I have a veggie filter for 6 months of the year. I feed my fish for 11 months of the
year. by spring I have pea soup and it takes time from April until almost June for
my filter to get going.
http://weloveteaching.com/mypond/VF/winterfilter.html

HOWEVER, this year I put a little veggie filter IN the pond over winter and left the
pump in a bucket filter which has screening and matting in it and there doesnt appear
to be much algae at all. The water isnt clear it has "fines" in it most likely
because the active koi have been digging in my lily pot.
http://weloveteaching.com/mypond/VF/winterfilter.html

What is really amazing is that last fall I didnt clean and empty the veggie filter of
all the water celery and one flower pot and the water celery is already as high as it
is in May and pushing up under the plastic. So this may be a huge jump start on the
veggie filter. I am shocked because this was a hellatious long cold winter. That
water celery is amazing stuff. I expect that when I switch the water thru the veggie
filter it will quickly trap the "fines" and clear up the water.

anyway. I use the UV to clear up the water in spring before the veggie filter gets
going. I wont turn it on at all this spring unless algae shows up. Ingrid

On Sun, 6 Apr 2008 13:24:01 EDT, Pond Addict wrote:
I'm surprised to hear that you need UV with a vegie filter. Isn't the
veggie filter alone enough to control the algae or do you use the UV
for other reasons?

- Dave