Hello,

I live near Chicago and my pond tem id about 47 degrees. When should I start
my UV?

Thanks, Mike

Mike,

The simple answer is, when it starts to turn green. The UV is really only
good for clearing algae, and it is not needed until they start to show up.
--
RichToyBox
http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/pondintro.html


"Mike" wrote in message
. com...
Hello,

I live near Chicago and my pond tem id about 47 degrees. When should I
start
my UV?

Thanks, Mike

"RichToyBox" wrote in message
news:ZlFea.191593$S_4.103338@rwcrnsc53...
Mike,

The simple answer is, when it starts to turn green. The UV is really only
good for clearing algae, and it is not needed until they start to show up.

snip

Does this mean, you could run the UV filter on a cycle? On sometimes, off
others?

BV.

The simple answer is, when it starts to turn green. The UV is really only
good for clearing algae, and it is not needed until they start to show up.

Kills parasites, bacteria and viruses too.

My pond has a little green in zone 5 OKlahoma. It is clear to the bottom
today. I run my uv light/filter until it gets to cold and there is a chance
for freezing. I dont turn it on and off.
Like someone said earlier, though, every pond is handled differently from
experience or trial and error.

not really. needs a lot of UV to kill critters, a size most people dont use on their
ponds. not to mention most of the cooties are found on and in the fish or the fish
poops or adhering to plants. Ingrid

Kills parasites, bacteria and viruses too.

writes:

not really. needs a lot of UV to kill critters, a size most people dont use on their
ponds.

This seems unlikely to be true for bacteria and virus, maybe for larger
parasites.

Kill, damage, slow down or just **** them off, its a positive effect ;-)

not to mention most of the cooties are found on and in the fish

All the parasites I can think of have a free swimming stage.

or the fish
poops or adhering to plants.

Fish poops in my pond are sucked into the filter, clear water out
of the filter goes through the UV.

Kills parasites, bacteria and viruses too.

I've never had to treat for disease or parasites, have plenty of wild birds
introducing them and have always had UV. This isn't proof of anything but
still, I cringe when I see people post about dosing with antibiotics every spring...

I was told on a message board once that UV would kill baby fish. Not true! I
had so many little ones last year that the water spiked and i was losing around
3 a day for several weeks. I had way too many fish. The smaller ones died
before the large ones, thank goodness. I also have frogs and lots of babies,
so i dont think the uv kills insects and things.

UV can kill the microaquatics small critters feed on. If I wanted to
raise fry I'd have green water and no UV.

Regards,

Hal

On 22 Mar 2003 17:24:40 GMT, (LRobi31070) wrote:

I was told on a message board once that UV would kill baby fish. Not true! I
had so many little ones last year that the water spiked and i was losing around
3 a day for several weeks. I had way too many fish. The smaller ones died
before the large ones, thank goodness. I also have frogs and lots of babies,
so i dont think the uv kills insects and things.

Sorry! Just passing on my experiences!!!

Aquatic Eco has a TechFact on UV and it shows that the amount of UV in
microwattssec/cm2 to kill algae is sufficient to kill just about everything
except molds, fungi, and higher order critters. For sterilization, to
occur, though, you have to have the water flow through the uv unit at a
frequency faster than the reproductive rate of what you are trying to kill.
For algae, it helps us kill it, since it really doesn't multiply during the
dark hours, and relatively speaking it is a slow multiplier anyhow.
--
RichToyBox
http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/pondintro.html


"Andrew Burgess" wrote in message
...
writes:

not really. needs a lot of UV to kill critters, a size most people dont
use on their
ponds.

This seems unlikely to be true for bacteria and virus, maybe for larger
parasites.

Kill, damage, slow down or just **** them off, its a positive effect ;-)

not to mention most of the cooties are found on and in the fish

All the parasites I can think of have a free swimming stage.

or the fish
poops or adhering to plants.

Fish poops in my pond are sucked into the filter, clear water out
of the filter goes through the UV.

Kills parasites, bacteria and viruses too.

I've never had to treat for disease or parasites, have plenty of wild
birds
introducing them and have always had UV. This isn't proof of anything but
still, I cringe when I see people post about dosing with antibiotics every
spring...

Andrew,

Molds and viruses are usually the hardest to kill requiring the highest
exposure to UV. Interesting enough, common ICH requires 336,000
microwatts-seconds/cm squared, which is one of the highest, while E.Coli
only requires 6,600. Most Pond sterilizers are set up for plain algae which
requires a lot less exposure. Even using an 8 watt sterilizer can be
effective and kill virtually any thing that is in the water as long as you
slow down the flow through the sterilizer. It may not sterilize a full pond
in an hour, but it could theoretically sterilize all the water in the pond
in a day. People seem to have a tendency of wanting to run thousands of
gallons per hour through a sterilizer and you can run 4,000 gph through a
120W sterilizer, but you are going to pay about $650 for the unit and it
will only kill algae at that volume. Many 8W sterilizers are rated at
600gph, but if you slow this down to 200 or 150 gph with will start killing
pathogens in the water if that is what you are after.

HTH

Tom L.L.
"Andrew Burgess" wrote in message
...
writes:

not really. needs a lot of UV to kill critters, a size most people dont
use on their
ponds.

This seems unlikely to be true for bacteria and virus, maybe for larger
parasites.

Kill, damage, slow down or just **** them off, its a positive effect ;-)

not to mention most of the cooties are found on and in the fish

All the parasites I can think of have a free swimming stage.

or the fish
poops or adhering to plants.

Fish poops in my pond are sucked into the filter, clear water out
of the filter goes through the UV.

Kills parasites, bacteria and viruses too.

I've never had to treat for disease or parasites, have plenty of wild
birds
introducing them and have always had UV. This isn't proof of anything but
still, I cringe when I see people post about dosing with antibiotics every
spring...

it gets rid of the single celled algae and as the photosynthetic food source goes, so
goes the whole microecosystem including the baby fish. Ingrid

Hal wrote:
UV can kill the microaquatics small critters feed on. If I wanted to
raise fry I'd have green water and no UV.

believe me, for UV to sterilize water enough to be potable there cant be much in the
way of bacteria or viruses to start with which is why chlorine and ozonators are used
preferentially to UV. water absorbs UV very well, so either the movement of water
has to be very slow... or, the intensity of the UV very high. most viruses and
bacteria dont float along in the water column, they adhere to "things", are in the
poop, are in the slime coat as fish make contact with each other.
It is pointless to even attempt to sterilize the water, the fish need contact to
develop immunity and keep the birds from crapping in the water and keep the fish
healthy with lots of clean water and good food and not overcrowded is going to do the
trick...... even if the electricity goes out for a couple of days. Ingrid

Andrew Burgess wrote:
writes:

not really. needs a lot of UV to kill critters, a size most people dont use on their
ponds.

This seems unlikely to be true for bacteria and virus, maybe for larger
parasites.

Kill, damage, slow down or just **** them off, its a positive effect ;-)

not to mention most of the cooties are found on and in the fish

All the parasites I can think of have a free swimming stage.

or the fish
poops or adhering to plants.

Fish poops in my pond are sucked into the filter, clear water out
of the filter goes through the UV.

Kills parasites, bacteria and viruses too.

I've never had to treat for disease or parasites, have plenty of wild birds
introducing them and have always had UV. This isn't proof of anything but
still, I cringe when I see people post about dosing with antibiotics every spring...

it clumps the algae so it can be filtered out. Ingrid

"RichToyBox" wrote:
Aquatic Eco has a TechFact on UV and it shows that the amount of UV in
microwattssec/cm2 to kill algae