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Ammosorb
Pond Conditioner
As a natural coarse of events most ponds will become eutrophic and will develop high concentrations of aglae and bacteria.
The nutrient or energy input to ponds often exceeds the out-put, as a consequence ponds often go through cyclic blooms of algae and bacteria followed by crashes. During the blooms the water can look un-slightly, fish and aquatic life can be adversely effected, and in some cases the algae can be toxic. When the bloom crashes, the bacterial levels increase dramatically which leads to anoxic ( no oxygen) conditions. All aquatic life in the pond could suffer from anoxia, the water will probably also have a noxious hydrogen sulphide smell.
The situation described above is perhaps an extreme, however all ponds and lakes will proceed through the cycle to varying degrees of severity. In order to avoid these extremes the pond has to be brought into biological equilibrium. There are several routes by which the equilibrium can be restored;
| Routes to restore equilibrium | Techniques employed to achieve the task |
| Reduce nutrient input | difficult to accomplish, actively prevent nutrient input from streams and run-off. |
| Actively remove nutrients, usually in the form of plans and algae. | cutting and removal of plants, mechanical filtration of the the water using conveyor filter |
| Improve the ability of the pond to process nutrient input | 1. Aeration 2. Ammosorb 3. Biofiltration 4. AFM pressure filtration 5. UVc disinfection |
Ammosorb
Ammosorb is a natural zeolitic mineral similar in appearance to sand that has a high selectivity for ammonia, when ammosorb is added to water it will immediately absorb ammonium nitrogen from the water and thereby reduce the nutrient loading to the pond. The ammosorb also acts as the perfect support media for beneficial nitrifying bacteria. These bacterial actively extract the ammonia from the zeolite and convert it to nitrate. The additon of ammosorb to the pond will therefore not reduce the nitrogen input to a pond but it will prevent high concentration of ammonia. In effect the ammosorb is acting as an ammonium buffer. By preventing high concentrations of ammonia, it prevents high concentrations of algae.
There is a second issue associated with ammosorb. The product will tend to promote a higher concentration of beneficial nitrifying bacteria in the water and pond sediment. These bacteria are the natural purifiers of water and it is important to have as high a concentration of this group as possible. The addition of ammosorb to the pond will therefore not prevent eutrophication, but they will increase the ability of the natural process that take place to cope with the high loads experienced by some ponds. Ammosorb may therefore be the solution to many ponds or in extreme cases it will help to minimise the impact of nutrient input.
