Improved irrigation pond water quality helps wildlife and improves turf

Remuera Golf Club

New Zealand

Written by: Spencer Cooper

After years of testing, we found that our water supply (discarded water from a nearby quarry) was consistently poor quality due to low dissolved oxygen levels. The low oxygen levels of the water resulted in putrefacation and Alga blooms in our ponds. This also negatively impacted our soil/turf health through summer and resulted, lower uptake of nutrients by the turf and significantly increased turf disease pressure.

We recently installed Nano Bubble Technology (NBT) in our irrigation storage pond to address this problem. It works by pumping oxygen into the water at the bottom of the pond through diffusers which create microscopic bubbles that oxygenate the water while moving up through the water column. This is good for aerobic lifeforms such as fish and kills off anaerobic pathogens which are harmful to the environment and turf such as Pythium etc.

This also creates a current in the pond which prevents water temperature stratification which can lead to further Anaerobic conditions and keeps the water cool. Overall we have seen a great improvement in our turf quality, and fish and bird life has improved while using fewer fungicides and fertilizer. It runs on renewable electricity.

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