just hooked up the uv last night

[Markandamber]

hopefully it will help with the small outbreak im noticing

[Markandamber]

also is the bulb usually good for a year... how do you know when it needs replaced

[MrTuskfish]

hopefully it will help with the small outbreak im noticing

Small outbreak of what?

[lhm nole]

what does a wiper do for these uv sterilizer?Keeps algae clean on quartz sleeve, bulbs should be changed every 6 months of 24 hour usage.... not going to debate if it helps with ich or not I have seen it work from my own experience but many on here believe it does nothing but algae control.

Also had people tell me cupramine does not cause hlle and I have seen first hand that it does and after removing it hlle reverses 100 percent.I think people should base their opinion on experience not what john doe did or said just my 2 cents

[MrTuskfish]

Keeps algae clean on quartz sleeve, bulbs should be changed every 6 months of 24 hour usage.... not going to debate if it helps with ich or not I have seen it work from my own experience but many on here believe it does nothing but algae control.

Also had people tell me cupramine does not cause hlle and I have seen first hand that it does and after removing it hlle reverses 100 percent.I think people should base their opinion on experience not what john doe did or said just my 2 cents

I agree, this forum is all about experiences. But one or two anecdotal accounts don't make something a universal fact. That's when more research is needed before the individual can make a decision; based on lots of info, not just one account.

[LargeAngels]

I've only found one study on ich and the use of UV. It was on freshwater ich and they used a multiple tank system and the conclusion was that it only helped in keeping the tanks without ich from getting it from the tanks that had ich. It did not help the tanks that had ich. In my experienc I have found the same to be true.

[MrTuskfish]

I've only found one study on ich and the use of UV. It was on freshwater ich and they used a multiple tank system and the conclusion was that it only helped in keeping the tanks without ich from getting it from the tanks that had ich. It did not help the tanks that had ich. In my experienc I have found the same to be true.

Yeah. If you look at the ich life cycle and know how UV works; curing or preventing ich would be impossible. Every single free-swimming ich parasite would have to be sucked into the UV (with proper flow & upkeep) before it found a fish host to keep the cycle going. That just seems 99.999% impossible.

[Chris27]

Yeah. If you look at the ich life cycle and know how UV works; curing or preventing ich would be impossible. Every single free-swimming ich parasite would have to be sucked into the UV (with proper flow & upkeep) before it found a fish host to keep the cycle going. That just seems 99.999% impossible.

+1

Better odds can be had at the craps table.....

There are some better treatments that have much better odds, copper and hypo to name a few.

[snorvich]

I've only found one study on ich and the use of UV. It was on freshwater ich and they used a multiple tank system and the conclusion was that it only helped in keeping the tanks without ich from getting it from the tanks that had ich. It did not help the tanks that had ich. In my experienc I have found the same to be true.

Likewise.

[MrTuskfish]

Likewise.

I spent a little time looking for UV/SW crypt studies and couldn't find any either. But, and I'm not trying to sound "uppity", that really doesn't surprise me. To me at least, the physics of UV/SW ich seems so obvious that no study could show anything other than the fact its impossible for a UV pump to catch all of the free-swimming ich. The life cycle of SW ich is well known and the mechanics of UV are obvious. Given the fact that some fish MAY become temporarily (how long?)immune after an initial ich outbreak ; any info that a study came up with would be useless anyhow. Just the fact that fish were ich-free after X weeks of UV would not mean anything, unless these same fish were kept under controlled conditions, and remained ich free---say for at least a year. IMO & IME; there sure are a lot of UV cured fish that suddenly are infested again. Because UV is usually used in a DT, just doing necropsy exams of fish wouldn't be evidence either, there are too many places for dormant ich to be waiting. Sometimes the obvious answer is correct, and I believe that "UV can't cure or prevent ich" is one of them.

[jcw]

personally, while i don't think ich can be cured 100% of the time by UV, I think it can help.

there are plenty of examples of ich "burning out" in a tank. In my mind, the ich for some reason fails to find a host during it's life cycle and dies. It's not a certainty that it will find a host. (Yes, I realize in some of those cases the ich infestation is subclinical.)

If an oversized UV helps prevent a few of those free swimming ich from reaching a host, then it's done it's job, in my mind. It just has to increase the chances of the fish avoiding continued re-infection.

I have one running on my observation tank.

[MrTuskfish]

personally, while i don't think ich can be cured 100% of the time by UV, I think it can help.

there are plenty of examples of ich "burning out" in a tank. In my mind, the ich for some reason fails to find a host during it's life cycle and dies. It's not a certainty that it will find a host. (Yes, I realize in some of those cases the ich infestation is subclinical.)

If an oversized UV helps prevent a few of those free swimming ich from reaching a host, then it's done it's job, in my mind. It just has to increase the chances of the fish avoiding continued re-infection.

I have one running on my observation tank.

Sure, anything that helps is a plus. I just hate to see hobbyists depend on UV to cure or prevent a real infestation of ich; giving false hopes while delaying a real cure just increases the mortality rate.