After an exceptionally rainy winter with lots of wind and debris in our pond, followed by an exceptionally nasty Spring with cool temps and more rain, we ended up with pea soup pond water for the first time in years. We spent about a week on and off backwashing, changing water, mucking the bottom out. Still soup and with the arrival of warm temps and some nice weather we began to wonder what was going on. The normal Spring algae bloom was totally out of control.
That's when the "light bulb" went off. The original light bulbs in the UV filter had functioned for 7 years and one was in the "flicker" stage and one had expired completely. We ordered just one replacement bulb to see if that indeed was the problem, waited 5 days for it to arrive while the "soup" continued to simmer. (Remember that the fish don't mind the soupy water, but it has an unpleasant aroma and doesn't make for a pleasant water feature.)
Within 24 hours of replacing the single bulb, you could see the bottom, and within 48 hours the water looked like a fine quality gin! Clear as a cold martini and time to get up close and personal with the pond puppies again!
It was a true "Duh!" moment when we thought to check the bulbs!
You can read more about our pond at this link about the expansion a couple of years ago http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/444582/
And a couple of older threads:
http://davesgarden.com/t/394997/
http://davesgarden.com/t/422174/
Happy ponding and CHECK THOSE BULBS if you have a UV filter!
A Light Bulb Went Off........literally !
