How do you feel about U.V. Sterilizer's?
- Thread starter DSK
- Start date
It is an expensive piece of equipment, a very nice toy, if you can afford one. I would definately recommend it for large and expensive live-reef tanks.
But keep in mind the bulbs do not last very long, and the efficency decreases expodentially. If your particular bulb has a half-life of only six months...that means you'll have half the effiency in six-monts....then half it again in three months, and so on. This can be costly. UV sterilizers are also delicate pieces of equipment that do not function very well if not cleaned and maintained regularly. Salt brine can damge them easily.
From my own experience using UVs on a retail level...I've never found them to be very useful. Maybe because the store I worked for refused to replace the bulbs, even after a year had gone by and the bulbs were probably burnt-out by then. Q-tanks and a strict medical regiem does more than a UV light will.
If you're looking for a piece of equipment that will help "polish" a tank and make the water sparkly, you should get a dimacious (sp?) earth filter. Used once a week, it can take out all the small floating particles that cause "cloud" in a tank, as well as help reduce algea and bacteria. I don't know if they work in salt-water tanks or not, or if there is anything special about running them on salt-water tanks.
~~Colesea
But keep in mind the bulbs do not last very long, and the efficency decreases expodentially. If your particular bulb has a half-life of only six months...that means you'll have half the effiency in six-monts....then half it again in three months, and so on. This can be costly. UV sterilizers are also delicate pieces of equipment that do not function very well if not cleaned and maintained regularly. Salt brine can damge them easily.
From my own experience using UVs on a retail level...I've never found them to be very useful. Maybe because the store I worked for refused to replace the bulbs, even after a year had gone by and the bulbs were probably burnt-out by then. Q-tanks and a strict medical regiem does more than a UV light will.
If you're looking for a piece of equipment that will help "polish" a tank and make the water sparkly, you should get a dimacious (sp?) earth filter. Used once a week, it can take out all the small floating particles that cause "cloud" in a tank, as well as help reduce algea and bacteria. I don't know if they work in salt-water tanks or not, or if there is anything special about running them on salt-water tanks.
~~Colesea
They're not top of my list. They can help with big tanks in some situations, and can work well with 'shop' centralised setups.
Diesease prevention - be real - what %age of your tank water is in the UV at anypoint in time? So where's the rest - in the tank being unaffected by the UV - you think parasites are forming a nice queue to get into the UV?? In centralised systems i.e. a shop with common water treatment a UV can work well as water distribution works in it's favour, but for a hobbyist tank it doesn't look like good logic to me?
It's going to give you clear water???? Unless you have green water that's just rubbish. It's going to clear paticulate material that's not neccesssarily alive?? How's that?
Diesease prevention - be real - what %age of your tank water is in the UV at anypoint in time? So where's the rest - in the tank being unaffected by the UV - you think parasites are forming a nice queue to get into the UV?? In centralised systems i.e. a shop with common water treatment a UV can work well as water distribution works in it's favour, but for a hobbyist tank it doesn't look like good logic to me?
It's going to give you clear water???? Unless you have green water that's just rubbish. It's going to clear paticulate material that's not neccesssarily alive?? How's that?
I ordered a UV Sterilizer yesterday on eBay... before I saw this thread.
I went trough alot of bad things in the last few weeks, ICK, fish deaths, green water... This UV will help with that green water. My tank is not "in direct sunlight" but there is a window in my office that lets "some sun light" shine on the left side of the tank. I tought about painting this side black, like the background, but I tought there must be a better way... I like to be able to look in my tank from at least 2 sides, and since the other side is facing a wall and the other side is the black background...
I got a QT tank also... but since I lost 3 fishes that I loved alot, I fear ick and parasites alot.
I got this Coralife 9w turbospin or something, I'm not sure I remember the name right. It was cheap, well rated, and said to be efficient.
I'll either hook it up to one of my canister's output or directly to a powerhead. I think it'd be better on the filter, since the water flowing trough it would be clean, thus better efficiency.
I think I will run it 5 or 6 hours per night. Other sujestions?
thanks
Simon
I went trough alot of bad things in the last few weeks, ICK, fish deaths, green water... This UV will help with that green water. My tank is not "in direct sunlight" but there is a window in my office that lets "some sun light" shine on the left side of the tank. I tought about painting this side black, like the background, but I tought there must be a better way... I like to be able to look in my tank from at least 2 sides, and since the other side is facing a wall and the other side is the black background...
I got a QT tank also... but since I lost 3 fishes that I loved alot, I fear ick and parasites alot.
I got this Coralife 9w turbospin or something, I'm not sure I remember the name right. It was cheap, well rated, and said to be efficient.
I'll either hook it up to one of my canister's output or directly to a powerhead. I think it'd be better on the filter, since the water flowing trough it would be clean, thus better efficiency.
I think I will run it 5 or 6 hours per night. Other sujestions?
thanks
Simon
well sunlight shouldn't be a problem unless you have excess nitrates and phospahtes but required to make that floating single celled grreen algea you were talking about. what are you using for water? RO, DI, or just regular tap? I was having the same problem when i moved, the water where i moved to was terrible so i bought a DI filter for my tap water and everything cleared up nice, kind of a pain to set up but over all i would recommend a DI filter to solve your problem, it will probably help you more than the UV filter would
Brahm
Brahm