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Reaction to pond-scum pump gratifies inventors

By Anne Lindberg, Times Staff Writer
In print: Sunday, October 5, 2008

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SEMINOLE — The news from Wall Street might be doom and gloom as financial institutions and other businesses close their doors, but one Pinellas startup seems to be bucking that trend.

Eco-Pond Rescue, a pond cleaning system invented by two frustrated homeowners, has aroused interest from owners of scum-covered bodies of water across the United States.

"It's been crazy. Great crazy. But crazy," said Nick Reale, a Pinellas Park firefighter who launched the company in 2007 with neighbor John Allan, a retired contractor.

Reale and Allan own two of the 37 houses that surround Lake Sylvia, a 3-acre pond in unincorporated Seminole near the Pinellas Trail. It was their problems with algae in Lake Sylvia that spawned the invention of a pump that continuously churns the water from the bottom to the top. It's this continuous bottom-to-top circulation that differentiates Eco-Pond's system from other pond aeration systems. The constant churning prevents noxious plants and algae from growing and allows the lake to "heal itself" naturally without chemicals, the two say. And, they say, their pump uses very little electricity so it is also pocketbook friendly. They also supply bacteria that will help the pond become healthy without harming wildlife, pets or humans.

By late summer, the pump had garnered interest from as far away as Washington state and Jamaica, where a business owner wants to convert it to a solar-powered system.

But the business really started taking off after an article about them in the Neighborhood Times was picked up and distributed nationally. The two received more than 100 e-mails from across the country, including people in Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, North Carolina, Georgia, Kansas, New York, Hawaii, Louisiana, Alabama and, of course, Florida. They also received phone calls from home and business owners wanting to know more about the system, including a prawn-farm owner from Vietnam. Three business people, said Reale, want to talk to them about becoming a distributor.

"It went crazy," Reale said. "It was great."

They're installing a system in a pond owned by the city of Largo and have put in systems in Seminole and Tampa, Reale said.

"We've been going, going, going," Reale said.

And the two had some other good news recently. Their Jamaican contact says he thinks he has managed to convert the pump to solar power, thus saving the cost of electricity.

But not all is rosy. Pinellas County officials still doubt their claims about the system. Reale does not see that changing in the near future, but is unconcerned, saying he thinks time will provide the necessary evidence to persuade county officials that the system is a good one.