Jeremy Grubaugh: Pond Champs Aquatic Manager

This week we will be introducing Jeremy Grubaugh.  Jeremy is our Aquatic Manager and is the head of our service side, Pond Champs.

Pond Champs services ponds all over the Northeast Indiana area and Northwest Ohio.

Contact us today for a free quote!

20 Fun Facts you didn’t know about Jeremy:

1. Favorite food? Steak

2. If you were an animal, what would you be and why? Lion, rule the jungle

3. Goal you’d like to accomplish during your lifetime? To teach young people about values and responsibilities.

4. Favorite super hero and why? Punisher, justice is served

5. Who is your hero? Ronald Regan

6. Favorite summer time activity? Swimming

7. Favorite movie? Raiders of the Lost Ark

8. Favorite Ice Cream flavor? Chocolate

9. Favorite cartoon character and why? Bugs Bunny, very sharp and playful

10.If you could visit any place in the world, where would you choose to go? Hawaii

11. What’s your ideal dream job? Teaching in college

12. Are you a morning or night person? Night

13. Favorite hobbies? Collecting Knives

14. What are your pet peeves or interesting things about you that you dislike? Tendency to collect anything

15. Weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten? Squid

16. Name one of your favorite things about someone in your family? My wife’s cooking

17. Quirky habit of yours? Non-stop reading

18. Describe yourself in three words. Diligent, honest and hard working

19.Favorite authors?.Jeffrey Deaver, Stephen Hunter

20.Favorite color? Blue

Closed December 23rd-26th

Closed December 30th-January 2nd

Sanco’s holiday hours will be as follows:

Closed November 24th and 25th

Closed December 23rd -26th

Have a safe and happy holiday season!

The devastating fire at Momper Insulation is having adverse effects on close by water ways including Junk Ditch and the Saint Marys River.    Run-off water contaminated with cyanide found its way down a creek and into the Saint Marys River.  Many fish in that area died because of the cyanide.

Fort Wayne has since damned Junk Ditch and city leaders remind residence that our drinking water comes from the Saint Joe River.  The water will be removed from the ditch and filtered.  The amount of cyanide that actually entered the Saint Marys River is unknown but the Indiana Department of Environmental Management believe the impact is minimal.

As a specialty chemical company that largely focuses on aquatic maintenance products; Sanco wants to remind  pond owners and lake residence the effects they can have on the environment when they do not have complete control of your body of water.   If your body of water flows into a creek or other areas then you don’t have complete control of it.  You must take great caution when using aquatic maintenance products.  We recommend reading labels and consulting with local authorities before applications if you do not have control of your body of water.

For more information about Sanco’s pond products contact our helpful staff.

New Septic System Products:

Root Destroyer is a copper sulfate product used to breakdown and kill roots that have made their way into your sewer/septic lines.  Copper sulfate is absorbed through the roots and begins to soften and breakdown the roots within 3-4 weeks.  The slow absorption address the “root” problems without harming the overall health of the tree.

Septic Tank Cleaner is an all natural bacteria based product that will help maintian your septic tank by breaking down solids and preventing costly backups.  Simply pour this product down your toilet once a month.

For more information on our septic products contact our helpful staff.

His concern was if he could use some of our products with the bryozoans.

He sent us some pictures and our aquatic specialists addressed what the creatures are and how our products can still be used in ponds that sustain bryozoans.

Bryozoans are colonies of zooids that function together to outcompete other creatures for a similar food source.  They are filter feeders that are
not finicky in their feeding habits.  They filter the water and consume whatever microorganisms pass through their filter.  These may include bacteria
(both good and bad), protozoa, amoeba, planktonic algae, zoo plankton and the
spores or young of these various organisms.
They do not consume non-living wastes that pass through the filter; only living organisms are taken up as food.  It appears that they can only exist and thrive in oxygen rich and food rich environments.  They also require a fairly clean (no turbidity from clay/silt) water.  One other limiting factor would appear to be
depth.  A researcher noted that freshwater bryozoans were limited in his observation to around 6 feet of depth.

In light of these observations, First of all, bryozoans appear to be beneficial to removing unwanted organisms from the water, so elimination of them would likely be detrimental to the aquatic environment.  Secondly, yes they will
consume the spores from Natural Pond Cleaner if it is applied near them.  My suggestion would be to apply the product out in the deeper areas of the pond where there would be a less likely interaction between the bryozoans and the bacillus spores. In this manner, it would be a mutual benefit to keep and sustain these two colonies in order to maintain a healthy pond environment.

If you should require control of a growing bryozoans population, simply remove a few and dispose of them in the garbage.  However, the levels of colonial growth should adjust accordingly with the application of the Natural Pond Cleaner being made away from their location.

For all of you water-loving, pond swimming, lake going enthusiasts I have found the best children’s floatation device/life jacket.  I have a 19 month old little girl and we are always around the water in the summer.  It was very important to me to find a floatation device/life jacket that my daughter would wear and I felt comfortable letting her explore in the water a bit.  We have gone through 2 other floatation devices before I found this one.  The other devices either road up her neck and virtually choked her or they didn’t support her and she would end up face down in the water.

We tested the Puddle Jumper this past weekend in a pond and in the swimming pool.  The first good sign is that my daughter let me put the Puddle Jumper on her!  She seemed comfortable and could still play.  We then took her in the water.  We were all a little skeptical but after a brief while my daughter felt comfortable enough to un-cling from my side and float on her own.  At last a children’s floatation device that works both for mom and child!

We purchased our Puddle Jumper from Dick’s but I have seen them at many other stores like Meijer and Gander Mountain.

Cool Looking Algae- Hydrodictyon

A customer of ours from Wittenberg, WI was having trouble with a specific growth in his pond.  Based on his description of the growth, I was stumped as well so I had him take some pictures of the growth and send them in.  After receiving the pictures I was excited to show them to our aquatic specialist because it was something I had never seen!  Our aquatic specialist took one look and said, “Ohhh, that is a cool one…Hydrodictyon algae.” Because it is a tougher algae to control our customer was having little or no success with granular copper sulfate and we suggested a liquid copper sulfate.  Liquid copper sulfate has a much better effect on resistant algae like chara and hydrodictyon.  This is just one example of how important it is to identify your pond growth.

Keeping up on preventative pond maintenance will help slow down algae growth in your pond.  Be sure to use pond dyes and beneficial pond bacteria early in the spring and continue with regular doses especially when the weather begins to warm.

For more questions about controlling your pond algae contact the experts at Sanco.

Sampling begins the week of June 20th.  Lakes will be sampled monthly, unless cell counts exceed 100,000.  If cell counts are higher than 100,000 sampling will be done biweekly.  The beaches at the following DNR managed areas will be tested:

• Potato Creek State Park
• Pokagon State Park
• Chain O’ Lakes State Park
• Miami State Recreational Area at Mississinewa Reservoir
• Lost Bridge West State Recreation Area at Salamonie Reservoir
• Raccoon State Recreational Area at Cecil M. Hardin Reservoir
• Paynetown State Recreational Area on Monroe Reservoir
• Hardy Lake State Park
• Whitewater Memorial State Park
• Summit Lake Sate Park

Counts greater than 100,000 cells/ml are considered high risk to health in recreational waters.  The following samples have already been performed:

• Eagle Creek Reservoir: cell counts were above 100,000 on 6/6/2011
• Geist Reservoir: cell counts were below 100,000 on 6/6/2011
• Diamond Lake in southern Kosciusko County: cell counts above 100,000 on 5/25/2011

For more information on Blue-Green Algae contact the information at 877-650-0033 or 317-233-7181

For more information on general pond and lake treatments contact Sanco.

Shortly after the news cast we had several customers call us in regard to the mosquito fish.  We want to make sure all of our customers are aware of the specific uses for mosquito fish because many of our customers will NOT be able to use these fish and there has been some miscommunication on how to effectively use mosquito fish.

Mosquito fish are meant for use in small ornamental ponds, unused or out of order swimming pools, and animal water troughs.  These fish are not meant for ponds with other fish present, especially if you wish to have other species survive.  Mosquito fish bread very easily and must not be released into the natural waterways of the State of Indiana.  The release of mosquito fish in such uncontrolled areas could have a detrimental effect on the species that naturally live here. 

This is why many of our customers will not have a need for these fish.  Sanco specializes in large farm ponds that will have enough surface movement that mosquitos will not breed in these areas and most  large ponds have some sort of over flow.  For more information on mosquito fish Contact Sanco.