UV Sterilizer: Do They Help with Disease?

[racin24fan]

I am thinking very seriously about getting one. With my ick problems they from what I read could help?
Any advice? Which one to buy?
Do you need anything else besides the UV Sterilizer? A pump?

 

[michaeltx]

they will kick ich and anything else in the water colum that passes throught the UV light. so to answer you question it will kill ich. It will not help in other diseases that are on the fish only and never get to the water colum though.
I dont use them and would never use one on the main tank but in a QT they would be a good thing to use. along with killing the bad in the water it will also kill the good anything alive in the water colum is killed as it passes through.
as far as what you will need to set it up leach Uv is different and some come with pumps some dont you will just have to see what the UV filter you have comes with to know what else you need to make it work.
Mike

 

[mx#28]

You'll definitely get mixed reviews with UV's on these forums. Be aware that there are other ways of dealing with ich and other fish diseases, but IMO the UV is a helpful tool. Just keep in mind that to have a significant impact on ich, you'll likely have to have far more watts per gallon than is often reccommended by manufacturers. You'll need to have the flow from the pump setup correctly, too, so that the exposure time per light strength is satisfactory (to kill the cysts) - and so the turnover rate of the tank is about 5-10 times per hour (so you know as many cysts as possible are coming from your tank through the UV).

 

[beth]

The cure for ich is not a UV, but a quarantine tank and then appropriately treating fish with hyposalinity or copper. For what you would pay for a UV, you can set up a nice QT for much less.

 

[florida joe]

I started my own thread on UV sterilizers as I am sure it will cause some controversy and I do not want to highjack your thread