do uv sterilizers work at controling ich?

[bbreaux1]

ive been having a slight bout with ich lately and lost a flame angel part ofthe problem is im not home neough to take care of the tank and i have someone else to feed it i am mainly just home from friday to sunday. i was wondering if anyone has a uvsterilizer and how good is it at controlling ich or if anyone knows of the kind of record uvsterilizers have with ich. thanks for any help or replys

 

[kpogue]

I would have to disagree, they sure as H do a better job than garlic! There is alot of argument about the use of them in a reef tank. But my feeling is if it works for you, then do it. They do keep ich in check on your more ich prone type of fish.

 

[preluded]

I heard that ich only lives on th fish for 3 days then falls off and starts the cycle over. Ich also only has a 30 day life cycle. My hippo tang got ich about once every two weeks until I added my uv sterilizer. I added it 3 months ago and have not had any problems since. My water looks better it also eliminated my algea blooms. I am using a Coral Life Twister 9 watt sterilizer on my 55 gallon. I am very happy with the results I have seen.

 

[sebae0]

lilbuddy you are right regarding the info you pulled from the website. it all depends on the flow rate, age of the bulb. it will not kill ich on a fish the parasite has to be free floating same with the algae spore. but if the life cycle of a parasite has to swim it will get killed if the flow rate is right. i had a problem on a tank and added a uv and it took care of eveything down to the algae. one problem though when my bulb broke it leaked and got all over my floor.(aquanetics brand uv)

 

[bbreaux1]

thanks preluded teh csl 9w is the uv i have been looking at since its hang on the back like my other filters and seems a resonable price ive found it somewheres for 75$ so i think its a decent deal. youve got a hippo in a 55? hows that working out i like those fish but never seen any small healthy ones at lfs

 

[pferboy]

once i got my 135 i put in a lifeguard 25 watt uvs my fish did fine until i added a pbt. he got ich and i lost the pbt and 3 other fish. 2 months later i bought a french angel he got ich and lost 2 more fish. i'm not going to blame it all on the uvs, since i did not have a qt and was not as smart about keeping my fish as a am now. but everyone i have talked to tell me that they are great. so it is up to you if you can find one cheap enough you might as well try it. just remember there are dozens of things you can do to your tank and fish to prevent and get rid of ich, us them all.
good luck

 

[bbreaux1]

my flame angel was doing great ill right around thanksgiving it caught ich and died after ive had it for 6months and then one of the clowns had it all over and i thought she was a gonner but she shook it off. ive been feeding garlic with the food since i got the angel and i will keep feeding it maybe the person i let feed hadnt been putting enough but anyways think ill try the uv if anything else itll help keep algae down and ive found one for around 75$

 

[bbreaux1]

for those of you that do use the uv sterilizers what size and kind of pump do yall use ihave no sump so ill have to put it in the tank i plan on getting the 9watt csl double helix uv all ive seen is the rio 400 anyone know of alternatives to this pump thanks for any help

 

[preluded]

I hooked my twister uv inline with a filstar xp1 canister filter. The hippo tang has been in my tank for about a year. It gets along with the other fish. I have not had any problems with it.

 

[bklynz00]

I had a couple of break outs with Ich (before the UV sterilzer), and to my experience the UV sterlizer helped me a great deal. A couple of my fish had Ich on them. My UV sterilzer was running (this time)on the tank. I just monitored the situation for about 3-4 days with in a week, no fish showed signs of Ich. The white salt sprinkle on their bodies was gone ... just my own opinion !

 

[reef fool]

I used a 30 watt UV(3 times the size for my tank) that was lent to me by the LFS along with feeding w/ garlic and have not seen ich in 2 months on any of my fish. These two treatments helped, but until I found the reason for the stress which was causing the ich (high nitrates) and fixed that, I believe I would still have the ich problem even with the UV and garlic.