UV Sterilizors and Parasites

[macman7010]

I recently had an outbreak of what I believe may have been Marine Velvet. My coral beauty, ehbli angel, 2 perc clowns, and more all lost thier lives to this terrible parasite. Since I have a reef tank with a sump I went ahead and added a Aqua Ultraviolet UV Sterilizor to the tank.

How much do these really help with Parasites, enough to supress an outbreak?

 

[Phyl]

Your best defense will be a stong offense. Ensure that none of these nasties get into your tank by making sure to QT all new animals before they are added to the main. That will help prevent disease in your main. Marine velvet is a really fast killer. I'm not sure that anything other than prompt treatment could have saved those fishies. These things are all much more easily treated in QT than in your main. Sorry for your losses.

 

[IfoundNemo]

QT is good to prevent ich and other parasites from entering into the main. But, adding a UV is a best defense for your fish's health. JMO

 

[SALTYDAWGY]

In short Yes, uv will help to supress the outbreak but u might want to supplement the remaining fishes iummunities with garlic soaked foods and step up ur water changes. I lost an asfur, sailfin, marroon clown (all 4 years old) to velvet after adding an infected harlequin tusk without quarantine. 6 months, copper treatment heavy water changes, new uv sterilizer, alot of garlic and a receded hairline later and my new charges are healthy and my tank parasite free.

 

[quarryshark]

UV may help to keep a ich outbreak at bay for awhile (still won't cure it), but will do nothing for a velvet outbreak. Velvet WILL kill all your fish in short order.
Your only good option is to remove the remaining fish to a qt tank and treat with a good copper compound like cupramine. Leave the main tank fishless for a 8 week period and you should be golden.
One again, UV is worthless against velvet, I can tell you this from experience. Velvet is a much faster killer than ich.

 

[cougaran]

I found this web site that gives you some info on this parasite. http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/disease/p/velvet.htm . A UV will help in killing free floating parasites, not the ones already attached to the fish. Hopefully when these divide to repolpulate they become free floating and most get killed by uv. The only problem is they usualy re-infect the fish with it being in such close proximity. Thats why cupramine is recommended in a QT tank. You cant run UV with medications though because it can change their chemical compositions.