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credit Eddee Daniel/awealthofnature.org

Grow Fish Instead of Algae

Managing your pond or lake with BioHaven Floating Islands or RAM promotes a healthy food web that soon becomes a thriving fishery instead of a carpet of algae.

Floating Islands are about allowing nature to do things her way. With a little support from you, your pond will reward you with more clarity, more life, more dragonflies and damsel flies, more chirping frogs and more healthy fish – and much less of the unwanted stuff. 

With BioHaven Floating Islands as your natural water stewardship ally, you can:

  • Provide secure and healthy habitat for fish, insects, pollinators, and birds 

  • Limit algae in ponds and lakes

  • Grow fish, including giant bass, boss bluegill, crappie, minnows, for hook and harvest in a wild fish pond habitat 

  • Improve water clarity and shade out underwater weeds

  • Facilitate cost-effective mosquito and midge control 

Increase Fish Population with Biomimicry.

Mimicking nature’s own solution, BioHavens are beautiful and functional wetlands that cycle valuable but misplaced nutrients into beneficial plant mass and into fish instead of algae. 
 
This is how it happens: the Floating Island system is holistic in improving overall water quality, as well as reducing greenhouse gas emissions (yes, unhealthy water is a source of methane).   Combining the benefits of aeration, high-volume waterflows, and the massive surface area of the BioHaven matrix, we (nature and us) convert nutrients and aquatic methane – as a carbon and energy source – into biomass.  The fishery is born and aquatic diversity thrives.   Like we said, we convert algae into fish. 
 
This is what biomass looks like : The green material is periphyton. It is what develops when individual microbes find a surface area to grow on and multiply. (next photo) This is what grows inside the biofilm:  it’s a jungle of macro-invertebrates and insects that fish will graze on.   The small fish are eaten by the bigger fish and so on up the food chain. At every level, the web is removing nutrients from the water – such as phosphorus and nitrogen – to support the growth of the living organisms… before it can turn into algae. 

BioHaven Floating Islands are Versatile

  • BioHaven Floating Islands can be grouped together or launched singly to add beauty and wetland function to any pond or lake
  • BioHavens can be customized to create any desired habitat for aquatic life, pollinators, birds, wildlife or plants
  • Islands can serve as a swimming platform or kayak dock
  • They can function as both Fish Aggregation Device (a place to grow fish!) and fishing platform
  • BioHavens protect shorelines from the wave impact of boating and other water sports
  • A BioHaven can be solar powered to generate local energy or power water circulation (like a solar-powered NanoHaven)
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Fix Your Pond. Fish Your Pond.

Bruce Kania has a saying: “You don’t fix your pond in order to resurrect the food web: you resurrect the food web in order to fix your pond.”
 
Focusing on fish is a great way to improve pond and lake health; if fish have everything they need, so does the pond ecosystem. BioHaven kick-starts the recovery.  From microbes to large bass, the ecosystem establishes itself step by step.  First, biofilm, which is the base of periphyton and is a magnet for tiny particles, so the first thing you’ll notice is better water clarity.  This lets in more sunlight which enables aquatic plants to release more oxygen, benefiting all air-breathers, from crawfish to tadpoles (and, of course, fish).  

Soon the pond is thriving, buzzing with insect life – pollinators, water cleaners and fish food. If the pond is struggling to maintain oxygen levels by itself, this is where RAM comes in. RAM keeps the water circulating and keeps the oxygen levels just right from top to bottom. The “good” bacteria, the ones that eat methane and devour sludge, love oxygen.  The system is in balance.

Here’s a final thought. Consider the benefits of catching and keeping your fish! While they are alive, fish are consumers of phosphorus, taking it out of the water for their own cell growth. But when the fish dies – say it’s a 4lb. bass – all that phosphorus returns to the water and needs to be broken down by microbes, increasing the demand for oxygen. This can put the pond at risk. Sometimes we feel guilty about keeping fish but it pays to remember your pond will thank you for it in the long run.

Be a Part of the
Change, Starting
with our Water

Whether you have questions about our technology, need support, or want to share your feedback, our dedicated team is here to assist you every step of the way.

Email
info@floatingislandinternational.com

Phone
+1 406.373.5200

Location
Shepherd, MT

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