AquaBio ::
Floating Islands & Floating Treatment Wetlands - Biomimetic Bio-Reactors for your site. Floating Islands were inspired by Nature, in particular, by the floating peat bogs of Northern Wisconsin, which are associated with clean water and great fishing. Using Nature to cleanse Nature is a form of Biomimetics.
Floating Islands & Floating Treatment Wetlands
Floating islands are buoyant mats, planted like a garden and launched onto a waterway. They are made from a matrix of fibers which look like a pot-scrub or loofah. The matrix is water filtration material made from 100% recycled plastic, from drink bottles, which use the most inert plastic available. Layers of matrix are bonded together with foam, which also provides buoyancy.
They can be made in virtually any shape or size. Large islands and walkways are constructed using a modular system, reinforced for extra buoyancy, yet flexible enough to move with the water.
Floating islands can be launched into any waterway, be it pond, lake, stream, effluent pond, lagoon, embayment - any waterway will benefit from a floating island, even the ocean.
They are usually anchored or tethered in place, though they can be left to float around freely.
Floating islands used in conjuction
with AquaBio's site-specific microbial products provide
Floating Islands do five things:
1. They remove pollutants from a waterway, including nitrates, phosphates, ammonia and heavy metals
2. They provide critical riparian edge habitat - in fact, new land mass for use by all kinds of creatures, from microbes to humans
3. They sequester carbon and other greenhouse gases
4. They provide wave mitigation and erosion control
5. They beautify a waterscape
Floating Islands are planted with sod, garden plants or wetland plants and launched onto a water body.
There the plants are allowed to grow naturally, and, as they develop, their roots grow through the matrix and into the water below. Over time, a natural eco-system evolves. The model for this is Nature herself - Floating Islands "bio-mimic" Nature. We are part of a new branch of science, Biomimicry, or Biomimetics.
Floating Islands, and the plants that grow through them, provide surface area for microbes to thrive. Microbes remove pollutants of all kinds, from the nutrients caused by fertilizer run-off and organic waste, to pharmaceuticals such as estrogen, to heavy metals, such as copper and zinc.
Floating Islands are a concentrated floating wetland - the huge surface area of fibers provides many times more surface area than an equivalent stretch of bare wetland. Surface area is the key factor for microbial activity to take place, and microbes (bacteria) are the key to removing contaminants from the water.
When used in conjunction with AquaBio's micro-organic degraders contaminant removal is exponentially increased.
Plants and their roots are also important, but more for the extra surface area the roots provide than for any nutrient uptake the plants themselves account for.
Floating Islands were invented eight years ago, have been successfully trialed for five years and have been on the market since July 2005.
(Click on the image at left to enlarge.)
They represent a natural, convenient and cost-effective solution for some of the most intractable and expensive problems on the planet:
Polishing wastewater and storm water of nutrients and heavy metals to return it safely to the watershed.
Sequestering carbon dioxide and methane from effluent ponds to reduce global warming
Wave mitigation and protection of levees in the event of severe storms
Extraction of salt
Mining nutrient loads from any waterway and reducing algal blooms
Restoring wetlands without the need for new land
Restoring habitat for endangered species such as the trumpeter swan.
They can be made in any shape and size and offer some fun uses to balance the more serious side:
Creating walkways, piers, docks, jetties
Supporting recreational uses, such as picnic tables, floating stages, gazebos?
Floating vegetable gardens which never need watering!
Restoring a natural look and balance to any waterway of any size
New land mass for human habitation.
Not only are they natural, aesthetic and functional, they are cost-effective, "green" and virtually maintenance free
Access the AquaBioStore, browse and purchase from our full line of remediation and restoration solutions engineered for direct online purchasing.
Effective & Economical Aeration
Vertex bottom aeration systems provide a beneficial and cost effective method of improving both the water quality of your lake and its overall health.
Designed to be both efficient and cost effective for our customers, Vertex aeration systems can aerate up to an 18 acre lake with as little as 2/3hp! Very low monthly operation costs, low maintenance (self-cleaning diffusers), and no potentially dangerous electricity in the water ... the perfect aeration system!
Want to know more about bioremediation, biomimcry, and how your site can benefit. Visit the AquaBio Resource Center for site diagnositc forms, knowledgebase articles, educational information, and links to in-depth information.
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