UV or Not to UV........

[elvis]

Thinking of adding a sterilizer to my reef tank. Other than maintainance, what are the drawbacks to a sterilizer? My set up is a 55gal. with a 20 gal. sump/fuge. How about flow and wattage? Will it kill things like copods or smaller?

Thanks

E

 

[wrightme43]

U.V. can only kill things that pass thru the unit, It also is very dependent on flow rate, watts, and the organism passing thru. Think of it like this. If you go out in the sun you get uv, you dont die unless you spend 5 or 6 days all day under the fierce tropical sun. Now bacteria have no protection from uv, the die almost instantly under the sun, algae are easy to kill too. Parisites have a exoskelton, that absorbs and blocks some of the light. If you slow the flow rate down, it increases the level of uv absorbed and kills them too. pods are larger, and stay as best they can in the tank on the live rock. No harm will come unless they pass thru the uv. I hope that helps you. Steve

 

[Pyrrhus]

i run a small 9w UV with a flow rate of about 60 gph on my 95 reef. it helps to keep my water clear, and ive never had a single disease with my fish. i dont feel that it is that harmful to beneficial things in the tank, and i think its done me a lot of good. (used to get really bad phyto blooms.)

 

[elvis]

I just don't want the uv to kill off my massive collection of pods my tank has developed. My sump/fuge is loaded also. I have no fish yet but will be adding a few very soon and thought the uv would help with disease.