Thoughts of UVs

UV lights are often a frustrating topic. If the wattage and flow rate is set up correctly they can be the ponder's best friend, if not, they are right up there with the worst of them.

They are often times a much larger up front cost compared to standard treatments, but when you look at the long term repeated treatment versus a one time cost, plus replacement bulbs, they are often times as inexpensive or less than treatment. Basically, if you have the wattage and flow adjusted correctly, you will never have green water again. If you do, the bulb has burnt out or the calibration is off.

With how they function, killing all that circulates through them, they do not work on string algae. You still need a barley or other treatment to combat that. Also, is you use natural treatment for the string algae remember to unplug your uv for 24 hours or you are killing your treatment as well as the algae.

They often have roughly 14 month life spans (the bulbs), but if you only use them before your plants have gotten established, they can often work for 3 to 4 years. But remember, as with any other treatment, they are the band-aid, plants are the cure. If you have proper balance of plants and fish you should need minimal treatment of any kind once the plants are established.

I need the whole story!

I had a lady come in today and she was a little upset about how the bottle of treatment she bought last month had not worked. I was surprised by this because in multiple years of selling Aqua-One we have had no complaints. Zero.

After a few minutes of discussing other options she casually asks if she has to leave her pond running all the time. YES! In the matter of a few minutes the good bacteria and organisms start to struggle and die. If you turn off your pond, you are losing all of the benefit of your treatment, biological filtration, and natural petina/carpet algae. Couple that with the fact that Aqua-One is a natual treatment that isn't being cirrculated and dying off almost immediately, yeah, that would make a big difference.

If you are having problems with your pond, you have to tell your pond people the whole story! If you leave out 'little' things like that, you are probably being led down the wrong path. Turning off the pond at any time, okay for pondless, not for ponds. How many koi do you have? How often do you feed them? Are there leaves in the bottom of the pond? Are you or any neighbors treating the yard? Are there any recently added plants, fish, or features?

If you think there is any chance a new or minor element could have contributed to your maintenance issues, there is a good chance they have. It may seem trivial, but the little things do matter.

You may get a bored expression from your pond pro, but if they haven't seen the pond with their own eyes, there could be something that is obvious to them, that is not to you. Take the time to go over the exact set up of your pond, it can save you a lot of time and money.

Lightning & Skimmers

As you could probably guess these two do not mix well. I quite honestly did not believe the owner when he called and said his skimmer was liquid. There is a two story house and large trees surrounding this pond, how could lightning hit something that is pretty much underground?

Apparently, after talking to multiple firemen, it was concluded that it was lightning and it was probably headed for the house, but 'found' the current from the pump and followed it to the skimmer. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it. And now you can too.















We attempted to find the remnants of the irrigation box that housed the check valve, shown below, but no evidence was found. It was completely incinerated. I don't know if anyone else has ever had this experience, but it was definitely a first for me.















I guess I get to find out how creative I am with rebuilding a pond that has been struck by lightning. Now I've heard of a pump getting burnt out by a power surge from a lightning strike, but never liquified by a direct strike!

The DIY good and bad.

I just got done having my butt handed to me on the IVillage forum over my rant on using quilt batting. I need to watch where I rant. Complaining about crazy DIYers on a forum that is almost exclusively DIY is never a good idea. Don't get me wrong, there are many great things that can be done with DIY ingenuity, but in the line of business I am in I only see the negative side of it.

Also I looked closer at the posts and it wasn't the same individual that had the leaves and other issues I'd already responded to. Oops.

I understand the use of an 'ultra fine' media when there is an algae bloom or sediment issues. My feeling is that whenever you have those issues it can be handled in a preventive way, not a fix my current issue way. You can strain your pond as many times as you desire, or you can figure out why you are having the issue and prevent it from happening. That is my humble opinion.

I realize I am basically writing to myself on this blog, but hey, in case I have millions of readers that just choose to not post any responses, I thought I'd explain myself a little.