Hydralife Results: Fort Collins, Colorado, Golf Division Tests a Natural Approach To Water Quality Management

The City of Fort Collins runs one of the most respected public golf and parks operations in the country, a nationally accredited and gold medal winning agency. So when its Golf Division agreed to put a new, biological water treatment to the test, it did so the way a careful steward would: with baseline numbers, and a follow up two weeks later. This is the story of that trial at South Ridge Golf Course, and of a client who opened his gates, his time, and his water to find out whether it works.

A steward of Fort Collins water

The Senior Manager of the Parks, Golf Division for the City of Fort Collins is also a Certified Golf Course Superintendent, CGCS. Beyond the golf courses, he is a senior leader on the Fort Collins Urban Lakes Water Quality Team, a collaborative city effort dedicated to monitoring and protecting the water quality of the City of Fort Collins lakes and reservoirs and guarding these public waters against negative impacts that would effect their water quality as well as harmful algae blooms. That combination, a Certified Golf Course Superintendent who also helps steward the city's lakes, is exactly the kind of partner Hydralife looks for: someone who thinks about water quality across an entire community.

Hydralife's relationship with Fort Collins began before this trial. During the previous winter, Hydralife met with the Urban Lakes Water Quality Team to present Hydralife's work, teach the science of beneficial phytoplankton, and deliver novel methods to improving water quality naturally. Education comes first in everything Hydralife does, because both the product and the approach are new to most water managers, and a clear understanding of the biology is what makes a trial like this one meaningful.

A day on the water

When Hydralife reached out, the Senior Manager of Golf was open to a field visit, and he gave the project real time. He spent a good portion of a day showing Hydralife the water bodies across the three Fort Collins Golf Division courses, walking the ponds and lakes and talking through how each one is used. Hydralife tested all of them, eight water bodies in all, on May 22, 2026.

Testing water quality, treating only what needed it

Hydralife's approach is to only treat ponds that are viable candidates to it's program. Beneficial phytoplankton is built for nutrient rich or problematic water, and a pond that is already clean is in balance. Across the eight water bodies, almost all of them tested clean, with excellent water chemistry and phosphate at or below 0.25 ppm, which is a nod to the work of the Golf Division and Urban Lakes Water Quality Team. Those ponds did not need treatment, and Hydralife acknowledge that. One pond stood apart. South Ridge Hole 11, the smallest pond on the course at about a third of an acre, was the single water body carrying measurable ammonia and phosphate. It was the one viable candidate, and it became the trial.

The City of Fort Collins Golf Division opened its waters to a trial of beneficial phytoplankton and it worked. Phtyoplankton reduced nutrients to levels that were barely detectable and protect from harmful algae blooms, cyanobacteria and nuiscance algae.

The South Ridge Hole 11 trial

On May 22, 2026, with the pond at 55 degrees Fahrenheit, Hydralife recorded the baseline of the pond at  0.25 ppm, nitrite at 0, nitrate at 0, and phosphate at 0.25 ppm. This nutrient load had the potential to lead to problems as the season warmed so the pond was inoculated 30 gallons of concentrated phytoplankton. Fourteen days later, on June 5, 2026, the water was resampled. Ammonia had fallen to between zero and 0.25 ppm, nitrite held at 0, nitrate read less than 5 ppm, and phosphate had dropped to nearly zero and undetectable.

Why the phosphate result matters

Phosphate is a critical nutrient to be attentive to. It is the limiting nutrient for harmful algae blooms (a form of cyanobacteria) meaning cyanobacteria need phosphate in the water column in order to develop. No phosphate, no harmful algae. that drive harmful algae blooms. In fourteen days, the phosphate at Hole 11 went from 0.25 ppm to undetectable. Because Hole 11 is also an irrigation source, that result comes without taking the pond out of service. Hydralife works by competitive exclusion: the cultured phytoplankton consumes the excess nutrients before nuisance algae and cyanobacteria can use them, so the water stays usable for irrigation throughout the season and the phytoplankton is great for water and soil unlike chemical treatments. This is a biological approach, not a chemical one.

A trial worth watching

Two weeks is a short window, and a single pond is a single data point. But the direction is clear, and it matches what Hydralife has documented on higher nutrient waters across Colorado and beyond. The trial at South Ridge Hole 11 continues, and Hydralife will keep tracking the numbers throughout the seasons. What made it possible was a client willing to test a new idea on his own water and to seek the data.

Hydralife is grateful to the Senior Manager of Parks, the City of Fort Collins Golf Division and the Urban Lakes Water Quality Team for their time, their openness, and their care for the water they manage. For a nationally accredited, gold medal winning agency to put a biological approach to the test is exactly how good water stewardship advances. If you manage a golf course, a park lake, or a municipal water body and want to know whether beneficial phytoplankton is a fit, you can reach Hydralife Solutions at www.hydralife.org or service@hydralifesolutions.com.