UV Light application?

[Gaijin01]

I have had a 1400 gallon pond for 15 years, but I still consider myself a newbie. I recently re-dug and lined it and put in a bahama skimmer which I am loving. I now have a bit of "pea soup" and want to put in a UV sterilizer. I have a 5200GPH pump inside the skimmer box and in addition from getting water from the skimmer opening I have a gate valve going to a pipe that leads to a drain basket in the middle of the deepest part of the pond so it takes in water from both locations and I can adjust the gate valve to change the ratio of the two sources. THe water goes from the skimmer up my yard which powers a stream that feeds back into the pond.

I want to put in the UV light but avoid hampering flow too much, my initial thought was to just put the UV light in line behind the skimmer as the water goes back up to the stream, but I was thinking if it would work I would like to install the UV light inside the pond just behind the skimmer basket, would that be enough flow? If I were to close the gate valve in the skimmer cutting off flow from the drain basket would that cause damage to the UV light? Thanks in advance.

 

[GBBUDD]

I'm not a fan of uv lights . while they are great for killing water born green algae it is also great at creating food for algae in the way of dead algae. Those here have said time and again to folks as I just built myself my first pond . I did get the green water for a short time but it went away on its own rather quickly without any v or algae away or any other such product.

 

[Lisak1]

I don't know much about installing UV lights except the water needs to flow slowly past them or they lose effectiveness.

I am not a big believer in using UV lights - they do work, but my feeling is if they are killing the single cell algae, what other tiny, microscopic things are being killed? And as @GBBUDD said, if you want to feed the algae growth in the pond, add dead algae!

A better approach is to ask yourself why you have green water. The nutrient levels in your pond are too high. Sometimes it's a result of high fish load or overfeeding, but more commonly it's just a new pond. Your pond needs time to balance itself, develop a bio-film on the liner and let the plants get busy consuming the nutrients in the water. Leave it alone and it will clear - guaranteed - without the cost or hassle of adding UV.

 

[Gemma]

In my 3800gl pond I have a 55w UV light hooked up to a 530gph pump, I only turn it on in the Spring and Summer time and my water never goes through any algae stage
It is my understanding that the slower the water passes through the light bulb, the more effective the system will be so just make sure that the size of the UV bulb is adequate to the size of your pond and you can hook it up to a few hundreds gph pump (or less depending on pond volume/UV bulb size)

 

[j.w]

@Gaijin01 No using of the UV lights in my pond.

 

[Gaijin01]

Thanks for the replies. As I said I have had the pond for 15 years, and the 50' stream filled with rocks is well established even if it is a new fill on the pond itself, we have had algae problems for years and years, the "pea soup" is new but I can't feel like the UV will actually create MORE algae...I just don't buy that. The water would be passing through verrry slowly, after all the way the drain basket is hooked up to the skimmer, it's basically gravity fed, and perhaps a minimal amount of suction created by the pump activity in the skimmer box. It sounds like the minimal flow wouldn't really be a problem then? The light doesn't have any valves or anything? I have never owned one. I don't want the flow to cease altogether if I hinder it at all. Thanks again for all your help.