UV Sterilizer

deon nyc

Member
ok guys this has been bothering me for a while. i have read a few places about uv sterilizer. some say it is a good thing becasue it cleans and keep the water clean. others say it is bad becasue it also takes out the good bacteria the system needs. so what do u guy think and y.
 
T

tizzo

Guest
It is yet another form of filtration. That's it.
If you are considering one for disease, and your already into the hobby to far to turn back (to qt and hypo), then a UV will be more beneficial than detrimental. Keeping the water clean has never been one of it's real perks in our hobby. That statement is more targeted for UV's on a drinking water system.
 

bmkj02

Member
I have a uv light on one of my tanks. I noticed on the tank without I have loads of copepods and starfish coming out my rocks. On the tank with the light I have none of that good stuff. I recently unpluged it after 2 years of running it
 

reefkprz

Active Member
I only run my UV sterilizer for specific problems. like algae blooms.
depending on the flow rate through the sterilizer (exposure time) you could be killiing everything to flow through the sterilizer, to nothing at all and just wasting electricity.
sure a UV sterilizer is capable of killing the free floating stage of bacteria in the the water column. but your benificial bacteria also spreads via contact, as well as the fact that I dont think its possible for a UVB sterilizer to kill 100% of the bacteria floating around unless you have an insanly large unit and an immense flow through rate. I think the impact on your bacteria is minimal.
I would not consider a UV sterilizer any form of filtration.... its actually the opposite. it kills things and sends them through the unit back into the tank. the best place in my opinion for a uv to be is with the effluent pipe right at the pick up for your skimmer.
I personally would rather have the naturally occuring plankton feeding my corals and other planktivorous animals in my tanks. maybe my water isnt as crystal clear as some peoples but I know there is nothing wrong with a little bit of floating plankton in my tank.
 
I run a 36W UV on my 300G total setup... I run it 3 hours on and 3 hours off, alternating.
I have found my water clear, have lots of LR in both the Refuge and the DT, so I have never had a problem with pods. But again I don't hook the UV to the return pump, I have it in my sump area with a small pump hooked to it both on timers... This way when on, anything going back through the return pump doesn't get zapped, like pods.
I have no regrets. Fish are healthy, coral is colorful
 

deon nyc

Member
thank you guys for all of your responds. i think i will only use it when needed and leave it off when i dont .
 
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