Do you run UV?

[tonyespinoza]

One of my favorite TOTM's from the past couple years was Phocuz's peninsular room divider. If memory serves, he ran UV. With all the focus (pun intended) recently on bacteria-driven systems, I'm curious what the current best practice is with regard to UV sterilizers. The very notion seems antithetical to the kind of ecosystems we're building. But sometimes I've found things that aren't entirely "popular" work great for me. For instance -- I love running filter socks. I run 3x 7" 10 micron socks... I've found my bubbleking is happy to work on what's left and in fact, the red dragon pump runs smoother longer without the extra buildup. If you have direct experience with UV, please share your experience!

[tonyespinoza]

thanks to those who have responded... for anyone who responded that it caused problems it would be great to hear what the problems were. also, for anyone who thought it worked great, it would be nice to know what they believe the effect was. less algae? healthier fish? ???

[NexDog]

I run one on my 50g QT. I'd have no qualms about putting one my main system but I'm trying to stay low tech. Running a QT with a UV makes a huge difference. As well as killing parasite it kills suspended algae. I have something in teh tank that doesn't go away with 100% water changes that causes massive algae blooms. My UV lamp recently broke and I did a 2 months QT cycle without UV. By the end of it I was having to do 80% water changes twice a week to keep the water from going completely cloudy green. Then I hooked up the UV and by morning the water was totally clear. I also find less diatom and algae buildup with UV so less cleaning.

I don't think UV kills bacteria (might be wrong) - it kills organisms so no worries about it killing nitrate eating bacteria. I don't think it has any cons whatsoever.

[HighlandReef]

not all the time, but i have read that uv helps skimming like ozone