Biostim Pellets provide a cost-effective, non-invasive way to reduce sludge in dams. Sinking to the bottom, they stimulate beneficial bacteria to digest organic matter and nutrients, improving clarity and reducing algae, weeds, and odours. Regular dosing with aeration enhances results, offering an affordable alternative to expensive dredging or excavation.
Summary
Biostim Pellets Explained
You might have murky water, floating debris, or nasty sludge at the bottom of your dam. If you do, these can be tricky problems to solve — and expensive.
Fortunately, there are more cost-effective solutions than physical dredging. I want to talk to you about Biostim Pellets and why they’re a great solution to sludge and poor water clarity.
Sludge: What It Is, and Why It’s a Problem
Sludge is basically organic muck. In industrial wastewater sites, it’s full of all sorts of nasties — organics, chemicals, everything else that gets left behind. Hopefully, you don’t have anything like that at the bottom of your dam, but you probably do have something similar.
Anything organic that comes into your dam through runoff or animals — think leaves, duck crap — sinks to the bottom and forms a thick sludge. It degrades and becomes a nutrient-rich sediment. You might see it if you walk around your dam — you’ll kick it up and it’s like a cloud of mud and it stinks, too. You can’t actually grab it — it’s like sand running through your hands.
Sludge:
– Builds up over time
– Releases nutrients as it breaks down
– Creates foul odours
It’s very expensive to get rid of it. You need pumping equipment, dredging machinery, or excavators to come and scoop it all out. Those are very invasive… and very expensive. That’s why we recommend Biostim Pellets.
Biostim Pellets: What They Are and How They Work
Biostim Pellets were originally designed for the industrial wastewater treatment industry. Their problems are similar to yours, but with nastier stuff to get rid of. Biostim Pellets are much more cost-effective, much less invasive, and a much simpler solution to the problem of sludge than dredging or excavation.
Biostim Pellets are a stimulant that you chuck into the water. They sink straight down to the bottom and degrade the sludge — it basically digests it. That’s because the stimulants inside them encourage good bacteria to grow, and the good bacteria feed on the sludge. They use the material and digest it into carbon dioxide and water.
Since the sludge is very rich in nutrients, it’s a fertiliser for weeds and algae. But the good bacteria encouraged by Biostim Pellets also feed on the nutrients in sludge. So your long-term problems with algae and weeds become much less.
That means you can take your thick sludge and slowly, over time, reduce it, and hopefully completely eliminate the need for expensive dredging.
Targeted Treatment for Problem Areas
Biostim Pellets are great because you’re treating the bottom — it doesn’t really matter what’s happening with the water up above. If your dam is really deep or if you have an irrigation dam where the water runs through, that doesn’t matter. You’re treating the bottom, not the top. You can have as much water coming in and out of the dam as you want.
This also means you can treat areas locally. If you have a very large reservoir or you just don’t want to treat the entire dam, you can do that. You can:
– Treat only high-sludge areas
– Protect certain areas (irrigation suction points, floats)
– Prevent algae and weed buildup around pipework
– Help reduce blockages in pipes and sprinklers
Treatment Guidelines
Biostim Pellets are an economical treatment. They come in tubs, and the ongoing treatment dose is about 5 kilos per surface area. The exact rate depends on how much sludge has built up, whether your dam or water body is aerated, and how quickly you want results. We highly recommend aeration because it boosts the good bacteria even further by providing the good quality, oxygenated water they need to thrive.
Usually, you’re looking at a regular ongoing treatment until conditions improve. That’s generally a monthly treatment, but it can vary. We always recommend aerating your water, but especially when using Biostim: the bacteria work better when there’s oxygen in the water.
In your dam, you might find that you need to treat with a higher or lower dose, or more or less frequently. The key thing is that you keep doing it until things improve: you want to reduce that sludge.
Why Regular Dosing Matters
The bacteria that are already in the dam might not be thriving, but when you introduce this kind of stimulant, things change.
We think of it like taking your kids to a birthday party. They go in normal, they get loaded up with birthday cake, soft drinks, and sugar, and then they go mad for a while. But eventually they come out of the party and have a sugar crash. That’s basically what’s happening with your bacteria: they do a lot of work and then calm down. Unlike your kids, you want them to keep going — so we treat them again.
This is a biological process, and it takes time — just like it took time to build up the sludge in the first place.
A Cost-Saving Solution for Dam Owners
Biostim Pellets are a great way to prevent and even eliminate the need for costly mechanical sludge removal. They reduce sludge, deal with algae and weeds, reduce bad odours, and lead to cleaner, clearer water.
We think they’re just a really great product to use. They save money, help with maintenance, and they’re easy to use.
Ready for Biostim? Contact Us
If you’re ready for Biostim treatments or want to explore the benefits of aeration, contact us. We’re always happy to assess, answer questions, and help design systems and treatments that work for you.
