UV sterilizer pros and cons?

[foster200]

I have been thinking about getting a UV sterilizer for my tank, but I havent made up my mind yet.

What is your opinion?

What are the pros and cons?

Thanks

[AARON167]

My fish were always sick or dying, I put a uv sterilizer in and now no sick or dying fish. I have a mixed 90g tank and have not noticed any negative effects with my corals. I have been running a uv ster. for about 3 years. If you do decide to run one, its very important to change the bulbs as per manufactures recommendations, for mine its every 9 months. Also about every 2 months or so I have to clean the glass sleeve that the bulb fits into, it gets corroded. Good luck.

[steelersfan]

I think that you will find the following link very helpful. It was written by Lee Birch.

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/...7-uv-u-me.html

[2006]

I have used them successfully and did not notice any negatives. Make sure to do your research so you use the proper size and flow rate based on what you want to zap.

Here is a good place to start:

Ultraviolet Sterilization

[Aquarist007]

If you have one I would use it, if not a wouldn't spend the hefty price on them. Most of the uv's just don't process enough of the water column to accomplish what the manufactureres claim they do.
I am really leary when the manufacturer claims they will irradicate ich. There are really 3 preferred methods for treating ich and all involve the use of a quarantine tank

An alternative---I use a quarantine tank for all new purchases--fish corals and inverts.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

What do you want it to accomplish?

I've never believed there was a suitable potential benefit to my system to warrant getting one.

[kbb0118]

tagging along

[Billybeau1]

Randy, Although I do not use it anymore, I used one a few years ago when I had a problem with cloudy water. Turns out the cloudiness of my tank (in my situation) was very tiny animals (don't remember what they were), but within 1 week of usage, my tank was as clear as a bell.

It was very useful in my situation and could be for others. As I said though, once the tank cleared up, I took it off line.

One thing is for sure. With the proper flow rate, it will kill anything that enters it.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Yes, I don't doubt its utility with things like phytoplankton blooms and such that you'd want to remove.

They are fairly uncommon, however. I don't think I've ever had one that I noticed.

[foster200]

I had an ich outbreak a while back and I QT'd all of my fish and left my tank farrow for the recommended 9 weeks. Stupidly, I bought another fish from a LFS who run copper in all of their fish tanks and said that it was 100% ich free.. so i tossed it in. yes, i know.. very dumb. WELL... I now have ich. Im not going to go through the fish removal process again, it was horrible. I was thinking that if i run one of those in my 180 then some of the ich that is now in there would die off.. or at least be kept at bay. Only a few fish have a few spots on there fins.. everyone is really healthy and happy..so im thinking that it should work.. right? maybe?

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The ich will often go away by doing nothing other than keeping a good tank, so yes, adding a UV will probably also work. But a UV is not generally thought to be very effective with ich as it need not pass through the UV to keep the tank infected. The ich organsims are also hard to kill by UV even if they pass through it.

Here's a thread:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...php?p=16693304

and

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...php?p=16333188

[HighlandReefer]

This is a chart that provides information on the amount of UV it takes to kill different types of organisms in a single pass.

Required Microorganism UV Dose (per single pass through UV Sterilizer)
http://www.w-m-t.com/library/pdf/UV-...Dose_Chart.pdf

Cryptocaryon Irritans (marine white spot or ich) = 280,000 μWs/cm²
Bacteria take around 4,000 - 11,000.
Algae = 22,000

It is my understanding that most hobby grade UV units can only kill bacteria & some algae.

[HighlandReefer]

Another article which provides information regarding UV use:

ULTRAVIOLET STERILIZATION (How UV sterilization works) . This article explains the benefits and myths about aquarium and pond uv sterilization; By Carl Strohmeyer
http://www.americanaquariumproducts....ilization.html

[wooden_reefer]

Most UV are not effective against ich but are effective in drastically reducing the waterborne concentration of bacteria (and algae and viruses) for fish.

What good does drastically reducing the waterborne bacteria do?

It promotes the sufficiency of non-specific defenses like some white blood cells and then allows the development of antibodies.

I'd say IME with UV the incidents of external bacterial infections are reduced 70-80 percent, no tank wide epidemics had occurred.

Most people run the UV too fast.

Personally, I will always stock new fish with a UV in QT and then in DT for a couple of months. I will not be at such disadvantage as to go without.

UV has almost no cons when in use, except in some fringe applications. Or some technical problems with leakage for some models. UV degrades most drugs so cannot be used with most drugs; straight copper is OK.

I also tend to think that UV with quartz sleeve is more efficient at the same wattage.

[syrss]

Originally Posted by AARON167

My fish were always sick or dying, I put a uv sterilizer in and now no sick or dying fish. I have a mixed 90g tank and have not noticed any negative effects with my corals. I have been running a uv ster. for about 3 years. If you do decide to run one, its very important to change the bulbs as per manufactures recommendations, for mine its every 9 months. Also about every 2 months or so I have to clean the glass sleeve that the bulb fits into, it gets corroded. Good luck.

Hi Aaron, just wondering which unit do you have.

TIA,
Ron

[Billybeau1]

I also agree that a UV sterilizer should not be plumbed in line with the return pump. Way too much flow. The bulb needs surface time to kill.

It can be added with a separate small pump to match the flow of the manufacturers recommendation for the optimum kill rate. And bulbs do only last about 9 months or so as others have said.

I believe one thing I read above. Few cons but a number of possible pros.

On the ich thing, it certainly won't do anything to the parasites that have come attached to a host as the ich has to travel through the unit to be killed. It could certainly be useful in a fallow tank however.

[terri_ann]

I have one of the older Lifeguard UV's. When I had cichlids, I had problems with the fish getting sick as well as algae problems. It made a huge difference with those tanks! I am not currently using it with my SW DT. I will use it for my QT tank though ;-)

[shannon97]

can u use a uv on a reef tank would it kill my coral; i mean uv sterilizer uint

[HighlandReefer]

I would not use overhead UV lights on a reef aquarium. Many hobbyists experience coral death and/or problems when the glass UV shields brake on Metal Halide lights. You can run the tank water through a proper UV light setup for this puropse.

[lordofthereef]

I had a fantastic research article bookmarked but has since been lost. Let me see if I can find it.

[lordofthereef]

Here it is. I no longer enter the debate of how useful UV sterilization can be in an aquarium. I throw up this link and let the reader decide.

http://www.int-res.com/articles/meps/6/m006p295.pdf

[AQD_ottawa]

Speaking of recent experience, only use for a UV IMO is for cloudy water (got rid of mine in 4 hours!) if you want parasite control then QT or ozone (controlled and with caution).

Apparently if you run ULNS then UV and ULNS do not mix, so use in emergencies only.

[terri_ann]

Originally Posted by shannon97

can u use a uv on a reef tank would it kill my coral; i mean uv sterilizer uint

You can use a UV sterilizer on a reef tank but make sure the water flowing throught it does so slowly, as per the manufacturer's instructions/ratings. The longer the contact time of the water with the light from the UV, the more effective the unit

[jdthomas24]

i run the 40 watt Aqua UV light and here is the secs on it. As far as slow flow it recommends to not go above 2900 GPH, i have about 1000GH running through it.

As a sterilizer: Maximum flow rate: 2900 GPH. 1200-2000 Gallons size.

As a clarifier: Maximum flow rate: 3000 GPH, up to 6000 Gallons size which may require 50% to 75% plant coverage.

[Boomer]

I agree with Cliff and Wooden Reefer


As far as this goes

Here it is. I no longer enter the debate of how useful UV sterilization can be in an aquarium. I throw up this link and let the reader decide.

I do not know how you are reading that, as that is for pathogenic bacteria and fungus and says nothing about ecotparasites, nor do any of his comments or cited refs. As Cliff pointed out, you need 280,000 μWs/cm² for "ick" and this is backed up by the work of Escobal, who also gives full blown equations on amount of UV for Zap dosage, wattage, flow rate, dwell time, depth dissipation etc. and Zap Rates for many organisms.

UV's for us do 3 things.

1. Reduce the bacterial count of the water column, which corals and filter feeders NEED to feed off of. They will kill off much of your plankton count. They are fine for a FOT and not a good idea for reef tanks.

2. Reduce and often greatly help, even cure taking care of "Green Water" issues and killing off white clouded bacterial explosions.

3. Certain ones will add a wee-tad of ozone to the system.

And that is it I see them as a disadvantage in a reef tank, other than # 2, when and if needed.