***The Pond Discussion Thread****

NickK said:
I'm eyeing up a 40W amalgam bulb that I would fit into a separate removable airlift in the anoxic filter. That would allow me to kill off blooms at a higher flow rate. In fact I could put the UV in a replacement tank for the bio at a later date and the entire flow rate would get UV'd. In the past I've not had a problem with blooms once the pond was matured.
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Just be aware that amalgams are corrosive to most pond plastics as they run at a slightly different wavelength. The best way to really make them work well is to get a stainless tube to hold them in that the water passes through, it effectively doubles it up to an 80 watt unit from the reflection.
 
kindai said:
Just be aware that amalgams
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yup UV degrades plasic, even those such as UPVC with UV stabilising additives. I was thinking of having the amalgam in a separate tube to the main airlifts. Others have used them in the drum but the seals perish.
 
Bouton Aide said:
Indeed but install a glass panel first. Depends how bad the problem becomes with pond scum.
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I have a glass window 2m across. If the dye stops seeing 30 cm then theres no point lol. The surface is already mirror clear due to the skimmer.

the pond is clearing by reducing the nutients to the algae bloom.
 
Today, the water is getting clearer - just put the BD on so it's thrown some debris up but the bloom cleared (that almost goes down the full 1.85m):
ACYZ0f9.jpg

The small amount of blue dye isn't really visible until you look right into it deep:
ifpjNEf.jpg

BD air clear but should be clearer tomorrow once the debris have been taken out (and the window cleaned!):
MPXGGW0.jpg
 
Today was not a good day.

Thats a £300 special quartz tube for a UV sterilizer.

277692805-1152625702164610-6075710068845775006-n.jpg
 
rebel rebel said:
This is very interesting. I was watching a video of an American building his own lake, and they were talking about the visibility, and how if the waters too clear it will attract algae. Didn’t know you had to add a dye.
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It depends. My old pond was crystal clear and the fish looked like there were hovering. Smaller pond and over sized filtration with a slower flow rate. I never got green water (single celled algae) but I did get blanketweed, which I culled in spring and then harvested weekly to remove the locked in nitrogen byproducts. The rest (including small strings free floating) were removed by the drum and slow water flow rate.

I hope the small amount of blue dye reflects more at the surface, and then attenuates the light in the water column thus reducing the stimulus to the green water. I hope that will stay the case as the filters mature and then the algae has no nutrients to bloom with. The blue will slowly be diluted with rainfall and the overflow into the drain.

I could make the pond literally really blue, and that's something they do in lakes and larger ponds in the US - especially nearer the equator. However you'll not see the fish unless they're so close to you they get spooked.
 
NickK said:
I could make the pond literally really blue, and that's something they do in lakes and larger ponds in the US - especially nearer the equator. However you'll not see the fish unless they're so close to you they get spooked.
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Dyofix if a lake is clear it will 100% start a growth of weed and other stuff. You going to need some items to naturally filter the water.

i.e lilly pads, reeds, floating plants e.t.c
 
Lovely clear water.

Update on mine yesterday with a bit of sun out. So the fish are down at 1.85m but there's still a little bloom I feel in the water.
5PNTQKe.jpg
 
Just done a test on my pond water....
PH - 8
NH - 0
NO2 - 0
NO3 - 5
KH - 7
GH - 12

Put a new 20,000ltr per hour pump in a few weeks back - water crystal clear and all levels seem very stable now.
Just in time for a quick week in Cornwall :-)
 
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