Technical and other Information - Aquatic Products

VIRESCO^TM AQUA, VIRESCO^TM KOI AND VIRESCO^TM DIGESTER

Background

The above mentioned Viresco^TM products form a family of three based on two different micro-organism mixtures.

Pack sizes for VirescoTM Aqua, VirescoTM Koi and VirescoTM Digester are: 5g, 10g and 25g which are sufficient for 3000 gallons, 6000 gallons and 15000 gallons respectively.

Viresco^TM Aqua was the first of the products to be launched in Autumn 1997. Viresco^TM Koi was launched in Spring 2000 and Viresco^TM Digester, in Summer 2001.

Viresco^TM Koi contains 100% of the nutrient remover whilst Viresco^TM Digester contains 100% of the organic waste remover.
  

Composition and Shelf Life

The products are all dry powders with unlimited shelf life. They are micro-organism based with the freeze dried micro-organisms being carried on fine particles of bran. The remainder of the product consists of support materials which, when added to water, dissolve to provide a food source for the microbes as they come back to life.
 

The food supply is usually there in the form of nitrate and phosphate. However, in practice, the effectiveness of the microbes reduces over time so the advice is to supplement the numbers by introducing maintenance doses.

Nitrate will be taken down to zero when either Viresco^TM Aqua or Viresco^TM Koi is used and when this happens, algae, in whatever form, will die from starvation. Phosphate will also be reduced but from tests carried out, phosphate never drops to zero. However, whilst algae needs both phosphate and nitrate to grow, nitrate at zero is enough to cause death.

Viresco^TM Aqua and Viresco^TM Koi are available in 5g, 10g, and 25g packs. These will treat volumes of water as follows:

Usually one application is enough to reduce the nitrate level to zero and maintain it at that level for a number of weeks or months. Many customers make one application and then are free from blanketweed for more than one year. Others require more than one application. The pondkeeper is advised to check nitrate levels on a regular basis, say, once or twice per week to see how the Viresco is reducing nitrate. Many people see nitrate moving to zero in less than a week: for others it takes a few weeks to reach zero. We suggest that, if little perceptible change is observed within, say, three weeks, another dose or part dose should be used. We would suggest that the pondkeeper considers the application of maintenance doses. However, we do not wish to recommend specific amounts at specific times. Our microbes do lose some of their viability over time as each generation of new ones succeeds the previous. It is therefore worthwhile using a nitrate test as an indicator of when more product might need to be applied.

However, every pond is different and each pondkeeper will do things differently. One customer decided to double dose with Viresco^TM Koi to begin with and then to put in half a dose every two weeks. This turns out to be a successful method for him.
 

Where Ponds are Overstocked with Fish

Many pondkeepers as they design and build their ponds decide to include a filter system that is far larger than the water volume in the pond requires. For example, they will build a pond that is, say, 1000 gallons and add a filter that adequately cope with, say, 4000 gallons of pondwater. One consequence of this is the introduction of ever increasing numbers of fish as the pondkeeper knows that the extra ammonia excrement arising from the overstocking in the particular volume of water can be adequately dealt with by the larger than necessary filter.

In addition, some pondkeepers will be “more than generous” when they feed their fish. This again will increase the ammonia excreted into the pond from the gills and anuses of their fish. The larger than required filter can deal satisfactorily with this extra ammonia waste.

These two aspects, overstocking and overfeeding, do have an influence on the amount of Viresco™ that should be used in these particular cases. Our recommended usage rates are based on water volumes where the input of nitrate from the filter is not excessive. As a guideline, our usage rates relate to fish density levels of up to about 60 inches of fish length per 1000 gallons of water. This is equivalent to about 35cm of fish per 1000 litres of water. Also, a moderate feeding regime is implied with this.

However, where pondkeepers are overstocking and/or overfeeding because they know their extra filter capacity can cope, they should use larger doses of our Viresco™ products.
 

Organic Waste Digestion The presence of dead organic waste matter in ponds can cause nutrient imbalance and pH problems as it rots down. The 50% waste digesting component in VirescoTM Aqua will break down this detritus. This controlled biodegradation also rapidly reduces the source organic material that is providing soluble nutrient in an aquatic system. Our VirescoTM Digester, containing 100% of the waste remover, will remove organic waste quicker than will VirescoTM Aqua.

Flat packs of VirescoTM Aqua

  
Some Facts and Figures

Application Procedures

It is recommended that the Viresco™ products are dissolved in a small amount of pondwater, left for a few hours and then bulked up with more pondwater before being added direct to the water in different places around the pond. Ideally the powder should be mixed in the morning, left with an airstone and introduced into the pond in the evening. Intermittent use of an egg whisk can be made if an airstone is not available.

It is important to keep the mixture in a shaded place indoors. This is because the UV radiation from daylight could damage some of the bacteria in our products.
 

Health of Fish
 
Viresco^TM Aqua was initially formulated to improve the health, growth and disease resistance of fish on commercial fish farms. That it also suppressed blanketweed and other algae turned out to be a bonus. When the Viresco™ products are used, the health and growth of fish improve. Fish become more lively and will eat more. Disease incidence is reduced. This arises in two ways. When Viresco^TM is used in pondwater, the microbes that it contains compete for both food and space with other microbes that are naturally present in the pondwater. These other micro-organisms, some of which could form bacterial or fungal diseases on the fish, are not allowed to become predominant and form the disease. Exactly the same principle is followed in the plant world where the microbes in the relevant Viresco™ products compete with pathogenic microbes in the soil or on the plant and do not allow the disease to show.

  
A Tale of One Customer
 
At our first Koi Show at the end of May 2001, we sold a pack of Viresco^TM Koi to a pondkeeper. Exactly 7 days later, she rang to say our product was "absolutely marvellous". She is a keen exhibitor of koi and told us she had been trying for years to reduce the level of nitrate in the water in her pond to zero. Whilst she had a relatively small amount of blanketweed present, her prime aim was to address the nitrate problem but never had been able to take it much below 20ppm. She wanted nitrate at zero because she knew her fish would be "happier". With its reduction to zero, she realised any blanketweed would starve to death. When she rang, she said in the 7 days, the pond nitrate had dropped from about 30ppm to zero.

We met her again at another show 3 weeks after the phone call. She stated that the nitrate reading was still zero and her fish "were different creatures". They were very lively and would eat virtually anything. She added that one of her koi had been suffering from body damage and had "a hole in its side". She had been bringing in the local medical expert on a weekly basis to treat it, but the sore would not heal. However, within a short time of applying the Viresco^TM, the hole had healed up and disappeared.

Her husband, on deciding to buy another pack of Viresco^TM for £39.00 at the Show, said he would have been happy to pay double that amount! He also said that for the first time since they had set up the pond, he was able to see both the colour of the brushes in the filter and to the bottom of the chamber in which the brushes were positioned. Our product had removed the green slimy algae that was always present in that part of the filter.
 

Safety of the Viresco^TM Aquatic Products

The Viresco^TM aquatic products are completely safe for use in fish ponds. The first product was formulated for use on commercial fish farms to improve the growth, health and disease resistance of the fish. Its presence in the water was also shown to improve the healing of any wounds on the fish. Understandably, there is no problem using aquatic Viresco^TM where other aquatic life is present, eg newts, frogs, or where pets might drink the pondwater.

One interesting example of the use of Viresco^TM Aqua is in a swimming pool at a holiday complex in The Gambia. The owners of the Footsteps Eco-Lodge at Gunjur in that country aim to use environmentally friendly products whenever possible. They wanted an alternative to using chlorine in the swimming pool. In April 2004, a consultant to the Eco-Lodge recommended our Viresco^TM Aqua as this alternative. The feedback given to us since is that it has been a complete success. A couple of photographs of the pool are shown on this page. Further information about the Footsteps Eco-Lodge can be obtained from their website www.natureswaygambia.com

VIRESCO™ AQUARIUM Background In July 1999 we sold a pack of Viresco™ Aqua to a koi keeper who has pond with a glass viewing plate 7ft 6in by 4ft 2in. Five days later he rang to say he had put the Viresco™ into his pond in the evening of the day of purchase. He told us that he normally had to wipe down the glass plate every day to clear it of algae bloom. The day after he applied the Viresco™, there were no algae sticking to the glass. When he rang, five days on, he still had not cleaned the glass plate.

Our Viresco™ would not have reduced nitrate in the pond to zero in one day. Thus the algae were still present but were not sticking to the glass. We believe that microbes in our Viresco™ product were taking up positions on the glass preferentially and preventing the algae bloom from adhering.

We concluded that there would therefore be a demand for our type of Viresco™ product in the aquarium world where the continuous build-up of algae on the glass can be a major cause of frustration and maintenance.

Foot-note – Five years on, the koi keeper with the glass viewing plate continues to use Viresco™ and he still has no need to wipe down the glass.

Launch of Viresco™ Aquarium

For many months we considered how to present and market a Viresco™ microbial product suitable for use in aquariums. When 5g (about 2 teaspoonsful) of Viresco™ Aqua will treat 3,000 gallons (13,600 litres) of pondwater, how can a product that will treat say 10 gallons (45 litres) be packed and presented. We initially considered “bulking up” the Viresco™ product with a suitable powdered material but eventually decided to “pack it down”. In early 2003, we brought out Viresco™ packed in gelatine based soluble capsules. Each 0.21ml capsule of Viresco™ Aquarium will treat 10 to 15 gallons (45 to 70 litres) of water in cold water and tropical aquariums.

During the second half of year 2002, Viresco™ Aquarium was trialled by a number of people. One of these was Simon Wolstencroft, the editor of “Tropical Fish” magazine. In the February issue of the magazine, he reported the results of his three months trial that ended in late December 2002. The nitrate reading before the application of Viresco™ was 25mg/litre (ppm) and, 10 days after the application of the Viresco™, it had halved. Within one month it had dropped to zero. Simon stated:
“Furthermore, in almost three months of continuous use, the front glass of the aquarium has not needed to be cleaned of algae, and there has been a considerable reduction in sludge. Our verdict: We can’t quite figure out how this product works but work it does. An absolute essential for freshwater fishkeepers.”

Click here to read the article from “Tropical Fish”

The capsules of Viresco™ Aquarium are sold in packs of 10, 25 and 50 capsules.

One major aquarium manufacturer has bought just under 1,000,000 of these capsules from us in approximately 2 years. They are inserting either 1, 2 or 3 capsules into a filter sponge that goes out with every aquarium. The number of capsules depends on the size of each aquarium. These sponges are called nitrate removing sponges.
 

VIRESCOTM FILTER-START   We sell a microbial product for the introduction of bacteria into pond filters to speed up the conversion of ammonia to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate. We sell a pack of 25g of VirescoTM Filter-Start which will treat filters in ponds of around 2000 gallons or 9000 litres.

MICROBOOST
 
One of the ingredients in all the Viresco^TM products is soluble Humate in the form of a potassium salt. This is made from granular Humate, a naturally occurring material that is 70% organic and 30% mineral (montmorillonite clay). Humate is a very good food source for micro-organisms and the granular material, in particular, gives a tremendous boost to microbial numbers. It is therefore advisable to introduce some of this material into the pondwater. Microboost is coarse grade granular Humate which also contains some Viresco^TM Aqua. Microboost is only partially soluble and breaks down slowly over time by the action of micro-organisms. Where there are no bottom drains or the use of vacuums, Microboost should be thrown into the bottom of the pond. Alternatively, it should be placed into the filter, contained in an appropriate mesh bag. The 100g pack will treat about 4000 gallons (18200 litres) of pond water.