ich and uv sterilizer

[EB847]

how effective is a uv in preventing ich? (no time or space for a qt)
wattage and pump suggestions for a 120g? (turbo twist)

[EB847]

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[SDguy]

No one can answer that question for you. The facts are:

1. Ich has a free swimming stage in it's lifecycle.

2. At the correct gph, the properly sized UV sterilizer can kill the free swimming stage of ich if it passes through the unit.

Beyond that, you'll have people tell you it absolutely works, and others say it doesn't do crap. All opinions.

From my own experience, my opinion is that it does help (to what extent I can't say) but it is not a "cure" for ich.

[jacmyoung]

I had ich problem until I added a 24w UV in my 120g tank, now my fish are ich free including some newly added ones that could not pass the ich test in the past. Obviously water quality will be very important, UV shouldn't be used to compensate for poor water quality.

[EB847]

is your 24w on all the time?

[SDguy]

I only use mine while adding new fish, and a few months after. Basically, once the bulb is done (6 months).

[Hal]

As mentioned above, you'll get a lot of different opinions. I looked at this awhile back when first setting up my QT. I chose not to use a UV sterilizer. It wasn't worth the money for only a partial solution. My online research (and I research just about everything) found that according to people that I respect based on past advice, a UV sterilizer can help, but most likely won't eliminate ich from your tank.

First, stated above, ich has a free-swimming stage that is the only stage that the UV sterilizer will kill. When it is already attached to a fish, or in the egg stage (usually stuck to the bottom of your tank), the UV sterilizer will do absolutely nothing.

Second, a UV sterilizer only runs some % of your tank water through it per hour. In theory after so many hours every little bit of tank water will have passed through the sterilizer. In reality, this usually isn't true. Therefore even some of the free swimming ich won't be killed.

Having said all that, the UV sterilizer will kill the free-swimming stage for any that pass through it, so it will help. It will kill any other parasite and I assume any bacteria that pass through it too.

If you really want to kill ich, there are only two treatments that are guaranteed to work 100%: hyposalinity or copper.:)

[jacmyoung]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8850461#post8850461 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by EB847
is your 24w on all the time?

Yes, I have only passed fish adding phase not long ago, after a few months I may reduce the UV usage and eventually may even stop it but will have one on standby just in case. Which is why my 24w is an inexpensive one, fully submerged self driven by a little power head. It currently actually sits inside my overflow box since I have no room left in my sump. When the time comes I only have to take it out of my overflow box and store it away.