UV light

17 years ago

My pond is 7 years old and about 1,500 gals. I hooked up my UV light on Tuesday and today (saturday) I have clear, clean water. I also hooked back up my 100 gal stock tank bio filter last saturday. I know its way to early for the bio filter to kick in and start doing its thing, but I had such a high algea bloom that I could not see 3 iches below the water surface. Now today I can see the bottom. The pond is so much more injoyable when its clean and clean. My pond is a in ground and above ground type and its got probably over 40 fish of different types in it. I have my uv light hooked up to a much smaller pump then what runs to my 100 bio filter which pumps 3600 gal per hour. I know with my pond just being 1,500 gal the larger pumps is a bit over kill but it works great in my setup. Its moving alot of water. I purchased the 3,600 pump and the uv light last year and both have worked great. Can't live without the uv light now that I have used one. My uv light is 20 watts and I have it running to a five gal bucket that then it discharges back in to the pond. The bucket is full of fiber filter media. All I can say is UV lights rock, if you have algea bloom and want to have clear, clean water you will not be wasting you money by purchasing a UV light.. Happy Ponding. Sandy

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Comments (2)

comettose
17 years ago
I have a UV and use it in summer only. I've not done anything to my pond yet - too early for me. More about April I might make my way to the pond once I have a few small lilypads at the top.

My plan for spring is to vac the algae from the bottom and scrape off some of the thick gunk (for lack of a better word) off the sides of the liner. I think it is built up algae but I want get most of it off. Also, I see a few leaves that slipped through over winter I will take out. Then push a few lily tabs deep into the containers and I'm done!
michael-ftw
16 years ago
I noticed this week at Lowes that they are closing out the Garden Treasures UV18 unit for $49 down from $99
I grabbed two (hint make sure you open the box, make sure all the contents are included) After 2 stores and 4 boxes I found two unopened units.
They are rated at 500-1000 Gal but not much on flow rates.
Tried calling the maker but hes not answering.
Bulbs are on Ebay for $22 so I should be ok.

My pond is 9x12 and 30" deep. Aprox 1200 Gal with a 2400GPH pump with home made 30Gal filter.

After a full cleaning this spring and fresh start it greened up with algae in a week flat. Since I didnt have any fish or plants yet I hit it hard with an algae kill. Didnt phase it.

I connected the two UVs in series which I sorta hope/think will give me 36 total watts. More than enough to clean up the pond.

Water temp is 77' in full sun tho its been cloudy this last week. I couldnt see 4in deep when I started. 48hrs later I can see the bottom and Im guess at 72 hours it will be crystal clear.

Re: the flow rate, I called 123ponds and looked at calpumps.
Seems for the size of the pond and my uv output I went with about 10gal/min. A home depot bucket and watch will tell you what your pushing. Use a valve to adjust if needed.

Last year this was a new pond and the pond shops said I wont need a UV. Costs of a comparable unit would be around $250 or more. Guess I got lucky with the sale.

This weekend Ill hide the units and install ball valves so I can shutdown 1 or run both depending on need.

btw. The units come apart with a screwdriver in 5min for a full cleaning of the interior glass casing.

Pea Soup

Dual 18Watt UV in Series

24hrs

48hrs
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UV light

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comettose

michael-ftw

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