fountain hygiene

Fountain hygiene

Fountain hygiene is either forgotten or just not known about.

I thought i should write a few words regarding fountain filtration and hygiene. As you are probably aware, if you leave a glass of water long enough on a window shelf it will turn green, Some assume that if it is moving water (fountain or water feature) it will never turn green this is wrong, the green colour is actually algae which are fed from the nutrients in the water and light (so who wants a fountain that is always in the dark) rivers do not turn green with algae because they are constantly moving so it is always different water exposed to the sun, but in a fountain it is the same water being recycled.

Apart from the "green ness" of the water by having a hygiene system also kills any harmful bacteria, would you like it if some one caught say legionnaires disease from your fountain? bacteria and germs love water, they can actually live in the fine spray fountains produce.

Pond owners over come the green water by using a u.v clarifier and biological filter (this also reduces the pollution caused by fish waste) this method only makes the water clear, it does not disinfect the water.

The easiest way is to add either "chlorine" or "bromine" tablets but the water should be tested periodically to check on the levels of these products. We do recommend this option for "domestic" fountains since it is the cheapest. The chlorine or bromine actually kill algae preventing it form forming, so keeping the water clear, and also they kill any water borne disease.

The next option is to have a dedicated filtration and or dosing system. This consists of a slow rate dosing of a chlorine based compound, often it will be very tempting to "whack up the dose" but this can actually be very detrimental to a fountain, especially any aluminium parts as these will quite literally fall apart, as will brass nozzles but do not panic it will take time, depending on the concentration of the chlorine, too much and the metal will "dissolve" too little and germs will live. We have heard of a case where too much was added for some time and when it came to servicing the nozzles literally crumbled away, but that is rare.

Imagine a plaza fountain that is designed for people to "run through" and children being children will get exited and may just "relieve" themselves as they play, with out filtration / hygiene imagine what your child is running through.

Chemical dosing is good, but does not remove the solids, for example air-borne dirt, leaves etc, this is where solids filtration comes in, literally as the name suggests it removes solids.

The filtration of a fountain is important, but also consideration should be taken into account of how easy is the filtration to access, its no use having filtration if it can not be checked, replenished / cleaned as required.

Often large fountains opt to use a "sand filter" to mechanically clean the water

	This is a picture of a sand filter with its multi port valve. it is ideal for medium to large fountains. Approximate dimensions are 84 cm x 88cm tall it also requires 27kg of filter sand Please also note this is just the sand filter it also requires a heavy duty filter pump

There is also available "silver / copper ion" purification as opposed to the use of chemicals. Basically it uses electrolysis. It passes a very small current from one electrode to the other , and the silver ions kill any bacteria etc, it has the advantage that it does not change the pH value of the water.

PLEASE NOTE: Regretfully we are currently unable to supply any type of fountain filtration. We suggest you try a swimming pool supply company

It should also be pointed out that with these methods a separate room or chamber is required as these items are some what large. You can see a genuine pump vault on our page here