UV Sterilizer

[dockery07]

Question? I just got one of these today, for ICH. I had a breakout yesterday in my yellow tang. I have a built in filter and my UV is sitting on the top of the tank. It is running on a Maxi jet 1200. My question is since the powerhead is at the top of the tank, will it still get all of the coppods at the bottom? I see mine on the live rock and crawling around the bottom of the tank. The powerhead is in one corner, in the back. The tank is 6 feet long. Will it kill all of them? I also do supplemental feedings with my corals. IF this is going to be a problem, should I only run it a couple hours of the day?
Thanks

 

[fixitdude2001]

Hi, the UV wont kill ich.. it kills floating bacteria,and you should not have any problem with it killing the critters you can see. My tank is loaded with bugs....fixit

 

[dfimble]

I am a little confused with what a few people have said about a UV. My understanding is that it WILL kill ich, or rather it kills the ich bacteria that is in your water. It will NOT kill the ich that is on your fish. (fish doesn't pass close to the UV) In my opinion though, they DO slow if not stop the spread of the ich allowing (possibly) for the fish to get well again.
Remember to read the recomended water flow of the unit. According to a book I borrowed (Sorry I don't remember the title) if the water is flowing too quickly through the unit the water will not get enough of the UV light to kill the bacteria.
David

 

[dockery07]

I have a 15 watt unit. I don't think the water is flowing that fast. I got garlic for the ich that is on the fish. It seems to be getting better. Since I have tang fishes who are prone to ich, I thought that this would be a good idea. Getting them out and doing the hospital tank would stress them out more than having to go through these steps.
Thanks

 

[kimmisue]

Thank you....this is what I had heard also but everyone seemed to over look that.
How are you treating with garlic? Real garlic cloves? not to be dense but I have never done this ...is it safe to use in a reef?
Kim
Originally posted by dfimble:
<STRONG>I am a little confused with what a few people have said about a UV. My understanding is that it WILL kill ich, or rather it kills the ich bacteria that is in your water. It will NOT kill the ich that is on your fish. (fish doesn't pass close to the UV) In my opinion though, they DO slow if not stop the spread of the ich allowing (possibly) for the fish to get well again.
Remember to read the recomended water flow of the unit. According to a book I borrowed (Sorry I don't remember the title) if the water is flowing too quickly through the unit the water will not get enough of the UV light to kill the bacteria.
David</STRONG>

 

[tykill]

I am new to starting a saltwater tank. I was hoping some one might be able to explain more on what a UV light is and does and how much the are need in a tank, also what is the cost on them for a 75 gal tank?

 

[kimmisue]

tykill are you building a reef or a fish only?
when asking about UV's you get a wide range of answers...so hold-on tight..
Is one nessecary? I have had my tank running for almost a year with out one. I ran acrossed a good deal and got one...I will let you know if it does what I hope it will or if it adversely affected my reef.
Kim

 

[andymi]

Garlic is one of the few things that are safe to use in a reef. With fish that are prone to ick like Tangs, I always recommend a couple cleaner shrimp. They have always done wonders. They are not doing that well on a case of black ick which is supposedly more like a worm, but it is doing great on my puffer in my FO tank that has regular ick. I am using McCormicks Garlic Juice you can get from any grocery store. I soak the food in this juice and feed it to the fish. I have heard multiple things,
1. It changes the coating fish have on them to help repel the ich parasite.
2. It boosts their immune system.
I have not read any formal literature as to this, but you might want to look at the Disease and Treatment board. Depending on the tanks you have there are multiple ways to treat these fish. One is hyposalinity , but this cannot be done in a reef tank or any tank with live rock or inverts. Same with Copper treatments, this cannot be done in a reef. From my experience garlic works good on beginning cases of ick, but advanced cases need drastic measures (copper, hypo-salinity). This is why always keeping extra powerheads, heaters and a spare rubbermaid tub are always good to have. You can quickly create a hospital tank for this fish in a snap.
--Andy

 

[blueking]

andy does garlic jucie really works? i have a cb angel that has ick. how do you use the garlic jucie and i feed the fish forzen brine and bloodworms. need help and information would help

 

[andymi]

Blueking,
The garlic juice is working for me. Although not all the parasites are off the fish as of yet, it has definitely reduced the number of parasites and made the fish happier. I am one week into treatment and the puffer maybe has 15 or so parasites left on his entire body. The things I have read about garlic is that you need to feed it for a long period of time. The parasites will die without a host fish, but their reproduction cycle is approximately 4+ weeks. This means that you could reasonably get rid of the parasites in 3-5 days, but the eggs will still reproduce and re-attach to the fish. There are others on this board much more knowledgeable than I on this subject, but essentially they say you must continue treatment for 4-5 weeks to help ensure the parasite is gone from the tank. This will help minimize the chance for another reoccurence.
--Andy
P.S. Like I said I use the McCormicks Garlic Juice from the grocery store. Others use Kyloic garlic you can get from most health food stores like GNC.

 

[blueking]

thank andy i went and got the mccormick garlic juice today. wish me good luck feeding it to my fishes. i will kept you posted about the conditions of the fishes