how long should i run my UV .

ivasawajin

ivasawajin

Member
i got a 220G reef tank and a UV ... how long should i trun it on ?? 12 hours a day ???should it be 24/7 ??? and i have a refigium .
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
Theoretically IMHO it should run 24/7, but what are your intentions of running a UV? These are debatable items by most, and I do have and have run UV. For it to kill or eliminate the pathogen must be in the water column for the UV to work.....
 
ivasawajin

ivasawajin

Member
my intentions are to eliminate parasites and reduce the chances of disease and prevent algae outbreaks . i run it 12 hours a day . is that enough?
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
I would say 24/7 again. That would be like putting your skimmer on a timer running it for 12 hours a day. How would you determine the most effective time to run the unit? You couldn't/can't so that's why I'd say if your going to run it; run it 24/7.
 
F

fishhugger

Guest
Just to back up what acrylic51 stated, because of the generally lower flow rate of the UV, your going to want it running longer. You may have already taken this into consideration, but just to be sure....for the UV to actually be affective the water running through has to be free of debri, and the water has to spend a fair amount of time under the UV light before it actually destroys the bacteria/parasites.
Point being, even if your flow rate is still 100gph, theres no way to be sure that even in 2 hours every molecule of h2o is passing through it, the same water may run through it multiple times before any other water does....if that makes sense.
So run it 24/7 =P
my .02
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top