A Natural Way to Hinder the Development of Harmful Algal Blooms, Without Chemicals
Hydralife's beneficial phytoplankton consumes the same nutrients that feed harmful algae blooms, starving them at the source. It works in freshwater lakes, ponds, and reservoirs of any size. This is a natural solution that reproduces on its own, promotes a healthy body of water and keeps working all season.
Phytoplankton Does More Than Just Hinder The Development of Harmful Algal Blooms & Cyanobacteria
Hydralife does not just hinder toxic blooms, nuisance algae and filamentous algae, it makes your entire water body healthier. Every benefit reinforces the others, creating a cycle of natural improvement.
Phytoplankton Increases Dissolved Oxygen in the Water
Our phytoplankton produces dissolved oxygen naturally, reversing the oxygen-depleted "dead zones" that suffocate fish and aquatic life. More dissolved oxygen means healthier water for everything living in it. Our phytoplankton partners especially well with water bodies that have mechanical aeration. Dissolved oxygen will significantly increase in these scenarios. It also will boost your bacteria when you are administering a bacteria muck treatment.
Phytoplankton Rebuilds the Food Chain
Phytoplankton is the natural foundation of the aquatic food chain. It feeds zooplankton that feed small fish that feed larger fish, rebuilding a healthy, thriving ecosystem from the bottom up. Chemical algaecides destroy this food chain. Hydralife restores it.
Phytoplankton is an Agricultural and Golf Turf Biostimulant, Returns Nutrients to Soil
For farmers, ranchers and superintendents, our phytoplankton captures the nitrogen and phosphorus that washed off your fields into irrigation ponds. When that water is pumped back for irrigation, those captured nutrients return to your soil as a natural biostimulant, turning a waste problem into recovered fertilizer value. One product, two benefits.
Phytoplankton Captures Carbon Dioxide, CO2, and Provides Emissions Reduction
Phytoplankton absorbs CO2 from the water column. It also reduces nitrous oxide emissions, a greenhouse gas 300 times more potent than CO2. Cleaner water and a cleaner atmosphere from the same treatment.
Excellent Food Source for Zooplankton and Other Organisms
Another selection criteria for our phytoplankton is that it makes an excellent food source for zooplankton and other organisms that are part of the food chain and develop healthy and robust aquatic ecosystems.
How does Hydralife eliminate harmful algae blooms without chemicals?
Hydralife gives water a boost of live beneficial phytoplankton. The phytoplankton reproduces exponentially to meet nutrient loads and consumes ammonia, nitrate and phosphate, which cyanobacteria need to bloom. With those nutrients diminished, the harmful bloom is starved out or has to compete for a limited amount of nutrients. This is a natural way to hinder harmful, toxic or nuisance algae while promoting a healthy fishery since phytoplankton feeds zooplankton, increases dissolved oxygen and improves water quality. It also protects your water from nutrients and other algae throughout the entire grow season.
HABs Are A Growing Crisis, With No Real Solution Until Now
Harmful algae blooms (HABs) caused by toxic cyanobacteria now affect freshwater in all 50 states. An estimated 240,000 U.S. lakes test positive for cyanotoxins, which is 50% of all lakes tested. Over 3.5 million ponds on farms and in communities are at risk. Communities have spent over $1.1 billion since 2010 trying to manage HABs, and despite massive government investment, the problem keeps getting worse. The reason is that nearly every approach has focused on attacking algae after it blooms, instead of removing the excess phosphorus and nitrogen that feed it in the first place.
Meanwhile, these blooms are not just an eyesore. Cyanobacteria produce dangerous toxins, including microcystin, anatoxin-a, cylindrospermopsin, and BMAA, that can cause liver damage, neurological harm, and even death in pets and livestock. Cyanotoxins can become airborne through a process called aerosolization, meaning people living near contaminated water can inhale toxins just by breathing. This is a public health crisis that is accelerating, not improving.
Sources: EPA, Waters Monitored for Cyanotoxins; EPA, Cyanobacterial HABs
Why Chemical Algaecides Fail
Chemical algaecides poison cyanobacteria on contact, but they do not remove the nutrients that caused the bloom. Those nutrients stay in the water, and the cyanobacteria grows right back, often worse than before. The danger increases when algaecides break open cyanobacteria cells, and those cells release their stored cyanotoxins into the water which can be an acute public health hazard.
Copper-based algaecides also accumulate in lake sediment over time, creating long-term environmental contamination. Algaecides can also hurt the entire food chain, wiping out beneficial phytoplankton, zooplankton, and the organisms that fish depend on for food. It is often a cycle of spending money to make the problem worse.
Source: ScienceDirect, Algae organic matter release following algaecide application
Beneficial Phytoplankton = The Missing Piece
Every toxic cyanobacteria bloom has the same root cause: too many nutrients in the water, mainly phosphorus and nitrogen from some type of runoff, fertilizer, or stormwater discharge. American farms apply roughly 12 million tons of nitrogen and 4 million tons of phosphorus each year, but crops do not absorb it all. Rain washes the excess into nearby lakes, ponds, and streams.
For decades, everyone has been trying to attack cyanobacteria after it blooms. An alternative solution is to use phytoplankton that is common across the United States to consume the nutrients before toxic cyanobacteria can establish themselves. This approach is sustainable throughout the warm seasons, promotes healthy bodies of water and is not chemical reliant.
Instead of poisoning cyanobacteria with algaecides, we simply use good microalgae (phytoplankton) to consume the nutrients that bad algae (toxic, filamentous and nuisance algae) need to grow. For golf courses and farmers and ranchers who have irrigation ponds, those consumed nutrients are converted into phytoplankton and returned back into the soil during the irrigation cycle as an excellent natural biostimulant. This turns a pollution problem into a catalyst for good soil and water.
How Phytoplankton Works, In Plain English
Hydralife provides live, concentrated beneficial phytoplankton, which are useful microalgae common across United States freshwaters that consume the same nutrients as toxic cyanobacteria. When you boost phytoplankton into a freshwater lake, pond, reservoir, farm pond, or golf course pond, it rapidly consumes the ammonia, nitrate and phosphate before those nutrients are utilized by troublesome algae. When nutrients have been consumed, there is a significantly less chance for a nuisance or cyanobacteria bloom. Very simple. Hydralife will concentrate your order of any size into a 5 gallon bucket and deliver it directly to you or your site. You simply temperature acclimate your bucket to the water by sitting it partially in the water and then gently pour the phytoplankton into the water column. From there, the phytoplankton will get to work on your behalf.
Starve Nuisance Algae, Filamentous Algae, or Harmful Toxic Algae By Boosting and Inoculating Beneficial Phytoplankton
Phosphorus is the number one nutrient that drives toxic cyanobacteria blooms. Cyanobacteria have the opportunity to establish themselves when phosphorus is in the water. Hydralife's phytoplankton rapidly consumes phosphorus, along with nitrate and ammonia, removing the food supply that toxic cyanobacteria depend on. No nutrients, no bloom. And because our phytoplankton reproduces on its own, one application can keep the good work going in stable conditions.
Excess Nutrients (Phosphate, Nitrate, Ammonia) plus Beneficial Phytoplankton (Hydralife) equals Nutrients Consumed, and cyanobacteria, filamentous algae, and nuisance algae are starved. That leads to a Healthy Ecosystem and Clean Water Restored.
Hydralife's living approach creates a self-sustaining cycle of nutrient remediation. The phytoplankton grows 21 to 54% per day throughout warm months, meaning one treatment multiplies on its own and keeps working all season long.
What most people call "toxic algae" is actually different species of cyanobacteria, an ancient microorganism that is somewhat similar to microalgae but with key differences: cyanobacteria do not have a cell nucleus. This makes them fundamentally different from the beneficial phytoplankton, which is a true algae and keeps water healthy. Hydralife's phytoplankton competes with cyanobacteria for nutrients while supporting the natural food chain rather than destroying it.
Sources: EPA, Sources and Solutions: Agriculture; ScienceDirect, Phytoplankton Nutrient Uptake
How Many Nutrients Does Phytoplankton Actually Remove?
Our phytoplankton does not just help. It substantially reduces the nutrients that feed toxic cyanobacteria. We see many of our clients have nutrient levels that are almost undetectable.
It grows on its own, 21 to 54% per day. Unlike chemical algaecides that get used up after one application, Hydralife's phytoplankton multiplies throughout the entire warm season. One treatment creates a living colony that keeps working in your water for months, without repeat applications needed during the season.
Sources: ScienceDirect, Phytoplankton Nutrient Dynamics; EPA, Phosphorus in Water
Hydralife vs. Chemical Algaecides
For decades, chemical algaecides have been the default response to algae problems, even though research shows they do not work long-term and can make things worse. Here is the difference at a glance.
Chemical algaecides burst open cyanobacteria cells and release stored cyanotoxins into the water, creating an acute public health hazard. If someone is harmed after a chemical treatment, the entity that authorized the application may be held liable. Hydralife's approach avoids this risk entirely by starving cyanobacteria instead of poisoning it.
Where Hydralife Works
Beneficial phytoplankton is effective in any freshwater body with excess nutrients, from municipal reservoirs and state park lakes to neighborhood ponds, farm stock tanks, and golf course water features. Our phytoplankton are subtropical so they do best when your water temperature has risen above 60 degrees. If a lake holds freshwater and has a nutrient problem, Hydralife can help.
Whether it is a 10,000-acre reservoir or a 1-acre backyard pond, our phytoplankton improves water quality and aquatic health. With the right inoculation amount, you will see measurable results around 14 days and after.
Farm Ponds & Nutrient Recovery
Stop losing fertilizer to runoff. Our phytoplankton captures and reproduces from the dissolved nitrogen and phosphate that wash into your ponds, and when you pump that water back onto fields, that phytoplankton returns as an excellent natural biostimulant for your soils. Clean water and recovered nutrients. One treatment serves double duties.
Golf Course Ponds
Starve out the cyanobacteria that clogs your spray heads, damages your turf, and drives away members with foul odors. Bonus: the captured nutrients improve fairway and green health when you irrigate. One product, two benefits, with no chemicals.
City & County Water Bodies
Keep public lakes, reservoirs, and park ponds clean and safe without chemical algaecides. Reduce liability and risk, beach closures, protect drinking water sources, and lower your HAB liability exposure. Avoid depleting your aquatic ecosystems and the cyanotoxin release risks that come with chemical treatments.
HOA & Neighborhood Ponds
Get rid of the smelly water and prevent ugly algae that drags down property values and creates safety concerns. Many HOAs face stormwater compliance fines that can be expensive. Give your community a pond to be proud of again, naturally.
Drinking Water Reservoirs
Protect the source. Cyanotoxins in drinking water reservoirs, nuisance algae and high nutrient levels are a growing crisis, and standard water treatment cannot fully remove them. Hydralife's phytoplankton helps in these areas and is easily pulled from the water during filtration processes. This protects public water supplies upstream of the treatment plant.
Newly Constructed Reservoirs & Lakes
Give new water bodies the best possible start. Introducing beneficial phytoplankton to newly constructed reservoirs and lakes establishes a healthy ecological foundation from day one, building a productive, balanced ecosystem before nutrient problems ever develop. Prevention is always easier than remediation.
$20 A Gallon In A Quantity You Need
Fresh live cultures concentrated and shipped nationwide in easy to use 5-gallon buckets. Direct Delivery. Live Concentrated Culture. Custom Treatment Plan Included. Measurable results typically in a couple of weeks.
Dosage depends on water body size, nutrient levels, and severity. Contact us for a free assessment, and we will build a treatment plan and quote tailored to your situation.
How It Works: 6 Simple Steps
From your first consultation to measurable results, the entire process is straightforward. No specialized equipment and no complicated application procedures.
1. Water Assessment: Optional and free. Share your water body size, location, or any water quality data you have and we will tailor the right approach. Or simply order the amount you need and get started. Buying phytoplankton can be as easy as buying any other pond additive.
2. Custom Treatment Plan: We recommend an application protocol tailored to your specific water body, including volume, application points, and timing for best results.
3. Direct Delivery: Your live phytoplankton concentrate ships in 5-gallon buckets directly to your location. Fresh, living cultures, ready and easy to apply.
4. Simple Application: Temperature-acclimate the bucket in the water for 30 or more minutes, then pour the phytoplankton directly into an outflowing current. That is it, no special equipment needed.
5. Monitor Results or Send Us Your Water For Analysis: Within a couple of weeks, you should see measurable improvements in water quality and clarity. The phytoplankton self-replicates at 21 to 54% per day, building a self-sustaining colony that is always working on your behalf.
6. Seasonal Reapplication: For sustained water quality throughout the season and year over year, we recommend a seasonal reapplication program. Each treatment promotes a healthy phytoplankton population that improves water quality and lake productivity.
Who We Serve
Hydralife Solutions works with anyone responsible for water quality, from individual pond owners and HOA managers to state agencies overseeing hundreds of water bodies.
Lake Managers & Parks Departments. Limnologists & Water Scientists. Environmental Consultants. Golf Course Superintendents. Farmers & Ranchers. HOAs & Communities. EPA & Public Health Departments. Cities, Counties & States. Water Quality Task Forces.
Ready to Have Excellent Water?
Whether it is a farm pond, a community lake, a golf course, a city reservoir, or your own lake, we will help improve your water quality, lake health and inhibit the development of harmful algae blooms and nuisance algae. Start with a conversation. Education is the key. Tell us about your water and let's work together.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it safe for fish, pets, and swimmers? Completely safe. Our phytoplankton is a natural organism already found in healthy lakes and ponds everywhere. It is harmless to fish, wildlife, pets, livestock, and people. In fact, it is the natural foundation of the aquatic food chain, and it helps fish populations recover by providing food for the zooplankton that fish eat. When fish reproduce, their fish fry need zooplankton to grow.
How fast does it work? Most customers send a water sample or begin to observe improvement in a couple of weeks. Because our phytoplankton reproduces on its own, growing 21 to 54% per day, it gets more effective over time and changes the historical trajectory of problems that water managers have seen in years prior.
How much do I need? That depends on the size of your water body, how significant your nutrient load is, the history of your water body and the time in the season in which you are inoculating. If you are not familiar with phytoplankton or what you want to do, we work with you to identify the best approach after we learn about your situation. Consultation is free.
Does it work in all climates? No. Our phytoplankton is common in United States freshwater and grows in a wide range of regions but prefers subtropical and warmer conditions. That is why it is great for the warmer months, which is exactly when you see other water issues like high nutrient loads, nuisance algae or harmful algae blooms at their worst. The phytoplankton is like having a battle buddy on your side throughout the entire growing season.
Is it a one-time annual treatment? Typically one application works well for the whole warm season because our phytoplankton reproduces on its own. We recommend a seasonal program to keep your water body protected year after year. Think of it like ongoing maintenance: consistent care keeps things healthy.
How is this different from chemical algaecides? Simply stated, it is the exact opposite. Chemical algaecides poison cyanobacteria temporarily but leave the nutrients in the water, so the blooms always come back. Worse, algaecides burst cyanobacteria cells open and release stored cyanotoxins, making the water more toxic. They also destroy the food chain that fish and other aquatic life depend on. Hydralife takes the opposite approach: we remove the nutrients that cause blooms in the first place. No rebound, no toxin release, no food chain destruction, and in some form or another, phytoplankton promotes and is related to the health of everything living in the water.
What kind of phytoplankton do you use? We use a blend of beneficial phytoplankton that is common in United States freshwater. It is selected for the ability to rapidly consume phosphate, nitrite, nitrate and ammonia while thriving in a wide range of freshwater conditions, increasing dissolved oxygen, being an excellent food source for zooplankton and being an overall benefit to a body of water.
Can it be used alongside aeration systems? Absolutely. Aeration and beneficial phytoplankton complement each other. Aeration increases dissolved oxygen and circulation, which helps our phytoplankton distribute and thrive. Many of our customers use both together for the best results and the combination will help the beneficial bacteria be healthier and stronger so you will have even more and different types of filtration and muck reduction.
What does it cost? $20 per gallon and we can work with you to determine the best amount of gallons for your water body. We ship direct delivery in 5-gallon buckets. Because it reproduces on its own, one application turns into an army of phytoplankton that keeps working for months, so you are not buying the same product over and over like you would with chemicals. Your first consultation is free, and we will help you figure out exactly how much you need.
How Much Phytoplankton Removes
Based on our field results, our phytoplankton reduces phosphate, ammonia and nitrate to barely detectable levels. These are the nutrients that toxic cyanobacteria and nuisance algae depend on, so drawing them down is the key to stopping blooms and preventing the long-term nutrient buildup that makes blooms come back year after year.
Hydralife vs. Chemical Algaecides at a Glance
Hydralife removes nutrients at the source, prevents rebound blooms, is safe for fish, wildlife and swimmers, preserves the natural food chain, is a living organism and not a regulated pesticide, improves overall ecosystem health, is self-sustaining, is cost-effective over the full season, reduces long-term HAB liability risk, and carries no cyanotoxin release risk.
Chemical algaecides do not remove the nutrients, allow rebound blooms, can harm aquatic life, destroy the food chain, are regulated pesticides, do not improve ecosystem health, are used up after each application, are not cost-effective over the full season, offer limited liability reduction, and release stored cyanotoxins when cyanobacteria cells burst.