uv sterilizer

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Can you tell us more about the UV unit as far as its wattage and the size pump you have attached to it?
 
As far as I know, 200gph is just about right for an 18 watt.. The Mag 500 seems to fast for it...IMO, you should be using a MAG 1.9 or 2 on it...For proper kill/contact time with the flow...
 
i have a ball valve hooked up to it so the flow coming out is very slow but.... in a related problem my ph is low so i have been contemplating raising my gph. currently i have the mag 500, rio 1100, and 2 max-jet 600's, for a grand total of 1202 gph not including rio 800 on skimmer. someone suggested getting the mag 900 and then attach these flow directors to the return, but i don't think this will work with my current uv situation will it? or would it be okay because of the valve? or should i just get another ph and try to aim it at the surface? i tried taking the glass tops off but there was no change.
 
The UV should be hooked up seperately. If you restrain the pump with the ball valve, you run the risk of running the pump hot because of the resistance.. As I states before, with an 18 watt UV, you should be pumping no more than 200 gph IME. Any faster, and it is not killing anything but, rather just being another return pipe.

The PH problem could be due to oxygen exchange at the surface... the GPH in the system doesn't mean much if the surface tension is 0. You need to have the PH's creating turbulance at the surface...

Also, what kind of tank is this? FO? Reef?

If it is a reef, what are you using for Alkalinity and Calcium supplement? If you aren't using anything to supplement even a FO tank, how often do you do water changes? The salt will create at least a ph of 8.2 when you mix it...

HTH
 
this is a 72 gal reff tank, and i use b-ionic daily. ph range is from 8.1 to 8.3 but i want to raise it to 8.45. maybe i'm not explaining the valve correctly. it diverts the water between the return and the uv. the slower the uv, the faster the return comes out. and not to beat a dead horse but i would estimate the outflow now at a little less than the max-jets i have that are 160 gph as a reference. if i remove it from the shared line, i would have it connected to a 200 gph pump in sump and the outflow would go back into the sump? is this correct? this would also increase the return from the 500 and create more turbulance right?
 
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