I have a garden pond with about 1200 gallons, three waterfalls, an above-ground 1/2 HP pump and it is right out in the sun. I’ve struggled with pH control, chlorine, supershock and still a couple times a summer it gets away from me and turns to green pea soup.
I’ve been reading about UV clarifiers that supposedly keep the algae from growing. Sounds a bit too good to be true, but they seem to be sold widely, so am hoping one may solve my problem.
Anybody have one? How well does it work?
Anybody have any info on these devices, and what wattage would be best for this size pond and pump?
I hope so because I paid around 500.00 for a combination pressurized filter/UV sterilizer. I won’t be able to find out if it works or not until Spring though. From all that I’ve read, it sounds like it is very effective in controlling most algae except for the string algae that sometimes sticks to rocks with water flowing over them (which won’t bother me because I like that look anyway).
My pond is still a work in progress, it should hold around 4000g when finished and have one stream with two waterfalls.
I bought the 40 watt UV bulb model but you would probably be fine with an 18-20 watt bulb. The one down side is the expense however. Apparently the bulb and sleeve are only effective for one season so that’s going to be an ongoing expense.
I wish I could tell you for sure that it’s effective but according to every book I’ve read on the subject UV is the way to go.
Also they promise that it doesn’t harm the beneficial bacteria within the filter casing. We shall see…
My spouse uses a UV in her 450 gallon tank and it *seems *to work. I am not sure how one would go about doing a controlled experiment to prove it works without two very comparable tanks.