---
title: "Water restoration for container nurseries | Alchemal"
url: "https://alchemal.com/irrigation/who-we-serve/container-nurseries/"
description: "Nurseries store and recycle irrigation water that goes flat between waterings. We hold oxygen through the reservoir and measure what the lines carry."
source: "Alchemal — alchemal.com"
---
# Water restoration for container nurseries

A container nursery lives on its irrigation water, and much of it is stored and recycled: captured runoff, a holding reservoir, a return that recirculates. Water that sits warm and still goes flat, and the crop reads it as slow, uneven growth and emitters that clog. The reservoir sets what the whole yard receives.

## The problems we see on your water

- [Flat, low-oxygen irrigation water: the hidden cost Water that sits warm and still in the reservoir arrives at the crop already short of oxygen. See what that costs the root zone downstream, and how a held reserve travels down the line.](https://alchemal.com/problems/flat-irrigation-reservoir-oxygen/)
- [Algae in an irrigation reservoir: the conditions behind it A reservoir that greens up every summer and loads the lines downstream. Algae takes over where the water goes flat and nutrient-rich. See how restoring oxygen shifts the balance back.](https://alchemal.com/problems/algae-irrigation-reservoirs/)
- [Biofilm and clogged drip emitters: the water behind it Drippers blocking and lines slicking over. Much of what fouls emitters is seeded upstream, in a flat, nutrient-rich reservoir. See how oxygen at the source slows the fouling, with filtration doing the clearing.](https://alchemal.com/problems/biofilm-clogged-drip-emitters/)
- [Slow growth on recycled irrigation water: the oxygen limit Feed and light are right, and the crop still crawls on recycled water. Oxygen drawn down each pass is usually the limit on uptake. See how a held root zone lets the roots use what they are given.](https://alchemal.com/problems/slow-growth-recirculated-irrigation/)

## What Alchemal installs and takes responsibility for

A container yard draws almost everything through one point: the irrigation reservoir. Water held there warms and settles, and a warm, still basin loses its dissolved oxygen (the oxygen dissolved in the water) and stratifies into a flatter, oxygen-poorer bottom layer, which is usually the layer the lines draw from. Recycled runoff adds nutrients and biology that make the basin work harder still. The water leaving flat arrives at the root zone (the water and medium around the roots) already short, and it seeds the algae and biofilm that foul the drip downstream.

Nanobubble oxygenation holds dissolved oxygen through the full depth of the reservoir and carries it down the line with every watering, adding nothing else. We baseline the basin before sizing anything, top to bottom and across the day, install the system matched to it, and [Stewardship](https://alchemal.com/stewardship/) logs the oxygen against a baseline taken before any commitment. Where the real limit is nutrient load, sediment, or filtration rather than oxygen, the assessment says so. The [N-Series](https://alchemal.com/technology/n-series/) unit is matched to the site, and [what we measure and how](https://alchemal.com/technology/how-we-measure/) is published, so the reserve in your reservoir is a number you can check.

## Proof from container nurseries

The first installations for this audience are being instrumented now, and their case files publish when the record is worth reading. The [methodology](https://alchemal.com/technology/how-we-measure/) is already public: what we record, how we calibrate, and how we report what didn't move.

## From your first note to the assessment

1. You describe the water. A specialist reads it, replies in writing, and says whether an assessment makes sense.
2. Your water goes on the schedule. The first assessments and installations are being scheduled now; requests are answered in the order they arrive.
3. The assessment puts a baseline on paper: dissolved oxygen top to bottom, clarity, the condition of the sediment, and a plan with a prediction attached. If oxygenation isn't the right fix, the report says so.

## Questions nursery growers ask

**Do you treat the reservoir or every line?**

We hold oxygen in the reservoir, which is where the whole yard draws from, so the water leaving it carries a reserve down the lines. Clearing and filtering the lines stays your maintenance work; the reservoir change slows how fast they foul again.

**How do you size a system for our reservoir?**

The assessment baselines dissolved oxygen top to bottom and across the day, since a stored reservoir stratifies, then sizes to hold a reserve through the warm, still weeks. We measure the basin before sizing, and we will not quote an undersized unit to win on price.

**We recycle runoff already. Does that change anything?**

Recycling saves water and returns nutrients, and it also returns whatever the runoff carried, so the reservoir works harder to hold its oxygen. The baseline reads how flat the recycled water runs, so the reserve is sized to the load you actually recirculate.

## Start with a conversation.

Describe the water and a specialist replies in writing, before any commitment. Your water, your numbers.

[Get a free assessment](https://alchemal.com/assessment/?water=nursery-reservoir) [See the case-file format](https://alchemal.com/technology/how-we-measure/)