How to Achieve a Healthy Crystal Clear Fish Pond

The sure fire way to achieve clean pond waterKoi ponds and tend to be much more expensive.
that is crystal clear and free from suspendedFactors Affecting UV Wattage Required To
green algae is to use a biological filter andAchieve Clear Water
ultraviolet clarifier. Although UV clarifiers and* The higher the number of fish living in your
biological filters are available as separate units, itgarden pond the higher the wattage of the UV
makes far more sense to use what is known asunit needed.
a UVC biofilter. This piece of water gardening* If your pool is situated in a sunny area and not
equipment combines biological filtration and ultrain the shade then you will need more UV
violet clarification in a single unit.wattage; increased sun equals increased levels of
The combination of the two units will often savefloating algae.
you money and because the units have been* The deeper your fish-pond, the cooler the
designed to work together you will no longer needwater temperature will be. Cooler water requires
to worry about incompatibility issues, guaranteed!less UV light in order to destroy floating algae.
The golden rule of pond keeping is to always go* If you have a small fishpond then you will only
bigger if in doubt about the size of equipmentneed a low powered UV clarifier.
needed. The same applies to the choice of UVCThe Good, the Bad and the Ugly!
filter. Using a model that has say 8 watts ofThere are several algae types commonly found in
power instead of 4 watts will only ensure quickerfish ponds. Some are much more easily controlled
destruction of the algae cells. This combined withthan others, whilst others are actually beneficial to
a high surface area biomedia such as Suprayour Koi and goldfish.
(Alfagrog in the UK) and plenty of oxygen willThe good algae are the small algae that you
guarantee healthy, ammonia and green algae freecommonly see attached to nearly every available
water.surface in the pool, including pumps, piping and the
On the other hand choosing a UV light that isside walls. This algae type is fairly small and grows
inadequate for the size of your pool, the level ofto about half an inch long and acts as a tasty
sunlight, the number of fish stocked will result insnack for fish.
inadequate UV clarification and the developmentThe bad algae are the filamentous string algae
of algae blooms. Algae blooms use up substantialvarieties, such as blanket weed, which can grow
amounts of oxygen and produce high levels ofrapidly and reach several feet in length. Once
oxygen at night time. Excessive algae bloomscolonized it is very difficult to eradicate totally and
have been known to cause the death ofwill often need to be removed with a rake or stiff
expensive Koi and other aquatic fish bybrush. Barley straw products are often used to
suffocation, due to lack of oxygen and excessiveinhibit the development of this particular pest.
carbon dioxide.The ugly algae are the floating green algae, also
A UVC Sterilizer Is Not the Same as A UVCknown as planktonic algae. A single algae cell only
Clarifiermeasures 4 microns in size but in vast numbers
I would like to clear something up for those ofyour water becomes cloudy and often becomes
you who are new to water gardening. A UVquite smelly. This floating algae variety is
clarifier is also commonly known as a UV sterilizer.particularly deadly at night time, when it uses the
They are different products altogether. A UVoxygen in the water and produces carbon dioxide.
sterilizer sterilizes the water, killing pathogens andSevere carbon dioxide spikes often cause the
other water borne bacteria as well as usingdeath of fish due to suffocation. A combined UV
ultraviolet light to destroy algae cells, whereas abiofilter is the best option for the majority of
UV clarifier does not sterilize the water but haswater gardeners looking to control floating green
been designed solely to kill green algae using UValgae.
light. Ultraviolet sterilizers are normally used in large