Thread: Energy efficiency

I have my UV off all the time unless the water starts get a green tinge then it goes on until clear again. Last summer I’d usually put it on overnight for 1 night every week or two but been off all winter so far, same as my air pump although this would change with a moving bed. I also have my pump running at 25w although will increase in with feeding, that’s a 20k vario at 30%

I run an air lift at 55W (25W over the Winter) and a secondary pump at 25W for moving bed, etc, etc. This makes the 55W UV a major consumer in my system.
Firstly I only turned the UV back on last week (my pond is 100% in-ground and only heated to keep above 4C).
Second I fitted a low power photocell unit modded with a changeover relay so that the UV turns off when it gets dark.
Ran this all last year with no issues.

specs/size of pond and pictures would help.
pond gallonage, filter type, size, ect...

to reduce UV wattage if your pond is in full sun,
amalgam UV's have a far more output in the correct wavelength, so you can use less wattage than T5 or T8 tubes...
My UV hasn't been on since October, and won't be going back on until April/May when the intensity of daylight increases.

I'd second installing an Airlift on your pond. Super efficient, many benefits to running one and very few drawbacks.

My airlift and moving bio filter are powered by a 55w air pump. And my drum uses 11watts on standby. So the background running consumption for my pond is 67watts.

Or 107watts when my UV is on (which is about 2 hours a day in the summer).


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Probably best to do a search on this forum, as there have been a few threads, including one I made. But I'll try and describe it here.

Basically as air (e.g. from an air stone) rises in water, the upflow of bubbles causes water to flow up to the surface of the water as well. An Airlift is essentially capturing that flow of water within pipe work which replaces the need for a conventional pond pump.

To do this you bubble air into the bottom of a vertical pipe and then direct the flow of the water at the top of the pipe.

But it generally can only be used in a gravity flow situation - it can't really pump above the surface of the water to any height. So will work to flow water from say, a bio chamber back to a pond, but won't really work to pump water over a shower filter.

To see for yourself, shove an air stone to the bottom of a submerged vertical bit of pipe (so that the top of the pipe is just below the surface) in your pond. Turn on the air pump and the rising bubbles will cause water to be sucked into the bottom of the pipe, flow upwards and then flow out of the top of the pipe.

To configure it as a pond pump, you just need the bottom of the pipe to provide water from your filters, and then direct the flow at the top of the pipe into a submerged pond return.

Because the process relies on the air bubbles expanding as they rise, the vertical bit of pipe ideally needs to be between 1.5m and 2m long. It can be shorter, but as the bubbles won't expand as much, it will reduce the flow it produces.

My 13k litre pond has an air lift made from 4" black waste pipe that Is about 1.7m long. With a 40lpm air pump I can get up to around 20k LPH flow (although like any pump, the more restrictions, bends etc will reduce that). Basically more flow than my drum can handle!

So I run my entire pond with that. I don't use a pond pump at all. Just air pumps, a UV (occasionally) and a drum!

So on a big pond, with two airlifts made from 4" pipe, you could get around 40,000 lph of flow from an 80lpm air pump split between the two. Not bad for 55watts. And with no moving impeller, there's no moving parts to break. And less chance of blockages. Plus as it can't push above water level very well, It can't drain your pond down either. And it adds extra air to your pond too.

I genuinely believe that within 10 - 20 years, most gravity fed ponds will be built using airlifts. With conventional pond pumps reserved only for above water filters e.g. shower filters, water blades etc... or pressure filters e.g bead filters.

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So looking at your pond. It would work well to reduce the consumption of electricity if you currently pump water from your bio filter back to the pond.

But it won't help for your bakki shower/stream. There's no way around that other than dialling down the flow (if it's a variable pump).

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Originally Posted by stevo8003

my pond is approx 14m x 8m x 1.75m deep - I also have a baki shower at the head of a man made stream. The set up is currently drum with 2 x 80 watt amalgam's, moving bed and baki. UV wise I also have an evo 110 uv at the head of the waterfall and a 40 w bio UV (my most exp purchase in terms of uv as the others weren't effective alone -this year I intend to experiment with uv by seeing how well the bio uv copes alone then maybe switch on one amalgam - as I hear it helps keep drum screen clear- then see how that does before gradually switching others on; to see what my optimum level is. might also try a timer so they're only on during daylight hours..)
I also figure I need some water plants as haven't added any yet due to all my time being taken up sorting out probs with drum filter and water clarity etc

i think you are getting off light with a 14meter x 8 meter x 1.75 meter, 96,000 litres or 21,000 gallon pond
even turning it over just once every two hours you need to shift, nearly 50,000 litres of water.
but a flow friend pump would probably use less electricty.
https://www.absolute-koi.com/flowfriend-pump-pp3071/

but to reduce running costs you would need to look at low lift short travel filter design.
as TWNS has said an air lift from a bio close to the pond.
or low lift, high volume pump with bio close to the pond.

a high volume low lift pump, like an aqua forte HF vario
https://www.aqua-forte.com/product/a...vario-s55-000/