Can anyone reccomend a good UV sterilizer?

c2rn

c2rn

Member
I am considering getting a UV sterilizer. Does anyone have any recommendations for a reliable one? A LFS tried to sell me one that was made for ponds and was 8 watts. What should I look for when I go to get one? How many watts will a 50g tank need? None of my local stores have any sterilizers besides the pond one. Does anyone know where I might get one online or of any stores that carry it in the San Francisco Bay Area? Thanks! :)
 
goofieones

goofieones

Member
A good one is the Aqua UltraViolet, you can order them online, just do a search of that name and you will find a place that sells them. I have a 15 watt for my 75, your best bet is to see what the UV you get recommends for your size tank.
 
tanker newbie

tanker newbie

Member
personally i think everyone will agree with me that uv sterlizers are sort of a LITTLE like protein skimmers, some will stick to the brands they had experiance with and others will try diffrent things.
i dont know anything about the aqua ultraviolot but i will admit that i have heard good revews about it
personally i like the double pass U2 uvs for the simple design but even more than that you get 1pass with ultra vlight going into the uv, then the same water gets another blast of uv on its way out, i think its sort of like more bang for the buck
but with uvs every company is diffrent and its like sneakers now, for instance in nike i might wear a 12 but in adidas i might wear and 11 1/2 or 11, wattage on the uvs varys with each company and whatever uv you pick just make sure that your getting the right sized pump doing the right amount of gph
 
goofieones

goofieones

Member
Not to bad mouth the Double Pass UV, but I had a bad experience with one. It was the first one we bought and the tank was just set up and we noticed it dripping by one of the connections, as we were looking and trying to fix this connection, the other one suddenly broke, and splish splash the carpet was takin a bath, we lost about 2 gallons until we pulled the right cord and turned off the pump. I think we just had a faulty one, so I'm sure it would have worked great if this didn't happen.
 
tonga

tonga

Member
I run U2 double pass on all my fo/fowlr tanks, the u2 double 8 watt will apparently will work for up to 125G but i dunno if thats true.. I always used the higher wattage ones.
 
c2rn

c2rn

Member
Thanks for your input everyone ;). I was wondering is the Aqua a double pass sterilizer?
 
tanker newbie

tanker newbie

Member
its not a double pass, but its suposdly a stronger light
rember what i was talking about on my last post about the sneakers bit, an 8 watt aqua ultraviolot is a little stronger than an 8 watt double pass, but then again its doulbe pass ya know, but i will admit 1 thing after i got my uv i heard one of the sharks(i think it was sammystingray) that has 3 of them and 1 of them was an 8 watt and heard the manufacture had problems with the 8 watt model, i have it but i never had anyproblems smoth running since i got it about 7 months ago
 
pufferlover

pufferlover

Active Member
Sea Storm U2 Double Pass is a good one for the money. I have 3 of them and find the 8 watt is worhtless but the 15's work fine. I had been warned the 8 watts didn't work well but bought one of those and sure enough in a couple months it went out and I had to send it back for replacement (they took their sweet time almost 5 weeks to send a new one). Now that it is back I have not set it up as I really do not trust the 8 watt now. The 15's have worked perfectly.
 
ironreef

ironreef

Member
aqua are good but if I were to use a uv get a big one 15w. at least the flow can be higher and have a higher kill rate or you can still run it slow with more killing power. aqua are good cuz you can get a wiper. = wipes the bulb clean= salty bulb is n't effective. A bigger uv will work good then you don't need to debate about which is better double or single pass. Both suck if the bulbs dirty so make sure it has a wiper.
 
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