The best irrigation system, can only work as well as the water allows. Whether it is private gardens and lawns or agricultural land where the water is of poor quality, the irrigation system requires a lot of maintenance. In such cases, the cost of cleaning and maintenance can be high.
The fundamental functionality of an irrigation or watering system is simple. First, you need water either in a tank or other sources. Second, a pump is needed for transportation as well as hoses or pipes. These supply the sprinkler system(s) or dripping system(s). A control instrument is there to monitor and operate the system.
There are several methods of controlling irrigation. The simplest way to control the system is a timer. For more complex applications, there are sensors that monitor the moisture of the soil and rain sensors that adjust the irrigation according to this data. This works for garden irrigation and agriculture, only the dimensions differ.
Garden Irrigation
Irrigation in Agriculture
A second common watering system is the impact sprinkler. Here single sprinkler heads are installed on top of a water supplying pipe these are close to the floor and spin around themselves. They either perform a full or partial circle and can also be used for lawn irrigation in private gardens. With huge impact sprinklers, a diameter up to 70 meters can be irrigated. The system is driven by the water itself and the swing arm as the main part of this sprinkler system.
Possible Issues with Irrigation or Watering
As we successfully provide water treatment technology we are facing questions from all over the world concerning limescale, corrosion or biofilm in the irrigation system. The root of these issues is the water supply and namely the water quality.
Hard water contains limescale and salts which can settle in pipes and especially in small valves or sprinklers. If the water itself contains iron, metallic pipes are harmed by corrosion. Plants develop a brown color, which is an indicator of iron in the water. Lately, biofilm or biomass is a current problem in farms and private irrigation systems. Once the system is contaminated with microbial growth, it constantly produces new biomass. The risk of blocked pipes in the whole system gets higher and higher. Where the irrigation is also used for fertilizers, the efficiency of the fertilizer can be affected negatively and it is difficult to estimate the right amount of fertilizers.
Often it is not an option for chemical treatment. The amount of water used is too high and the costs are unbearable – some farms in North America, we are working with, need more than 1000m3 a month. Decalcification can be very costly.
Reducing Limescale, Rust and Biofilm with Merus Rings
If chemical water treatment is not possible for economic or ecological reasons, physical water treatment can be an option. We are providing so-called Merus Rings which are a sustainable solution for problems around water systems. The trick is to keep foreign substances solved in the water. As long as they don’t settle but are flushed out of the system constantly – blocked pipes are not an issue anymore.
In private homes, where the house is equipped with the Merus Ring, usually, the water for the lawn and vegetable garden is included. In cases of a huge landscape or a garden with a well, a second Merus Ring is needed. It is installed at the main pipe.
At farms, the amount of Merus Rings needed for a sufficient result depends on the size of the landscape and the irrigation system. Often we install more than one Merus Ring to reach every hose, pipe, valve and finally plant.