Ozone and UV Qs

[shallowreef]

Hey everybody,

Well as some of you may know i am going through a bit of a fish disease right now and i am battling it as we speak. Once everything is back to normal i am going to try and keep this from happening again and i was told by a few people that Ozone and a UV sterilizer will help in the future. Now i have a very old UV sterilizer that is burnt out and i am pretty sure isn't that great. But what i would like to do is get a new UV and start running ozone on my tank and see if i can't clean up the water in my tank and get things back on the right track.

Let me tell you what kind of tank i am running/ going to run if you are not familiar. It is mainly a fish tank that is Slowly having corals added to the tank. I am looking to do a heavily stocked tank with only one to two predators. One being a shark and the other a trigger fish. I am lookin towards doing mostly tangs and maybe a few dwarf angels.

My Qs to you are:
What type of Ozone setp should i go with?

What type of UV should i go with?

If you have any other suggestions/ideas Please feel free to add them as i am open to all ideas at this point and will consider anything right now.

Thanks a lot,

Nick

 

[VegasMike]

I am interested in this as well since I will be setting up a 350 fish and softie tank whenever my stand and canopy are done.

I have heard that one or the other is the choice, not both, but I don't know how true that is.

My worry on a sterilizer is bulb life, cleaning and heat added to the water.

I really don't know much about ozone and am interested in that as well.

Anyway, I am along for the ride as I was about to post the same question.

By the way, I do not run either on my 450 reef.

 

[DonW]

You can run both as long as your not dumping ozone water into the UV. Something about the wrong light spectum causes problems when running ozone.
I'm not overly fond of uv but only because I'm to lazy to take care of it. I'd never change the bulbs and it would never work properly. I do like ozone for the clearer or what appears to be clearer water. Other than that I really have seen no real benefit.

Don

 

[shallowreef]

Well do UVs kill parasites in the water? Because i think that would be my main reason for using it. My water was clean when this all happened to me so now i want it super clean. I know everything will benefit from it.

Also a LFS near me runs both on their 500 SPS show tank. I was just curious what brand is a good one for each product and should i get a UV that is rated for my tank or more?

 

[LakeEd]

UV and Ozone work similarly, yet different.

Ozone is typically used to help with water clairity... because it can help break apart the molecules that hold color, thus making our water seem much clearer. This really helps light penetration!

UV does "kill" what flows thru it (mainly bacteria). The main concern there is flow rate, to allow the UV to have the contact time to actually effectivly "kill" what is going through it, and wattage of the Unit.

As for which brand is best??? I don't think you'll ever get a definate answer on that one. I would go to Marinedepot & Premium Aquatics, and see what they have available. Compair prices of the various brands... see what you like, then post back here asking for comments on those units.

Boomer would also be a very good person to ask for his recommendations!

Personally, you will want to get a good ORP Controller... Ozone unit (with, or without dryer... depending on how you feel about those), and then the UV.

As Don mentioned though... don't have one as an input to the other... even though I don't totally understand the chemistry behind it, I've also read that it isn't recommended.

 

[shallowreef]

I too have heard that it isn't recommended and that UV kills a lot of things that corals feed on.

I will shop around and show you guys. I just want to try and keep my fish as healthy as possible in the future.

 

[class clown]

shallowreef - whatda find out about whether UV would be good for a reef? I'm thinking about adding one for benefits to fish and algae control, but don't want to jump right into it without researching.

 

[le9569]

I am having an UV sterilizer now. Afer about 1 week of using it, the water clearliness is improved amzingly. Of course, it also kills some of the good baterias as well in the water. It is recommended to add some of the mineral to the water once you use UV.

The reason I chose the UV over Ozone is the use of it. Just plug it in. Clean and replace the bulb on schedule.

I leave the answers to the experts ....

 

[shallowreef]

Well i got a handfull of opinions and insights on this subject from numerous LFS and most say that i really don't need it. What got me the most was that 2 of the stores that told me that ran both UV and Ozone on there systems.

Right now i am kind of getting rid of all of my fish and letting everything sit for a while and am going to start over fresh around Christmas. Which really sucks. I went from having 12 fish and a ray to 3 fish. It makes me sick every time i think about it. The money part of it sucks too but i don't care about that as much as i care about the fact that i let fish die in my tank. I think i too will run a UV only.

Ozone seems nice but to monitor it and run it is a little more expensive than i anticipated.

 

[class clown]

Thanks john, thanks shallowreef. Shallow --sorry to hear about your tank - bummer. See, that is something I do not want to happen to mine. John --I'll see you tonight around 6 btw to get the reactor Rockin!

Any other thoughts from more people with first hand experience of UVs in reefs?