Who makes a good UV sterilizer?
- Thread starter sman
- Start date
sign guy
Active Member
I dont know why people havent jumped on this?
turbo twist by coralife are very popular and deffinitly the best design, the water is forced in a circular motion around the bulb extending the amount of contact time in the uv light. I have all three and love em. the 9watt is recamended for up to 125 gal but I think thats bull dinky. You deffenitly need the 18watt and for all of the nasayers this thing will clear up some water. As for as plumbing I choose to run all mine with a pump in the sump and let it dump back into the fuge. The most important thing about plumbing a uv is to not run it after your refugium. nothing says BBQed copods like a uv
HTH
turbo twist by coralife are very popular and deffinitly the best design, the water is forced in a circular motion around the bulb extending the amount of contact time in the uv light. I have all three and love em. the 9watt is recamended for up to 125 gal but I think thats bull dinky. You deffenitly need the 18watt and for all of the nasayers this thing will clear up some water. As for as plumbing I choose to run all mine with a pump in the sump and let it dump back into the fuge. The most important thing about plumbing a uv is to not run it after your refugium. nothing says BBQed copods like a uv
HTH
stanlalee
Active Member
Aquamedic, Current USA gamma, Pentair and coralife ALL spiral the water around the UV bulb, I dont know why coralife describes theirs as if they have something exclusive. I prefer the current USA Gamma UVs because they are built like tanks compared to the coralife and aquamedic UVs (you could do batting practice with it!), the price per wattage is a little better and most importantly it uses standard size plumbing fittings and comes with a TON of elbows, reducers, hose fittings ect making it impossible not to be able to plumb into your aqaurium. It even comes with the teflon tape. I used the leftover PVC elbows and pipe to make an output pipe on my old skimmer!
sign guy
Active Member
Originally Posted by Stanlalee
http:///forum/post/2747700
Aquamedic, Current USA gamma, Pentair and coralife ALL spiral the water around the UV bulb, I dont know why coralife describes theirs as if they have something exclusive.
quick note, coralife has a guide inside the housing that directs the water around the bulb wereas aquamedic and current just inject the water at an anglel to create a spirel of water
http:///forum/post/2747700
Aquamedic, Current USA gamma, Pentair and coralife ALL spiral the water around the UV bulb, I dont know why coralife describes theirs as if they have something exclusive.
quick note, coralife has a guide inside the housing that directs the water around the bulb wereas aquamedic and current just inject the water at an anglel to create a spirel of water
sman
Member
Went to my lfs to just look at uv's, they always have a huge selection of used stuff. They had a aqua ultraviolet, with an used bulb and a brand new one(still in the tube) with a brand new in the box maxi 900, for a really good deal, espesially since I noticed the aqua uv brand usually runs quite a bit more expensive than others. Its a 15 watt model, is this going to get the job done? Im going back tomorrow so if I need something else nows the time to know.
stanlalee
Active Member
Originally Posted by sman
http:///forum/post/2748623
Went to my lfs to just look at uv's, they always have a huge selection of used stuff. They had a aqua ultraviolet, with an used bulb and a brand new one(still in the tube) with a brand new in the box maxi 900, for a really good deal, espesially since I noticed the aqua uv brand usually runs quite a bit more expensive than others. Its a 15 watt model, is this going to get the job done? Im going back tomorrow so if I need something else nows the time to know.
for algae and clean water it will work fine. To kill parasites your going to have to put a valve in between the maxijet and UV and crank it down to 75gph or less. For your tank its on the small side (you at least want the total volume of your system passed thru every hour). the higher the wattage the less exposure is needed (a 25w could be run at 150gph instead of 75gph)
So do any of the mentioned UV's offer a "wiper"?
nope. my problem with the wiper is the only way to know if its working is to take the glass sleeve out and inspect it in which case you can clean it yourself. In four months of use when I sold my UV the sleeve was as algae and debri free as the day I put it in.
http:///forum/post/2748623
Went to my lfs to just look at uv's, they always have a huge selection of used stuff. They had a aqua ultraviolet, with an used bulb and a brand new one(still in the tube) with a brand new in the box maxi 900, for a really good deal, espesially since I noticed the aqua uv brand usually runs quite a bit more expensive than others. Its a 15 watt model, is this going to get the job done? Im going back tomorrow so if I need something else nows the time to know.
for algae and clean water it will work fine. To kill parasites your going to have to put a valve in between the maxijet and UV and crank it down to 75gph or less. For your tank its on the small side (you at least want the total volume of your system passed thru every hour). the higher the wattage the less exposure is needed (a 25w could be run at 150gph instead of 75gph)
So do any of the mentioned UV's offer a "wiper"?
nope. my problem with the wiper is the only way to know if its working is to take the glass sleeve out and inspect it in which case you can clean it yourself. In four months of use when I sold my UV the sleeve was as algae and debri free as the day I put it in.
U
usirchchris
Guest
I have a 40watt Current USA gamma on my 125. No basis for comparison as this is the only one I have had, but seems to work fine for me
.
acrylic51
Active Member
Originally Posted by sman
http:///forum/post/2748623
Went to my lfs to just look at uv's, they always have a huge selection of used stuff. They had a aqua ultraviolet, with an used bulb and a brand new one(still in the tube) with a brand new in the box maxi 900, for a really good deal, espesially since I noticed the aqua uv brand usually runs quite a bit more expensive than others. Its a 15 watt model, is this going to get the job done? Im going back tomorrow so if I need something else nows the time to know.
My brand choice, but you need to find out what manufacturer specs are as far as flow through the unit, and you have to dial it in to that for it to be effective......
http:///forum/post/2748623
Went to my lfs to just look at uv's, they always have a huge selection of used stuff. They had a aqua ultraviolet, with an used bulb and a brand new one(still in the tube) with a brand new in the box maxi 900, for a really good deal, espesially since I noticed the aqua uv brand usually runs quite a bit more expensive than others. Its a 15 watt model, is this going to get the job done? Im going back tomorrow so if I need something else nows the time to know.
My brand choice, but you need to find out what manufacturer specs are as far as flow through the unit, and you have to dial it in to that for it to be effective......
sly
Active Member
Originally Posted by sman
http:///forum/post/2746316
Also how many watts would be needed for a 90g with a 26g sump?
Read the posts I wrote on this thread, https://www.saltwaterfish.com/vb/showthread.php?t=330936
Hopefully it should explain everything.
The short answer is that if you go with an 18 watt UV light, you would only be able to use around 167 GPH of flow for it to be effective. Your tank has 106 gallons total. You want around a 2x turnover rate through the UV. That would put your flow at 212 GPH through the UV. Since an 18 watt unit can only handle around 167 GPH before it starts losing effectiveness, you will need something bigger than an 18...
http:///forum/post/2746316
Also how many watts would be needed for a 90g with a 26g sump?
Read the posts I wrote on this thread, https://www.saltwaterfish.com/vb/showthread.php?t=330936
Hopefully it should explain everything.
The short answer is that if you go with an 18 watt UV light, you would only be able to use around 167 GPH of flow for it to be effective. Your tank has 106 gallons total. You want around a 2x turnover rate through the UV. That would put your flow at 212 GPH through the UV. Since an 18 watt unit can only handle around 167 GPH before it starts losing effectiveness, you will need something bigger than an 18...