Biodegradation of Organic Sediments - Muck Removal for Clean Lake Bottom
Large build-ups of organic sediment
or muck are commonplace in many water bodies. This is the result
of years of nutrients and organic matter entering the water.
Runoff containing fertilizers, grass clippings, leaves, animal
waste, septic waste, etc. contributes the majority of this
organic material, but aquatic weeds, algae, dust, pollen, and
fish and waterfowl droppings are also contributors. Muck removal
is the foremost and necessary step towards a clean lake bottom
or pond bottom.
When oxygen is depleted in a water body, anaerobic bacteria
partially break down the sediment. In the process, they expel
hydrogen sulfide. Hydrogen sulfide is the rotten egg smell
present when you stir up the muck in most lakes or ponds. The
cause of the odor is a lack of oxygen. Hydrogen sulfide is not
only highly toxic to aerobic bacteria; hydrogen sulfide is also
toxic to insects, and is toxic to fish at levels of 0.3 mg/l (a
very low amount). The anaerobic bacteria also release ammonia
into the water column. Ammonia feeds weeds and algae, and is
toxic to fish at levels greater than 3.0 mg/l. Also released are
methane, nitrogen gas and carbon dioxide. These also are toxic
to aerobic bacteria, insects and fish. Carbon dioxide and
methane kill fish at levels greater than 30 mg/l. So the causes
of organic sediment (muck) accumulation, unpleasant odor and
fish kills in lakes are a lack of oxygen and high levels of
toxic gases.
The presence of muck or a rotten egg smell is sure signs that
the bottom is lacking in oxygen and the lake bottom needs muck
removal. Bottom oxygen tests may show that the bottom is
oxygenated. But these tests are usually made during the day,
when aquatic plants are putting oxygen into the water. Bottom
oxygen tests in the middle of the night may show no oxygen
because plants take up oxygen during the night. Lack of oxygen
also depends on the time of year. Just a few hours without
oxygen is enough to kill the beneficial bacteria and insects
that feed on organic muck. These bacteria play a major part in
muck removal.
If oxygen is present throughout the water column at all times,
beneficial aerobic microorganisms and insects feed on the
organic sediment which will surely result in the form of a clean
lake bottom. It is similar way on which bacteria and insects
feeding on compost. The bacteria feed on the organic sediment,
and the insects feed on either the bacteria or the muck, or
both. Bacteria are high protein food for insects. The bacteria
convert organic sediment into carbon dioxide and water and a
microscopic amount of inorganic “ash”. In this process, the
bacteria exude an enzyme to soften the tough walls of the
cellulose cells. CLEAN-FLO accelerates this process for the sake
of muck removal by adding our natural vegetable enzyme,
CLEAN & CLEAR.
As the organic sediment disappears, it becomes a food source for
fish. Insects are an excellent food for fish. One pound of
phosphorus from the sediment can make up to two tons of weeds,
or one pound of phosphorus can make up to eighty pounds of fish.
It depends on whether the phosphorus has been moved up the food
chain from muck to bacteria to insects to fish, or whether the
phosphorus simply re-dissolves back into the water column where
it can be used again by weeds and /or algae.
Just as waste treatment plants
seed sewage treatment lagoons with microorganisms to decompose
and reduce sludge, CLEAN-FLO seeds water bodies with a special
formulation called
C-FLO Living Organisms. C-FLO has been exposed
repeatedly for muck removal and for reducing organic sediment.
Sonar graphs by Virgil Muller, PE, of Muller Engineering in
Minneapolis showed an average of 4 inches muck removal per month
in Highland Lake, Anoka County. Horizontally muck removal from
the shoreline averaged 4.7 feet in 14 months using the
CLEAN-FLO
Continuous Laminar Flow Inversion / Oxygenation System
and our C-FLO living organisms.
Click
here to read the case study.
Aquatic biologists and consultants have performed numerous
studies and have found muck removal in every case. One test
showed a muck removal case of up to depth of 36.9 inches in one
year. Our own tests on many lakes have shown muck removal of
about ten feet from the shoreline each year, leaving clean lake
bottom, and lakes deepened 2 - 5 feet over a five-year period.
Click here to read
the case study.
Although dredging can deepen a lake, making it more difficult
for submerged vegetation to grow, dredging does nothing for
water quality, nothing for algae, little to reduce odor and
nothing to prevent fish kills or improve fish health and growth
and unable to make clean lake bottom. The combination of the
CLEAN-FLO Continuous Laminar Flow Inversion / Oxygenation System
and our natural C-FLO living organisms and Clean & Clear natural
vegetable enzymes are very effective for muck removal and surely
improve all of these aspects, for far less expense and
inconvenience.
For sand, silt and all but organic sediment, dredging is the
best and only method. We know of no other method of getting rid
of inorganic sediment than dredging. Yet, according to the USEPA,
dredging does nothing to improve water or fish quality and to
clean lake bottom. On the contrary, it mixes phosphorus and
nitrogen and other pollutants from the muck into the water
column. Dredging does nothing to reduce algae. For these
reasons, the EPA has issued criteria for dredge water that is
re-introduced into lakes, to limit the amount of pollutants that
mix with lake surface waters. Researchers have found that to
limit the re-introduced pollutants to only ammonia and manganese
(two of over thirty water pollutants), it is necessary that the
dredged water be oxygenated (G. Fred Lee, et al).
C-FLO
Phosphorous, nitrogen and cellulose - feeders consume bottom organic
sediment, while insects feed on the micro-organisms and fish feed on the
insects. Muck disappears while fish thrive on natural food.
CLEAN & CLEARTM
CLEAN & CLEARTM CONCENTRATED ENZYMES is a special blend of
non-toxic enzymes from nature that acts as a catalyst to biodegrade
non-living organic matter and reduces available nutrients in the water, thus
improving water quality.
Improve lake fishing and improve water chemistry using natural
lake processes.
When is the best time to start?
Read about Lake Amoeba
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Muck removal is an important benefit obtained with the CLEAN-FLO system.
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