Mike, Thanks for the heads up with the EA UV for the Savio. I know you've had a lot of trouble with the UVs so I'm sure you know all about them. My Savio is post-recall and I've had tremendous results with it, running it only a week here and there at times. I'm sure if a homeowner truly had a problem with a Savio UV, post recall, that this would make for a nice lawsuit. It would be hard for me to imagine a better setup for a UV than the private chamber utilized in the side of the Savio skimmer. It is just a nice design - and it works for me. I'll look into the EA UV unit when it becomes time to replace my bulb/lamp. Vickie, I feel I'm right ahead of you on your issues since you're doing roughly the same thing I did last summer, and we are using some of the same equipment. You are correct in thinking that our climate and setups are going to be perfect for all kinds of algae growth. We'll get algae early in the year, pre-spring for sure when nothing else is growing and the water temp is cool. Then because it is a new pond you'll have the algae out competing the young, small plants you pot in both your bio-falls and pond. It will take weeks for the bio-filter we have to even come close to doing a job on the extra nutrients our water has... and it still won't keep up except once you get tons of submerged or floating aquatic plants established. Mikes recommendation on WH is a good one but unlike him I wouldn't worry too much about the fish mixing w/ the WH because with that size bio-falls you're going to need all the extra filtration you can muster! I would put them everywhere you can, or are wiling to accept, and then fertilize them the way drh1 recommends, search stump remover - I use Gordon's, because last year without it my new pond only did so-so with the WH and I think it was because they didn't have any extra help. This year with David's (drh1) recommendation of a tspn a week they are absolutely thriving with big long floating roots (filtering). Now even though I seeded my biofalls media with Microbe-Lift several times last year I was still having some green water. It went pea-soup green about six days after the initial filling. Then it went CLEAR overnight about six days later. But because my bio-falls box, same as yours, isn't so big and the plants outside of it not so established I started to get a little green water again and some string algae on my stream and rocky areas. I got the Savio UV from www.practicalgardenponds.com and added it to my skimmer box and it really did well, for me. I still battle the string algae but I'm resigned to that fact since it is largely a problem of lack of fine filtration. I've changed out my filter media (was lava rocks) in my bio-falls a couple of weeks ago, going to Springflo media instead (started over on the biofiltering as a result). I'm cleaning my prefilter in my skimmer more often, sometimes when I add H202 or stir-up the mulm in the pond I'm cleaning the pre-filter twice daily, just depends. I also added some activated charcoal to the skimmer box recently. Because I was trying to get a hold of the string algae problem I may have had more and more mulm accumulating on the bottom of my pond, or maybe even having some of it become suspended in my water and floating; so, I did add a Pondcare product known as Accu-Clear to help bind the small particles together and I think that has helped with filtration and water clarity. I'm just hoping that with a couple of good sweep-outs of my pond, yes sweep as in using a broom, I hope I can get ahead of the detritus that accumulates. And I have to say, I fear for you in as much as I see you have installed a rock bottom to the pond. I know there are many that do but I would be too worried that this is going to make maintenance tougher. I think that it is smart that you stay proactive with insisting on relatively clear water because having particulates and other growths floating around makes it harder to get back to that CLEAN SLATE look you started with in the beginning. Good Luck, I hope that some of this information can be used to your advantage.

Yes, I confess, I am a closet clean freak. I try to pretend I am not but really I can not help it. I don't love to clean, I just can't relax if I walk on a floor with even one tiny little sand grit on my foot. Even with college roomates I was the girl cleaning at 3 am. While everyone was passed out drunk. I was raised this way. You should see my sisters. We all scrub our floors on hands and knees. No one walks in our homes with shoes on. Every night before bed I wipe down the floors in the kitchen. Maids quit with me they don't get fired. : ) I must be from a long line of cleaning ladies... When I gave birth to my first child, my mother and aunts arrived. My husband was shocked to find one aunt scrubbing the sidewalk in front of our home. She bleached the steps and walkway. It was then DH realized that he married into a family of clean freaks. Sorry to go off topic. I guess this is why the felt pads work for my floor. Or maybe it is me working for the felt pads. > Boxerpups (Yes, I chase dog hair like the rest of the world)

i've become a bit of a home expert in windows as of late since we are replacing old windows in our home, ourselves. if your windows are double or triple pane and you have argon gas between, you can not use the window film. our old windows & sliding doors have/had this mirror reflective film we put on (we're in orlando BTW). the mirror reflective film builds up heat between the panes and will cause them to either crack or cause a release of the argon gas by loosening seals from the high interior heat. my biggest window problem was the east side, masters bedroom, that as no tree cover and is in blazing central FL sun sun-up to sun-down. we just replaced those windows a few weekends ago and we installed pella vinyl, double paned, argon gas, tempered glass (less than 18" off floor) w/ a special sun glass for south facing windows (FL standard). their UV rating is 98%. those windows are cool to the touch :-0 but compared to the extreme darkening film, very very bright lol. i can't tell you how many times i reach for the light switch to turn off a light that is not on, it's just soooo much brighter :-) my problem w/ them is there is no longer privacy film that we have lived w/ for 10 yrs LOL ;-) DH just installed 1 cellular top down-bottom shade i picked up at bed, bath & beyond so that we can get light thru the top still but walk around in the a.m. brushing teeth in our underwear LOL. you might think about cellular shades, i couldn't find cheaper top-down/bottom-up room darkening shades but just single cell do a very nice job of filtering sun. ~ liz

I'm not an expert on Oiled floors, but it is possible to add more finishing oil to them. This can happen as soon as they are installed (installers will often to this for commercially installed floors = extra wear protection) or every so often as the floors start to show wear or reduction of finish in some areas. You can dig out your care and maintenance instructions and all three different types of maintenance products (oil cleaner, oil "repair" product and oil "finish"). Read the instructions carefully to see which product will help you the most. Some of these Factory UV oil coatings need to be treated inside the first 6 months (full application of the finish oil), where as others just need the spot application in high-wear areas (such as traffic spots in hallways and in kitchens). I hope Ultimate Hardwood drops by. He's big on oil finishes. He'll offer some tips on how to go about keeping your oiled wood happy and healthy for years....But while you wait, dig out your maintenance instructions and ALL of your maintenance products that you where clever enough to purchase at the time you purchased your floors. You may need to do a full application or a large 'spot' application in the areas you are worried about.