New Products

IonGen Pond Ionizer – What Does It Do?

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IonGen G2

There was a time when about the only way you were going to stop algae from taking over a pond is to add more of the plants that you actually liked in order to try to choke the unwanted stuff out.  This isn’t such a bad way to go of course, after all it’s worked ever since people started to try and manage a pond.

As the years passed, as often happens with an adventurous and industrious group of deep thinkers, someone tossed some barley in a pond and that helped some too.  Maybe mix in a bit of lavender and you’ve got yourself some algae control.

Ah, the good old days.

Today however, technology will have a part to play, not only in our lives (think iPad) but also in our ponds.  And one of the newer pond algae control devices is called the IonGen.  In this article I’ll attempt to explain what it does, how it works, and why it’s useful in a battle against algae.  Oh, and I’ll through in a few tips on how to use it safely too.

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Introducing Our New Points On Purchase Rewards Program

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Rewards program

As a small business owner I can tell you point blank, that we would be nothing without our customers.  And thankfully we have a lot of very loyal, regular customers who use our products in their ponds.

With this in mind, over the last year or so, we’ve upgraded our online shopping cart system and while it was quite an effort, we’ve worked out virtually all the major bugs and since that’s been accomplished, we’re now moving on to something that will be a sort of “payback” to all of you who have worked with us over the years.

I’ve been wanting to do a customer loyalty, or rewards program for some time and within the next few weeks, this program will become a reality.  So with every purchase you make, with every dollar spent, you’ll be able to accrue points that can be redeemed in future purchases and it’s the best way we know to help you save more when caring for you pond!

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Lavender And Barley Straw In Ponds

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A few weeks ago I talked about the history and research behind the use of barley straw for stopping pond algae growth. In truth, many people ask about barley, and a number of other folks claim to use it regularly in their ponds to help keep them clearer. There’s no doubt that for some situations it works pretty well and of course, it’s natural which is also desirable.

lavender barley straw But this particular article has come about because I’ve been reminded once again, after at least a few comments each season, that people are effectively using lavender sprigs or straw and this appears to help with algae restriction too.

So what’s up with that?

I love lavender and I’m not afraid to say so. You’ll find the stuff in just about everything these days, from essential oils to perfumes, but many people would rightly ask, what does this have to do with pond algae at all? Well this started, like many things I think where people get so desperate that they try whatever they have on hand to produce a remedy. Even going back years ago, a woman wrote to me with a story outlining her success by using several lavender stalks in her small pond. Word of mouth was that it could help, she tried it, and sure enough, the algae went away!

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New PondBiotix Small Pond Combo Pack Offer

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We’ve been getting a lot of questions about using our PondBiotix line of pond bacteria. As you might know the baseline product for small ponds is a concentrated liquid bacteria which is particular good at nitrite and nitrate reduction and we consider this good for pond wide cleaning. However customers have been asking about the … Read more

The Effortless Bird Feeder

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Now I know that most of our discussions hear revolve around ponds and pond algae. But I don’t want you to think that I’m obsessed with it. Well OK, maybe I am obsessed with algae, but I have other interests too! Seriously though, things have slowed down a bit in the realm of pond algae … Read more

Geese, Geese Go Away

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Last weekend the weather here in Iowa was quite nice. I really enjoy taking my old dog on a long walk around a local nature preserve and recreational area. Normally we have a pretty good time.

On this particular day I noticed something that was a bit out of the ordinary for this place. There’s a one acre lake there that’s a popular little fishing hole for a lot of locals and most days it’s crystal clear and looking great. The grounds are normally kept very clean, but not today.

I don’t really want to complain about nature…it’s not in my mindset, but let’s face it, when geese get over populated on a small pond they can create quite a mess. There was goose crap everywhere. My dog loved it…me, not so much.

During the fall around many parts of the country, non-resident geese will migrate through, or set up winter shop in local ponds around here. It’s probably the same where you are. They also like to hang out on the Mississippi River, which is only a mile or so from the pond being mentioned here. My point being that they have a lot of options when it comes to taking up a temporary residence.

So a question came to mind, how can you safely (for the geese) deter them from hanging around so much in a particular pond? This obviously is not for people who like to have them around (I generally do), but in some cases, and in large numbers, they can cause problems.

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