Pond filters.. Uv or not to Uv?

Gday
I've been out of the pond game for a few years and Ive come back to discover
that many of the external filters now have inbuilt UV steralizers.. is it
generally accepted that these are the way to go now or is a
biological/mechanical only filter ok? I understand the UV can help reduce
greenwater, but are they worth the extra cost?

Thanks
Alan Meade

UV does exactly what you say: reduce green water. It does not serve
to do the bio or mechanical filtration that is also needed. If your
pond is well planted, you may benefit from the UV only at the start of
the season. Our pond, for instance, needs UV for a couple of weeks
right at the start of plant growth. After that, it is not needed. We
learned that after several seasons of running UV all season. Big
savings and loner bulb life come from just 2 weeks!

We prefer the seperate UV as our filter is a set of berm ponds rather
than a mechanical filter. We have not looked at the combination
units. I would think through whether that really suits your purpose,
whether you can operate one without the other, whether seperate
placement would be more convenient, etc. Other ponders may have
better advice on those things and on units they are using.

My _impression_ is that the units are not at all standard for ponders
here.

Jim

I do not use a UV. I keep my fish stocking low,
use plants and don't really mind the beginning
of the year murkiness.
I think it all depends on what you want out of
a pond, how your pond is set up and if you can
wait out green water.

k :-)
http://tinyurl.com/6bguh ~ new pond keeper info
http://tinyurl.com/yp64db ~ slide show of pond

I 've never looked into combo filters, but I have to have a uv filter,
otherwise I'm looking at pea soup the whole season in my pond. Granted, my
fish stock is higher then it should probably be, and because of that, they
wreak havock on my plants, so getting 40% coverage alays seems unobtainable
to me.

I live in an area where getting pond plants locally is difficult, and
shipping them have been a very mixed bag.

I prefer natural methods if possible, but I'm very happy with the
cost/performance that I've gotten from adding a uv filter, though it took a
while to get everything set up properly.

--
Gareee
(Gary Tabar Jr.)

thx for ur replies
if im motivated ill take pics etc of my setup once it gets going

thanks again
alan

"insanity101" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Gday
> I've been out of the pond game for a few years and Ive come back to
> discover that many of the external filters now have inbuilt UV
> steralizers.. is it generally accepted that these are the way to go now or
> is a biological/mechanical only filter ok? I understand the UV can help
> reduce greenwater, but are they worth the extra cost?
>
> Thanks
> Alan Meade