#24: RidgeView Animal Sanctuary PermaCycler Install: Capture Sediment and Nutrients

Hi All!  Ridgeview Animal Sanctuary just got a refurbished solar powered wetland in a box (PermaCycler Mk307) to clean their pond, increase biodiversity, reverse pond siltation, act as a perpetual vernal pond for amphibians, and provide additional food and O2 during the winter.

This is the first system that has allowed us to combine solar, DC pumping, recirculation at large scale, an outdoor waterbody that isn’t impacted by acid mine drainage site (which makes things easier and opens up pumping), rain garden functions, and a habitable perpetual vernal pond.

Little background:  Andrew Gentry, one of our newest account managers, has a 8500 gallon pond on RidgeView Animal Sanctuary that was in need of some love.  Silt and runoff was gathering in the pond and reducing depth and clarity.

While this is a totally natural process, it also reduces useable volume and habitat for stocked and natural critters.

Also, its a lot more inviting to a swim when you can see a deep water column and lots of fish swimming about.  So, as part of a team building and marketing exercise, we installed a refurbished MRU from an old mine site job, hooked it up to a DC pump with PV panel provided by Ground Hog Solar, and watched it rip.

Average flow under full sun is about 20 gpm with about 1-5 gpm ground water seeping in most of the year from the rain gutters.  Water also collects from a large natural swale.  For that size PermaCycler with that setup best flow rate is 50-65gpm, so we’ll be adding another panel and looking for a beefier pump to get us there.  The system cycles all of the water in the pond about once a day.

We aren’t done yet, cuz Gordo the pot belly pig also needs his new barn and pen.

We’ve are going to landscape and finish burying the PermaCycler to give it added freeze protection, increased aesthetics, and allow for critters to easily get in and out (frog ladders).

If you have a pond that you have dyed blue to reduce algae, dumped in copper sulfate (algaecide) but want to water you yard with high quality compost tea, or need a safe place for your pond critters to harbor over hard winters, a PermaCycler married to a Lake or Pond, ran on solar power, is the perfect system for you…

Special thanks go to Rich Flarend with Ground Hog Solar and Mike Crawford of RidgeView Animal Sanctuary.

I’m taking votes on who wants Gordon the pot belly pig as our mascot! Let me know!