Koi ponds, is barley as good as a UV for preventing alage?

Question

Need to know the benifits of using barley over a UV.

Answer 1

If you've been using UV as an algae control, you'll find barley straw cheaper, for certain. It does have some limitation, in that it can't control what's already growing, it only prevents new algae. UV will do some things your barley straw can't - remove small, free-floating disease organisms.

Here's a bulletin put out by Pennsylvania State University College of Agricultural Sciences on its use: http://montgomery.extension.psu.edu/NResources/pond/straw-fs.pdf