Water Gardens Gazette number 301

Comments are always very welcome. They encourage us to do
better.

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This edition includes ....................

1. Free pond calculator as promised (all calculators are
in Microsoft Excel .xls format)
2. Ultra violet light to keep all water features sparkling
3. Importance of pipe diameter and length
4. This edition's quick tips
5. New articles:
6. Address where all editions can be found and where you
can ask questions we will try to answer

Subscribe and unsubscribe information

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1. FREE POND CALCULATOR ...............

As promised when you subscribed you will be able to get a
free calculator by going to the following web address.

Free pond calculator one of a series of 12 pond calculators to collect

This is the first of a series of 12 that will be provided
at the rate of 1 every normal edition (not special editions).

This edition's free calculator is one of the most popular.
It is "The Complete Pump" selector.

INSTRUCTIONS TO DOWNLOAD:

All you need to do is go to the web page above and click the
link. The calculator will open up in Excel automatically. Save
the file to your selected folder.

You can learn about what each calculator does by visiting:

Learn about all the water garden ponds calculators here

Of course you can get all 12 calculators free in one go by
buying my book "Your Pond: Crystal Clear Water Guaranteed."
Read more about it here:
Receive all 12 FREE water garden ponds calculators when you buy my book

Today's calculator allows you to calculate easily, quickly &
very accurately the correct pump specification details for
your own particular situation. It will handle USA, Imperial
and Metric measurement systems.

Understanding the pumping requirements of any pond is very
essential to getting good performance and at the same time
saving money. How to save money calculators will be available
in future issues.

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2. ULTRA VIOLET LIGHT Clarifiers (UV's for short) ........

The one single piece of pond equipment that will improve the
year round appearance of any water outdoor feature more than
anything else is the UV light.

Sometimes called an Ultra Violet sterilzer (even UV filter
- it is not a filter of any kind). It does only one job:

It kills suspended algae in any pond system.

It works every time without fail so long as specified properly.
All that has to be done to make sure it continues to work year
in and year out is to change the UV lamp every 8,000 hours
or so (about every year).

Here is basic information about UV light and what it does:

Algae are plants and therefore need food and oxygen and
sunlight to grow and survive. Like most of us the more food,
the more oxygen and the more sunlight the better and bigger
the algae grow. In the right conditions the algae grow at an
explosive rate - 30 times per hour!!

The usual problem encountered is that of green water sometimes
brown which does not go clear and even after changing the water
the algae re-appears very quickly and this happens even if you
have a filter installed perhaps.
Green/brown cloudy water is normally caused by these millions
of algae remaining suspended in the water. Each algae is about
4 microns in diameter (1 micron is 1 millionth of a metre or
very very very small). A filter cannot remove such small items.

Algae growth is most common in ponds where conditions are most
suited to their requirements - lots of fish being fed lots of
food, warm water as it is in summer, and strong sunlight.

When a pond is badly infected by green water then your fish can
all suddenly die and this happens overnight normally.
The reason is again simple and is because algae are plants ...
they produce oxygen during the day but they produce carbon
dioxide at night by taking oxygen out of the water.
Algae in large mass can totally deplete the oxygen from a pond.
The fish therefore suffocate. This is also very much more common
in heat wave situations because at higher temperatures water can
hold less oxygen anyway.
To discover more and also learn how to specify the correct UV
go to this site to learn a lot about garden ponds and algae and how to resolve the problems created permanently

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3. Importance of PIPE DIAMETER and PIPE LENGTH for a pond ...

Hopefully you have decided to download the free calculator from
Free pond calculator page

By inserting different values for length and diameter you
will see amazing impacts upon pump specification.

You might find it difficult to believe but using small diameter
pipes (especially long lengths) can reduce your pump flow to a
trickle.

Pipe diameter has a bigger impact than pipe length im most cases.
Always use the biggest diameter pipe you can and always have the
shortest length,

In future Gazettes we will talk a lot about pumps and pumping
systems because this is the source of live-giving oxygen to your
fish and plants as well as your biofilter's bacteria.

In meantime consider going to our compehensive pond pumps site covering all you need to know about pond pumps and their uses. where
there is a large amount of information on pump selection.

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QUICK TIPS QUICK TIPS QUICK TIPS QUICK TIPS
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Today's quick tips - all these will be explained in future
editions .......................

A. Never switch off your pond pump for more than about 60 minutes
if you keep fish.

B. The main reason for a biofilter in a pond is NOT to filter the
water. It is to purify the water by removing offending chemicals.
These chemicals are actually produced by the fish themselves by
virtue of their normal breathing, eating and toilet behaviour.

C. Do not buy fish food with more than 10% ash in it unless you
know why. Read the label. Fish food in stick form is normally
money wasted and offers no real benefit to the fish. If no label
BE CAREFUL of quality.

D. Make sure the delivery pipe from the pump is not kinked
or is being restricted by a build up of algae inside the pipe.

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New articles published on our web site ...............

In case you are not aware of the articles we publish by leading
experts in the water gardening field take a look at one of our main sites which
covers all kinds of topics related to water gardening where you will see the list.

Peter May, one of the leading UK contributors, is just starting his
own website and maybe you would like to see what he has to say
there. This is his web address where you will find the details:
of the Perfect Pond Detective He would appreciate your
visit.

Peter is a real expert in the practice of water gardening. He
even dug all his own holes for many years. He offers consulting
services and does talks at very modest rates throughout the UK.

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