Technical Information
Viresco™ is the name we give to a number of different micro-organism based products that are used in aquatics and horticulture. These products are all dry soluble powders which have unlimited shelf life if kept dry. The products are usually applied in solution. These powders also contain nutrients for the microbes as they come back to life from their dormant state. One of these nutrients is soluble Humate.
For the aquatic market, we sell Viresco™ products that take out of water nutrients that are the food source for filamentous algae and algae bloom (green water). Consequently the algae dies of starvation. Some Viresco™ products contain microbes that digest organic waste.
This biodigestion is very efficient and very readily cleans up the sides and bottoms of ponds as well as the filters. Filamentous algae is also called blanketweed, string algae and silkweed in different parts of the world. These aquatic Viresco™ products also improve the health, growth and disease resistance of pond fish. |
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Technical Information about Viresco™ Aqua, Viresco™ Koi and Viresco™ Digester
The above mentioned Viresco™ products form a family of three based on two different micro-organism mixtures.
Pack
sizes for Viresco™ Aqua,
Viresco™ Koi
and Viresco™ Digester are:
5g, 10g and 25g which are sufficient for 3000
gallons, 6000 gallons
and 15000 gallons respectively.
Viresco™ Aqua was the first of the products to be launched in Autumn 1997. Viresco™ Koi was launched in Spring 2000 and Viresco™ Digester, in Summer 2001.
Viresco™ Aqua is a 50:50 mix of two groups of microbial based products.
One group contains microbes that reduce the nutrients - particularly
nitrate and phosphate - on which algae live. The algae - as
algae bloom (pea soup algae or green water) or blanketweed
(string algae or curly weed) - then die of starvation. The
other portion of the mixture contains microbes that digest
organic waste on the bottoms and sides of ponds as well as
in the filters. |
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Viresco™ Koi contains mostly nutrient remover whilst Viresco™ Digester contains mostly 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.
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Application Rates and Frequency
of Use Small amounts of the Viresco™ products are used to treat relatively large volumes of water although the usage rates given are only indicative. Some pondkeepers do need to use more than the recommended usage rate and we do recommend the regular addition of maintenance doses of the products. In theory, the micro-organisms contained in the Viresco™ products should last indefinitely in a pond as long as there is a continuous supply of food. |
Which
of the three products should be used? Viresco™ Aqua should be used to control blanketweed and green water in all other ponds. These will frequently have no bottom drains and the use of vacuums is infrequent. Ponds with aquatic plants should be treated with Viresco™ Aqua. Viresco™ Digester should be used when the organic waste in the pond is excessive and for dealing with specific problems, eg a build up of organic matter in under gravel filters and also in sand filters where the microbes will remove the build up of fats and protein on the surface of the sand particles. |
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™ Aqua or Viresco™ 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 prevent growth.
