Yes we did have a uv running but we don't know how old it was. It wasn't burnt yet but when our water started to go green, that was the first thing we thought. The previous owners left all the equipment but we never actually spoke to them Soweto have no idea how old it actually was. Today the pond is most definately clearer than it was yesterday. I can see the bottom again which I am happy about. I guess I'm not looking for a crystal clear pond, I just want to be able to see the fish. I'm honestly really loving the pond and our daughter and I have named 4 of the 8 fish. So far we have Goldie (a golden colored butterfly koi), Shimmer (a silver butterfly koi), Domino (black and white koi) and Spunky (a white comet with 2 orange spots on the back). My husband thinks we're totally nuts!

alisande, I'll have to admit, as the new information comes to light, it does raise some questions in my thinking. However, from what you describe so far, I suspect you are ok for the moment. Your original problem seems to have been air in the system as the others described. However, and only going by your description and no technical data, it did appear to take more time to bring the water to a temperature you were satisfied with. After you readjusted the thermostat it appeared to be more to your liking. My conclusion is, your cousin didn't run the water temperature as high as you do. Maybe he has kids he doesn't want to scald themselves, maybe it was to save energy, whatever his reasons. A 50 gallon tank is a pretty good sized tank for 1 person and I think if you kept the temp around 115-120 degrees, you wouldn't run out of hot water if everything is working fine. But again, there are good reasons to run the temp. higher. My advice at this point pretty much follows your line of thinking. If everything is to your satisfaction, there's nothing to fix. Let us know if anything new develops, the more information you can give up front, the better answers you will get. I think most of the folks here gave you enough info. that you know several areas to look or have someone to look at to do some trouble shooting before blowing the whistle. You'll eventually be the hot water expert in your area. As for Iris, there are 3 reasons for the tag. Making a living these days requires a job and as many hustles as one can handle. 1-I grow approx. 3 acres of rare types of Bearded Iris. Many get sold, many get processed for the perfume industry and many get processed as medicinal Oris Root. Motion photography and filming is another area of endeavor. Someone touched on another area in one of the forums so I figured they must have known me. Now of course there is no way for me to spend full time in all these areas and my profession also so others now actually work them. I just usually pi$$ them off from time to time when I come around and start playing with stuff since to me, these are hobbies.

I had both, scarified & stratified the seed. It was in the fridge for over a month. A sprout began to come out of the seed. The sprout was about....1 inch in length. Then I placed it in a soil mix (from Miracle Gro) and placed it outside. It sat outside for like a few weeks but nada. Then I finally gave up and decided I'd root around through the pot/planter and it looked like it was all dried up. The funny thing is, I watered it every 2 days so I'm not sure why this happened. Anyways, this time I purchased one of those Jiffy Peat domed planters. Hopefully I'll have better luck with that. :)

Use a whole 10litre can. Pour it in slowly, so the water doesn't just run along the surface. Then wait for at least a week before watering again. How to tell when it needs watering: quite right, browning leaves is a sign that there is something amiss in the root zone. Take a lavender leaf and bend it slightly. It should be pliable, even slightly plasticky. The aromatic oils it contains will come off on your fingers because the stomata will be open. When they are thirsty, the leaves will look the same but be brittle, even crispy, with none of the pliancy of a well-irrigated plan and the oils will be less apparent, being locked in the plant as it tries to conserve water. This is my own, highly unscientific method of assessing the watering needs of those sticky, tricky, mediterraneans such as santolina, rosemary, thymes and lavenders.