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Clarifier or Steriliser?
For Koi ponds.
Please Note…A UV Clarifier or Steriliser
is NOT a filter and should not be used in replacement of one.
I have been asked many times in the past about UV’s,
hence this article.
The answer in plain language Aussie style.
For the last 3 days I have been downloading,
printing, and reading in an attempt to acquire knowledge to answer the question so that everybody can understand, and after
typing in Google Search:- nanowatts, microwatts, microwatt seconds, UV wavelength, UV Clarifiers and Sterilisers.
Some
articles say use before the filter others say use after the filter, from the Dictionary to Sterilise: - to render sterile,
free from living germs, free from disease. Do these people expect us to believe that koi live in a near sterile environment?
Thousands of years ago Koi survived through drought and rain, mud and clear water from lakes, rivers, and dirty ponds,
is it any wounder people are confused.
If you want all the advertising (BS) about various products look it up as I did
then come back and reread the rest of this article. Then using your common sense, things my fall into place and you may save
some dollars.
The reason many may be reading this is because you have an algae problem or just plain green water in
your pond. Let me first point out that UVc at 254 nanometers will disrupt the DNA of algae so that it doe’s not reproduce,
at about 34,000 “mws/cm2”(microwatt seconds per square centimetre ) as long as the water is not dirty! And the
quartz tube is clean. That’s a Clarifier and a Steriliser kills all germs, good and bad it all depends on the “mws”,
(flow rate, mws/contact time), the greater the wattage and/or slower the flow the greater the kill.
Kill power: - Algae
34,000 mws, Ich 50,000mws, Chilodinella 240,000 mws.
For over 20 years I have never had green water, white spot, fungus,
lice, anchor worm, any parasites or bacterial problems, therefore I challenge, **Any Company** that can convince me why I
should stop my pond maintance practices and have a UV on my 60,000 lt pond with 70 large koi in it.
Fish live on algae
in fact we feed our fry and water flees green water, it’s the bottom of the food chain essential to life. Algae can
reproduce itself 30 times an hour in the sun, the only reason we have clear water is we like to look at our prise koi.
First
let’s get the mind into perspective.
If you’re ever out in the mountains would you drink from a running stream
of from a still pond?
If you have an empty canteen and sterilising tablets you can fill it up from the still pond and
add the tablets, shake it and then wait till it’s sterilised for drinking, yes?
Now I ask you if you have a UV Steriliser
on your koi pond would you drink from your pond. ?
Fish live in our back yard ponds we add plants, food, sunlight,
new fish, dirt, dust, leaves and many other articles. The fish produce waste, ammonia, carbon dioxide, and usually live with
pathogens and parasites in a large volume of enclosed water as well as all the mulm accumulated in the system. Fish need some
bacteria like we do to survive, the biofilm on the pond walls and bottom, they need, to keep the water clean, *see* (understanding
filtration). Green water is in fact beneficial to the koi’s colouring, we feed our fry on it, the Japanese over winter
their koi in rice ponds and mud dams.
How long would you survive in an enclosed room without filtration
or sanitation? It’s the same with our koi, their home is contained so we remove the waste products, filter their environment
to make it less toxic. I have mentioned in other articles about bottom drains and settling tanks and a filter that is adequate
for the pond volume and stock rate.
Have I had an Algae problem *YES* in the first year of my new pond becoming operational.
But only because I was crook and could only clean the settling tanks once a month. The build up of sludge and waste produced
was too much for the new filter to handle. I had 30 cm long algae growing on the bottom of the pond, my then 70 cm 8kg Ogon
use to hide in it but the water was still clear with 90% shade cloth over the pond.
After a month of brushing to remove
the bottom algae with a yard broom and cleaning the settling tanks every week then topping up with fresh water no more string
algae, that was in 1996 and never green or string algae again.
Have I used an UV *YES* once for 6 months when I had the
above problem and I never used it again, once I started the proper maintance program (I could not see any difference) at $100
per new tube every year, I would rather spend it on a new koi.
THE FACTS JACK
Algae need sunlight and Nitrates
(fertilizer and photosynthesis).
The key words are *light and fertilizer*
In a koi pond you will never kill all the
parasites, let me repeat that **in a koi pond you will never kill all the parasites**, that’s why you said *NO* to (would
you drink from your pond). A UV will be useful for small parasites and algae in an unshaded pond, (depending on the unit used)
but do not rely on it for total parasite control. Some parasites are happy on the fish, and do not traverse your filter.
NATURES
WAY
For algae control: - shade your pond, clean your settling tanks regularly, and replace some water, have an adequate
filtration system.
For parasite control: - 0.3% salt in your pond it will eliminate seven out of nine parasites, and there
are many other benefits *see* (Salt for koi ponds), AND quarantine new fish.
KEYWORDS: - pond management.
Article
by
H. Watson.
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