UV sterilizer pros/cons?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

lziarek

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Jun 21, 2004
Messages
222
Location
West Lafayette IN
I was thinking about picking up one of these babies to help prevent disease and various bacterial blooms (such as cyano), thus giving me a little lee way time to correct any problems should they occur. My question is, are they worth the money and do they actually help in these cases? Any downfalls to UV sterilizers and roughly what type would I need for a 55 gal reef system?
 
Some people say on a reef a UV is a bad thing, others say there ok.
IMO I had on on my 125 for almost 2 years till it died and it was a nice piece of mind when it came to disease control.
Will not control cyno.... Only free floating algae to some extent.
Each brand has a different rating so you need to see what size they say you will need. Also follow the flow rate recommended by that company.
 
UV sterilizer is a wonderful piece of equipment. My 75 gal SW tank has velvet outbreak two weeks ago, and all of the fish in the tank got infected. Fortunately, the Coarlife Turbo Twister UV sterilizer i ordered from Drsfosterandsmith.com came just the day before. I hooked the UV up to one of the MJ 1200 PH let it ran overnite. The next morning, the fish were all well and healthy again. I would probably have to do 2 things if i didn't have the UV. I would (a) medicate the main tank, and this would mess up everything else in the tank. (b) take the fish to the QT tank, and this would be a pain in the a$$ trying to catch each one of them out.

Some people say UV sterilizer is not good because it kills all the (phytoplanktons), a source of food for filter feeders such as clam. So i guess, this is the cons....

Some cheap UV such as Jebo brand do come with a PH. I recommend you get Coralife Turbo Twister 3X 9W for your 55 gal. You could hook it up to a PH or to an outlet from the canister filter.
 
You could hook it up to a PH or to an outlet from the canister filter.
Know the output of the canister filter and be sure your getting an effective KILL doze of the UV. Run water to fast thru the UV and the unit you might as well not even be using it.
 
Back
Top Bottom