UV Lights

[jon in tx]

A couple of people had posted on another thread about UV lighting (under their tank?) killing algae in your tank. Can anyone elaborate on this? If I buy a UV light, I won't have to wipe my glass all the time with the Mag Float? Will it kill the growth of hair algae or the little pink spots that grow on the back of the glass/tank? :notsure:

 

[michaeltx]

uv sterilizers will only kill what passes through it but is indiscrimant it will kill everything that passes through.
I dont like them and others swear by them. it a choice you wil have to make and decide on your own. just keep in mind that it kills EVERYTHING including pods and other good stuff aswell as the bad stuff parasites and algae spores.
Mike

 

[jon in tx]

Forgive my ignorance - what kind of good stuff will it kill and what is the potential impact?

 

[fender]

Think of it this way...really really small things get eaten by really small things which get eaten by small things which get eaten by fish and corals. You eliminate the really really small and really small with UV. Small has nothing to eat. So they go away too. Now if you have fish and corals that don't need to eat live small things (or smaller) you are probably fine. If you ever plan to have a mandarin or other fish that need small live things to be healthy and happy over the long run I wouldn't get one.
Really really small and really small:
plankton - phytoplankton, zooplankton, bacterioplankton

 

[dirty-d]

you could get a ro-di unit with a built in uv for whenever you do your water changes and i dont think that would effect the pods,etc....it will just sterilize the water going in and not the water that cycles in the tank...........but also it wouldnt kill any ich or other diseases in the tank