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Water Filter. The filter is my own design and has proven to be the most efficient one that I ever used. It is a submersible type that sits on the bottom of the pond and connects to a piece of ¾” flexible tubing that runs from the filter to the intake side of your UV Light. Then another piece of ¾ flex tubing runs from the output side of the UV Light to the intake nozzle of your water pump. Finally, the output side of your water pump either allows the output to flow back into the pond, or if you have a waterfall or fountain, you can attach one more piece of ¾ flex tubing to the pumps outlet nozzle and use that to supply the waterfall or fountain. Obviously, the water pump is the workhorse of this whole operation since it draws water from the pond, through the filter, through the UV Light, and then through the pump itself. So as you can see, the larger the pump, the faster the flow.

This is a pretty straightforward hookup. You may find it a bit different depending on your choice of water filter. Some filters are designed to be used outside the pond, and I used one of those when we first put our pond in. It gave us a lot of trouble, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise because it got me thinking that I could make a better filter. So I did, and we’ve been using it for the past 6 years, with no trouble I might add.

UV Lights also come in submersible and above ground designs. I would recommend the submersible type again, mainly because that’s the type we have always used, and other than a couple of bulb replacements, it has never been any trouble.

A note on connecting tubing. It is ¾ flexible as stated previously, and it comes in clear or black. Your tubing will be cut to different lengths as you use it and I’ll provide some examples here. You should cut the first piece (from the water filter to the UV Light) long enough so that you will be able to pull the water filter up out of the pond for cleaning without disturbing the location of the UV Light. This length will depend somewhat on the depth of your pond and where on the edge of the pond you can set the filter down for cleaning. Of course the tubing from the UV Light to the pump only needs to be a foot or two because once those two items are positioned there will be little need to move them. The length of the last piece of tube depends on whether or not you have a waterfall or fountain. If you don’t, you won’t need any at all. If you’re feeding a waterfall, then run whatever length you need from the outlet side of the pump to wherever you begin to feed the waterfall.