UV Sterilizer help!

[PoriferaBob]

I have a 110 RR that sits pretty high. There fore my pump is a Quiet One 4000 HH that is rated at around 900 gallons per hour. I have been looking into installing a UV inline. The problem Ive found is that any Sterilizer rated in the 90 - 125 gallon range has a acceptable flow rate much lower than 900 gallons per hour.
If I dont want to add a bunch of valves to my plumbing would there be any down side to simply installing a Sterilizer that is rated for say a 200 gallon aquarium??

By the way this is a FOWLR

[funman1]

I just use a tiny power head pump RIO.
It even has a ball valve that comes with it.
I can adjust the flow right where I need it for my UV.

[PoriferaBob]

Would there be any benefits though from simply using a bigger UV though... The way they were explained to me, the bigger the better. Or is over sterilization an issue?

[funman1]

As far as I know bigger won't make much diff.
It's the flow on the unit that's important, don't exceed it or there will not be enough contact time with the light.

[Aimforever]

I have a 25 watt Gamma UV on my 36 gallon tank... it is rated for WAY bigger. IME the bigger your UV the better. The reason most people complain UV doesn't do anything for ich is because they don't have enough flow going through their unit so that it can adaquetly reduce the population of the causative organism. I noticed clearer water and total elimination of ich when I introduced it to the system, and I attribute my sucesses to the fact that it was oversized.

[sjm817]

You want slow flow through a UV. Its all about exposure time. You want whatever goes though it to have plenty of time to get fried by the UV light,

[Tahlequah]

Most Ultraviolet Sterilizers are rated for a specific flow because you will not get any more die off with a slower flow, to increase the UV's kill % you will need to get a higher watt bulb.

Now the greener the water the longer exposure you will need to kill it all because of turbidity. But in most cases extending the exposure time for what the unit is rated for is wasted electricity.

If you wand to add more units use them in parallel and not in series. To explain a little better how this works is from aquariumfish.net :In order to effectively implement a multi body UV unit one must operate the lamps in parallel. For example, if I am operating two 40-watt lamps in parallel I effectively have an 80 watt UV. If I am operating two 40-watt lamps in series then I effectively have two 40-watt lamps each providing the same intensity which is not cumulative.

For a more indepth study on how a UV sterilizer works here is one of the better sources I have found. Link (http://www.aquariumfish.net/information/uv_sterilization.htm)

[Icefire]

You need 2 tee one/2 valve and be done.

[gh0st]

A 40 watt UV or two should be up to handling 900 gph. Go for the big models, not the tiny little toy UV's. Much better contact time, parasite control, and most of the bigger types can be resleeved instead of rerplacing the whole unit after a few years.