UV is it needed?

[vippymini]

in answer to your conserns the vortex has a plastic cover which clips over the top. it was removed to take the photos...

[Gin Rin]

in answer to your conserns the vortex has a plastic cover which clips over the top. it was removed to take the photos...

Phew that's a relief. I didn't want anyone coming to harm, eyesight is a precious thing.

[vippymini]

cheers,
the results are great with this arrangement,i dont think it should be done willy-nilly but the tubes can cover the whole vortex as the water passes through. and absolutely no restriction of flow, which is important as the pond doesn't have any pumps on it to pull or push the water around.
the UV tubes were on for about a week and all the water-Born algae was gone. its been turned off since then and no algae have returned. (yet ).
if your filters are under decking or in a filter house then surely this is a fairly good idea if caution is used to shade the UV tubes. oh and its cheaper

[kayoss]

Hi Jane

Sounds like a good idea (my filters are under decking ) but won't the UV kill off the good bacteria in your biological stage if you don't shield it properl from the UV light?

Cheers

[vippymini]

hey, do you have any good bacteria in a vortex?
you flush it often so most would go down the drain anyway !!
in ours its outside the "bin-eazy" so the dead clumped together algae and stuff gets caught before the biological stage.

[kayoss]

Hi Jane

Sorry if you thought I was suggesting you are damaging your bio stage - I was actually asking a question rather than commenting on your set up.

I have my vortex/easy and 2 bio chambers fairly close together under the same decking. I am just wondering if any UV light spilling over from the vortex would affect the good bacteria in the bio stage - or will UV only kill off algae and not harm the good bacteria (unlikely I'd think, but might as well ask to be sure!)?

Cheers

[vippymini]

Bob, all you have to do is cover it with a piece of tarp or such l;ike material.
and on another note how far does UV light penetrate water ?