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Monday, Dec. 12, 2011, 7 p.m. EST
Proper Use of Ultraviolet Systems
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Text and photos by Rick Bartel
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| Algae problems are common complaints from pond owners. | In a never-ending quest to eradicate algae from water feature systems, many pond owners do not apply the technology or size the ultraviolet systems properly to the water features in question. In addition, pond owners usually do not fully understand the role of algae in water. Many times water feature contractors hand down this misinformation.
First, we must remove the notion that all algae is bad. Algae plays an integral part of live aquatic ecosystems. Instead, we need to understand how to control algae without necessarily removing it completely.
A pond owner once confronted me as a water feature contractor because of the company shirt I was wearing at the time. She told me about a serious algae problem encountered in her pond. After hearing her story, I suggested an ultraviolet system, to which she rolled her eyes and moaned.
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| Ultraviolet systems do work when properly sized to the water feature and application. |
“That is what everyone tells me, but they don't work," she said. "I wasted my money.”
I kindly apologized to her and explained that ultraviolet systems do work when properly used. I offered to visit her pond, and she agreed. Upon arrival, I immediately recognized the problem and formulated a way to help this pond owner understand her particular and common situation.
The pond owner was wearing a sweatshirt with a local high school football team logo on it. When I asked if she enjoyed high school football, she perked up, proclaimed her status as a proud grandmother of a first-string quarterback and said she never misses a Friday night football game. I asked how she would watch her grandson play if the entire football field were lit by a single 25-watt light bulb. She looked at me like I was crazy and said she would not be able to see him play nor would he be able to see his receivers or running backs. I told her this was exactly what was done to her pond.
Ultraviolet light systems do work, but they must be sized properly to the individual water feature application. This owner treated her pond with a unit so small that it never had a chance to overpower the vast algae bloom taking place. She had lit her football stadium, a 3,200-gallon pond, with a tiny 25-watt light bulb in the form of an 8-watt ultraviolet system. She immediately had a look of understanding on her face and no longer goes around bashing industry products because she now understands how the products actually work.
Today's pond contractor must go beyond designing and installing water features. They need to fully understand how each component really works and then pass along this valuable information to end users.
Ultraviolet light is administered successfully and accomplishes its task when the light's intensity and the length of exposure time are met properly. Without meeting these critical guidelines, the ultraviolet system never has a chance to succeed.
When sizing an ultraviolet unit to a water feature, use this simple rule of thumb: Allow no more than 90 gallons of water for each watt of ultraviolet light for clarification purposes and no more than 60 gallons of water for each watt of ultraviolet light for sterilization purposes.
Another more successful way to handle these problems is for pond contractors to design systems from the beginning that can handling algae issues. Most of today’s algae problems center on clearing up the problem after it reared its ugly head. Instead, design a system that will control the algae from Day 1, and let the end user enjoy years of an algae-free water feature.
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