Aerators are there?

On- Surface Aerators

Fountains: Pond fountains claim to aerate by launching water into the air. While this may look nice, it is relatively poor at adding oxygen to the water and costs a huge amount of money in electricity costs.

At the same time, fountains are unable to adequately mix lower levels of the pond. Between its poor aerating ability, its inefficient operation, and sub-standard mixing, fountains are a bad aeration choice.

Surface  Aerators: Surface aerators work in a fashion similar to that of fountains, except for they don’t offer a visually appealing spray pattern. So, not only is a surface aerator a bad, inefficient aerator—it looks ugly to boot!

Subsurface Aerators

Standard Diffused Aerator: Standard diffused aerators sit at the bottom of your pond, and are powered by a compressor onshore.

They release fine (tiny) bubbles at the bottom of the pond, which is fantastic at adding oxygen to your pond, but lacking in mixing—this is because the microbubbles rise too slowly to create a sufficient mixing action.

Windmill Diffused Aerator: Windmill aeration works exactly like standard diffused aeration except for one part—it uses a windmill instead of a compressor to push air.

Not only is the performance of this unpredictable because of the inconsistency of the wind, it also produces very small quantities of air (not nearly enough to oxygenate your entire pond!).

MARS Double Bubble™ Aerators: The MARS works just like a standard diffused aerator with a compressor onshore and a fine bubble diffuser on the bottom—gaining excellent oxygen transfer.

The advantage of the MARS is in its Double Bubble™ Technology, which combines both fine bubble efficiency with a component designed specifically for superior mixing ability: the coarse bubble static tube aerator.

This patented, synergistic combination allows the MARS to Mix & Aerate your entire pond, making it the most effective and efficient aerator on the market today.

For more information on the MARS Aeration system, visit our home page and watch the video on Eco-Friendly Aeration.

Pond turnover is a phenomenon that would go largely unnoticed if it weren’t for the sometimes awful consequences. Mild turnover can leave your water cloudy for a couple days.

Severe turnover can kill thousands of fish, and leave your property smelling like a month-old rotting egg.

What is pond turnover? How does it affect my pond? How to I prevent turnover from occurring?

The purpose of this blog is to answer these questions—helping the average homeowner to find a solution to their pond turnover problem.

What is Pond Turnover?

Pond turnover is a term used to describe the mixing of the stagnant, or ‘stratified,’ waters in a pond.  Stratification is an occurrence whereby the water separates into three distinct layers—like a layer cake—each with its own different temperature and dissolved oxygen levels.

The upper level, known as the epilimnion, is composed of warm, lighter water that has high dissolved oxygen content – this is where fish tend to dwell.

The middle layer of a pond is known as the thermocline; in this ‘transitional’ layer, water temperature and dissolved oxygen level become lower with depth.

Finally, the lowest layer of a pond is referred to as the hypolimnion. This layer is the coldest and most oxygen deprived of the three, as it is sheltered from any atmospheric conditions by the above two layers.

Pond turnover is when weather conditions favor the mixing of these layers. As the epilimnion is cooled by the fall air to a temperature below that of the lower layers, it becomes denser and sinks—mixing the layers together into a uniform temperature and density.

The exact opposite occurs after winter—and the cycle continues annually.

Sometimes cold rains and heavy winds can provoke an additional mid-summer turnover, as well.

How does Turnover Affect My Pond or Lake?

Organic matter like dead plants and fish, leaves, etc. sink to and accumulate in the lowest level, the hypolimnion, because gravity naturally pulls it there.

Unfortunately, this layer has little to no oxygen that would help aerobic, or oxygen breathing, bacteria break down the material. Instead, anaerobic, or non-oxygen breathing bacteria do the job.

Not only are these bacteria seventeen times slower than their aerobic counterparts, they also release toxic gasses like methane, hydrogen sulfide, and ammonia as they digest.

This toxic gas gets trapped in the hypolimnion, and is released all at once when the levels mix.

So, how does this turnover affect your pond? It does four things:

1. The toxic gasses released poison the fish, causing a fish kill
2. Aerobic bacteria are given access to organic matter once locked at the bottom, quickly sucking all the oxygen out of the water and suffocating your fish
3. The odor of the released gasses fills the surrounding area, including your home, with rancid odors
4. The mucky hypolimnion clouds your water, causing your pond to appear very dirty

How Do I Prevent Turnover From Occurring?

Two things need to happen in order to prevent the ill effects of pond turnover.

The first thing you need to do is mix the layers of your pond to keep them from stratifying.

The second thing you need to do is provide oxygen throughout the entire pond, promoting the consumption of organic matter by aerobic bacteria.

Not only will the air avoid the production of toxic gasses, but it will also ensure that your fish are given ample air to breathe. Both of these are important to avoiding fish kills and noxious odors.

In order to properly Mix & Aerate your pond at the same time, you need the MARS Aeration System. The MARS’s patented Double Bubble™ Technology is specifically designed to do just that, as efficiently and effectively as possible.

As an added benefit, the MARS will also freshen and clarify your water, and reduce algae at the same time.  Visit the Triplepoint Home Page to watch an introductory movie on the proven MARS Aeration Technology.

Environmentally friendliness has moved from just a ‘fad’ to a part of our everyday lives—SUV Sales are plummeting and most homeowners are switching over to CFL light bulbs.

Gone are the days where money was spent on a whim, without regard for the environment. Homeowners are now looking for ways to save money & protect the environment at the same time.

Pond management is quickly moving to the forefront of this money and environment saving push.

But in order to fall into the eco-friendly category, pond management options must simultaneously accomplish three things:

1. Get the Job Done by reducing algae, odors, and mosquito breeding, and stopping fish kills
2. Minimize Resource Use by being efficient and self-sustaining—avoiding waste and saving money
3. Do No Harm to the ecosystem

So, what is the most eco-friendly pond management system available? Let’s take a look at how the conventional options stack up:

Chemical algaecides and herbicides are generally good at one thing: decimating the ecosystem in your pond. They will kill the growing algae and a few mosquito larvae, but does nothing to mitigate pond odors or fish kills.

In this regard, they certainly do not fit the requirements of “Do No Harm” and they barely “Get the Job Done.”

What’s more, chemicals don’t meet the “Low Resource Use” condition as their application can never be stopped—costing you more and more money into perpetuity.

Fountains lack adequate aeration, and basically perform no full water column mixing whatsoever, so pond management performance is quite limited.

In addition, throwing water into the air with a motor is energy intensive business—consuming as much as 3x more electricity than other pond management options and, therefore, wasting resources.

Fountains typically do not harm the environment, unless the pond owner makes up for its poor performance with toxic pond chemicals.

After purchased, windmills basically use no resources. But, their performance is absolutely minimal even when running at 100%–and that’s contingent on the wind blowing full speed all the time.

In reality, windmill aeration is inconsistent and underpowered at best. What good is an eco pond management system that simply doesn’t work the way you intended?

Spending money on something that doesn’t do much is certainly not eco-friendly.

The MARS Aeration System combines two components integral to pond management, the patented combination of Mixing & Aerating, and the synergistic use of the Triplepoint MARS Blend Probiotic.

The Mixing & Aerating dissuades algal growth, disrupts the mosquito breeding environment, oxygenates and freshens the odors, and prevents fish kills.

The Probiotic factors in as a ‘double whammy,’ using the Mixing & Aerating of the MARS to consume excess nutrients in your pond that would otherwise fuel algae growth, lead to pond odors, and contribute to fish kills.

This successful combination of Mixing, Aerating, & Probiotic is not only effective—but its energy efficient and eco-friendly as well!

Not only does the MARS System “Do No Harm,” it actually benefits your pond’s natural ecosystem.

As it stands, the MARS Aeration System is the only Eco-Friendly pond management option that can get the job done right, efficiently and effectively.

To learn more about the MARS, visit our home page and watch the introductory MARS Movie by clicking here: Eco-Friendly Aeration.

There is a certain amount of ‘buzz’ whirling around the internet about windmill aeration—there are dozens of sellers pushing their own unique twist, all vying for consumer’s attention using the badge of eco-friendly aeration.

But what is really going on here? Do windmills live up to their seller’s hype? In this article, we will analyze the pros and cons of aeration windmills to see how they stack up.

Installation

Pros:

There aren’t any, unless you really enjoyed Erector Sets when you were young.

Cons:

The windmill aerators come disassembled, and require a substantial amount of time and energy to erect. Such assembly projects are rarely as easy as they seem.  Many of these windmills also require you to pour a concrete base, which adds to the difficulty. Expect a multi-day project.

With every windmill, you must also install a submerged aeration unit, largely without direction. The effectiveness of each diffuser depends on relatively specific placement—and these companies often leave you to figure this out on your own.

Operation

Pros:

Once purchased and installed, windmills have no operating cost.

Cons:

While ‘cheap’ to operate, windmills provide the customer with a minimal amount of aeration—requiring a minimum wind speed of 3-10 miles per hour just to begin operation.

Even on the absolute windiest of days, windmills max out at 2-4 cubic feet of air (cfm) output. On a normal day, if it is running at all, it would average between 1-2cfm pumped into the pond—which is less than sufficient.

Windmills are absolutely reliant on the wind, so inconsistent performance can be expected, and even in best case scenarios your pond will be under aerated.

Pond Treatment

Pros:

Windmill Aeration adds a little bit of air to your pond, more than would be imparted if no aeration was used.

Cons:

We’ve already established that the amount of air produced by windmills is both inconsistent and insufficient for adequate pond aeration.

When it is actually working, a pump rate average of only 1-2cfm is not adequate to aerate & mix, both of which are integral to reducing algae and keeping the pond water fresh. When aeration is low, the mixing is even lower.  Even at top speed, a windmill’s fine bubbles rise too slowly to thoroughly mix the water.

Windmill aerators will also operate less (or not at all)at night, as the windspeed is generally much lower at this time.

Unfortunately, ponds have the lowest levels of dissolved oxygen at night—so windmill aerators often do not aerate your pond when it needs it most.  This can lead to stressed fish and significantly diminished pond treatment, raising the potential for algae to proliferate.

The Verdict

The age-old adage of “you get what you pay for” appears to ring true in the case of windmills—you do get an aerator, albeit one with little ability to treat your pond the way you intended.

When purchasing windmill aerators, it seems that customers would be losing sight of what they are trying to achieve with their pond. Sure there is a low operating cost, but you’d be spending thousands of dollars to under treat your water with a lousy, tough-to-install product.

The windmill vendors love to say they’re ‘green,’ but that’s hardly the case unless they are talking about the ‘green’ you would be spend on a product that doesn’t get the job done.

What’s more, many windmill customers actually end up using chemicals to supplement their pond treatment—costing more money and ruining the environment.

Alternative

For an eco-friendly aerator that actually gets treats your pond properly, check out the MARS Pond Aerator. It leaves your pondwater healthy, aerated, and fresh, minimizes algae, and prevents odors and fish kills.

For a pond or lake owner, there is nothing more terrible than having a sudden mass extinction of aquatic life—otherwise known as a Fish Kill.

Fish kills come in many shapes and forms—sometimes big fish die, sometimes small fish die, other times all fish meet the same demise. Some fish kills are limited to a particularly sensitive species of fish, others do not discriminate and affect all fish (including the big game fish you keep fishing for).

A fish kill can be as small as 10-20 fish or as large as 10-20,000—and once fish begin to die, it’s generally too late to remedy the situation. The only way to thwart the fish kill phenomenon is prevention.

Before we can prevent fish kills, we must understand the six possible causes behind them:

1. Oxygen Depletion

Oxygen depletion is the most common cause of fish kills. Oxygen must be present in the water for fish to breathe—an oxygen level of 4-5 parts per million is recommended for healthy fish.

When oxygen levels dip down to 2-3ppm, fish become stressed. Fish swimming near the surface, sometimes gulping the air, is a common symptom of this stage.

Large fish are the first to die in an oxygen depletion fish kill, followed by the smaller fish.  Fish kills of this sort often happen overnight or in the early morning—and typically occur in a matter of hours.

2. Large Plant or Algae Die-Off

When a body of water rife with plants and algae suddenly receives less sunlight or receives algaecides and herbicides, large die-offs can occur. The resulting decaying matter wicks oxygen out of the water, suffocating your fish.

As a rule of thumb, if your pond has more than a 20% covering of algae or surface plants, avoid algaecides and herbicides and get oxygen into the water as quickly as possible (see solutions).

3. Turnover

Stagnant water tends to migrate into distinct layers—like a layer cake. Fish typically reside in the layers near the surface where they enjoy warmer water and higher dissolved oxygen.

The layer at the bottom is like a fish no-man’s-land as it is generally is colder, has little or no oxygen, and is filled with accumulating toxic gasses that are trapped by the layer differences.

In the spring and fall (and sometimes more often if the weather conditions are just right) these layers mix, sucking all the oxygen out of the water and introducing toxic gasses to the fish. If severe enough, turnover can easily cause a mass fish kill.

4. Surface Freeze

When the surface freezes, the ice acts just like the temperature difference mentioned in #3. Gasses poisonous to the fish build up, and can sometimes wipe out entire populations.

5. Toxins and Chemicals

If pesticides or other harmful chemicals run into your pond, it can obviously have a damaging affect on any life within it.

Sometimes the application of herbicides or algaecides can lead to fish kills, as the chemicals is lethal to all sorts of aquatic life.

6. Disease

Disease affects all life forms at some point or another, and it’s hard to prevent. The symptoms of disease, however, are often less severe than most fish kills and happen gradually over time (rather than over the course of a few hours, like a normal fish kill).

Disease generally affects only one species of fish, seldom killing all of them, and rarely do they occur on a mass fish-kill scale.

Solution

With its patented Double Bubble™ Technology, the MARS Aeration System will prevent almost all fish kills by targeting its main causes. The MARS simultaneously:

• Adds  oxygen to the water keeping the water fresh and fish happy
• Mixes the layers to expand the fish habitat and break up toxic gasses
• Prevents excess Algae from taking over and wicking out oxygen
• Allows You to Avoid the Application of Chemicals that can harm fish

Visit the Eco-Friendly Aeration page to learn more abouy the benefits of the MARS!

Having a body of water near or on your property can be one of two things: a beautiful, natural accent to your home—or an absolute nuisance. Ponds can add value to the homes nearby, and they can do just the opposite.

Unfortunately, many people living near a pond are stuck with the latter of these scenarios.

You may currently find yourself in the same situation—asking yourself, just like many other people, “why does my pond look so bad?” “Is there a solution?” The answer is yes.

But before we get into the solution, let’s have a closer look at the problems facing ponds:

Bad Water Clarity

Bad water clarity can come from a variety of sources, from algae blooms to floating organic matter and muck. It is quantified by turbidity, a measurement of how clear your water column is—and the more organic matter you have floating around in your pond, the worse it looks.

Often times, this organic matter acts as a fuel for algae to proliferate as well, making your pond look even worse.

Unsightly Algae

Algae come in many different varieties, from a simple light green water hue to thick mucus-like mats floating across the surface. Excess nutrients (fertilizer, organic matter, etc.) cause this algae to grow rapidly, casting an ugly green shroud over your pond.

No matter its form, algae can certainly make your pond look like a cesspool.

Nasty Odor

It most ponds, odor originates from dead, rotting organic matter. When this material is broken down in an oxygen-deprived environment, it releases smelly compounds like hydrogen sulfide (rotten egg smell), methane, and ammonia.

Pond odor can also come from certain types algae and a pond phenomenon called turnover. Read more at our Pond Odor blog post.

Stagnant, Mosquito Breeding Water

Many ponds aren’t spring fed—or they receive so little flow that the water basically sits and stagnates.  This water provides the perfect breeding ground for mosquito and other nuisance insects to lay their larvae.

This affects not only the quality of the water in your pond, but also the environment around your home when the larvae hatch. With dangerous diseases like West Nile on the rise, you can never be too cautious about what you have proliferating in your pond.

Excess Bottom Muck

Muck is a general term for all sorts of things that comprise the sludge accumulating on the bottom of your pond. A large portion of the muck is dead, rotting organic matter that can sometimes be many feet deep.

When this muck decays without mixing and oxygen, it produces noxious smelling gasses and clouds your water. It also provides the perfect fuel for algae, allowing sprawling mats of algae to canvas the surface of your pond.

The Solution to a Dirty Pond

The Double Bubble™ action of the MARS Aeration System is the answer to your dirty pond problem. This Patented Technology both mixes & aerates, effectively rehabilitating your pond in an eco-friendly manner.  The MARS does this by:

1. Breaking down the organic matter that is clouding your water and accumulating on the bottom. This breakdown also removes the nutrients, or algae food, from the pond, reducing the growth of algae.
2. Adding Oxygen to the water that absorbs the noxious pond odors, freshening the water at the same time.
3. Mixing the Entire Water Column to keep the water from stagnating, dissuading the breeding of insects. Not only this, but with the added oxygen mixed throughout the entire pond expands the fish habitat, who love to eat up all the larvae before they hatch.

For more information on the MARS Aeration System, watch the video on Eco-Friendly Pond Aeration on the home page.

Do you dread changes in the wind because the smell of your pond or lake wafts into your home? Do you avoid gatherings or cookouts down by the water because of its unappealing odor? You’re not alone.

We’ve all walked past stagnant, a stinking pond and lake at some point in our life (and a lot of times we wish we hadn’t!), but have you ever wondered where that smell is coming from…or how to stop it?

Let’s first look at the causes of pond or lake odor. The smell you notice comes primarily from three sources:

1. Rotting Plants, Fish, and other Organic Matter:

When something rots, it smells—this is a simple fact of life that has us routinely taking out the trash and hunting through the refrigerator for foreign smells.

But, what occurs in lakes and ponds that make the odor so pervasive? It’s the lack of oxygen.Many rotting things in your pond are digested by aerobic (oxygen breathing) bacteria, and this occurs both quickly and largely without odor.

If given enough oxygen, these hungry little bacteria will clean all the odors and decaying matter out of your pond. Unfortunately, this is not what happens in most ponds—stagnant water instead has the tendency to develop into distinct temperature layers.

Water warmed by the sun remains toward the surface, and cooler, denser water stays on the bottom. Being sealed in by the upper, warmer layer, the bottom layer receives no oxygen. Eventually fish and bacteria use up all the available oxygen in this area, and this is when things get bad.

What happens is that all inanimate organic matter (dead fish, leaves, grass clippings, sticks, fish waste, dead plants) sink to the oxygen-less, or anoxic, area at the bottom of the pond. Here, the only breakdown and digestion that occurs is done by anaerobic (not oxygen breathing) bacteria.

Not only are these bacteria seventeen times slower at breaking down organic matter than aerobic bacteria, but they also produce nasty smelling pond odors as a byproduct. These odors include the rotten egg-like hydrogen sulfide, methane, and ammonia.

Ever see bubbles rise to and burst on the surface of your pond? That’s likely anaerobic bacteria, releasing their pungent pond odor byproducts.

2. Turnover:

Pond or lake turnover is often a reason why your water occasionally smells really bad. It occurs at least twice a year in the spring and fall (sometimes more if there are heavy rainstorms) where the upper and lower levels of your water body mix together.

The resulting solution is low in oxygen and high in noxious gasses (and this very dangerous for fish and can result in a massive fish kill). On top of this, all of the bad odors and decaying material once trapped at the bottom are mixed into the water column all at once, making your water smell quite awful.

3. Odor Producing Algae:

Certain kinds of algae simply smell bad. Ponds with heavy concentrations of cyanobacteria or chara algae, for example, will emit a musty, earthy odor.

So not only will your pond look bad because of the large algal blooms, but it also smells bad because of the algae!

The Solution to Lake and Pond Odors:

Now let’s look at the solution to pond and lake odors. The fix for pond and lake odors is Eco-Friendly Aeration with the MARS System, which targets the causes of odors by doing the following things:

• Oxygenating ALL areas of the water column so aerobic bacteria get to the organic matter and  do its work without odors

• Mixing the entire pond from top to bottom, avoiding layering and stopping the harmful and odor producing effects of turnover

• Prevent algae by breaking down the organic matter before algae has the chance to use it to fuel its growth

The MARS Aerator’s patented Double Bubble™ Technology both mixes & aerates your pond—keeping it healthy, clear, and most importantly, odor free!