Covex® is a hexagonal floating cover that seals the water-air interface. It cuts evaporation by up to 97%, blocks the sunlight that feeds algae, and removes the open water that attracts birds. The water you paid to pump, capture or buy stays in your reservoir until your crops need it.
Wherever your stored irrigation water meets the air, the same three things happen, regardless of what you grow: water evaporates, light feeds algae, and the open surface draws in birds. In arid regions a reservoir can lose up to 3,200 mm of water column per year to evaporation alone.
Water you pumped, captured or were allocated disappears into the air: up to 3.2 m³ per m² of exposed surface per year. On a one-hectare reservoir that can exceed 30,000 m³ per season, water that never reaches a single plant.
Sunlight on the open surface fuels photosynthesis. Algae blooms clog drip emitters and filters, force backflushing and chemical treatment, and degrade the quality of fertigation water.
The open water surface attracts birds whose droppings introduce pathogens and nutrients into water destined for food crops, a recurring finding in food safety audits and a constant load on filtration.
The hexagonal HDPE modules float, interlock, and settle on their own to the reservoir level. They require no structure, anchoring, or maintenance. Each unit carries water ballast that keeps it in place even in extreme wind.
The physical barrier of the hexagons cuts the mass exchange between water and air. 98% coverage of the liquid surface.
By blocking light, it inhibits photosynthesis in the stored water, protecting drip emitters, filters and fertigation quality.
With no visible reflective surface, birds are far less likely to detect the reservoir, keeping droppings and pathogens out of irrigation water.
The air chamber inside each module acts as an insulating barrier. Water stays liquid and pumpable longer, exactly when frost-control sprinklers need it.
The physics of the water-air interface is universal, but the priority changes with the crop and the climate. Find your operation below.
Covex® regulates water temperature in both directions: by day it blocks solar radiation and keeps the water cooler, by night it retains heat and slows cooling. Both effects work directly for agriculture.
Under intense summer sun, the hexagons block solar radiation before it heats the water. The covered surface stays several degrees below the uncovered one. Since vapor pressure rises with temperature, cooler water evaporates less, exactly when irrigation demand peaks. Cooler, darker water also slows algae metabolism.
On frost nights, frost-control sprinklers only work if the stored water is still liquid and pumpable when temperatures bottom out at dawn. Against a -5°C environment, Covex® keeps the water up to 5.2°C warmer than the uncovered surface during the first hours of the night.
The effect is decisive where there is freezing risk: uncovered water reaches 0°C at 7.5 hours, while under Covex® the freezing point is delayed to 12 hours, 60% more time. Intake pipes and pumps stay protected as well.
Food safety standards increasingly look at the quality of irrigation water, and stored open water is the weakest link: sunlight feeds algae, and the open surface invites birds whose droppings carry pathogens and nutrients. Covex® provides a continuous physical barrier that removes both drivers at the source, an auditable measure that works 24 hours a day with no active devices.
By covering 98% of the surface, birds are unlikely to perceive a body of water to land on or drink from. The deterrence is structural and does not rely on cannons, nets or lasers.
Without light there is no photosynthesis. Blocking 98% of solar radiation inhibits algae growth by 95%, protecting drip emitters and filters and reducing the need for algaecides and chlorination downstream.
The system has evaporation and thermal-behavior validation through TRNSYS and CFD modeling, with academic institutions and water research centers.
The hexagons rearrange themselves as the level changes through the irrigation season. There is no structure to inspect and no anchors to fail.
Tell us about your reservoir and we will provide an estimate of evaporation, recovered water, chemical and labor savings, and payback for your site.
A specialist will review your site data and contact you with a savings and payback estimate.