UV STERILIZER worth it or not?

[2revup]

guys i have a tang with ich and i cant shake it, yes i have a qt but its too small for all fish.
i have tried various products that are reef safe, but nothing really has worked, he did rid it but 3 days later he got it again.
anyways is the UV STERILIZER of any real value?
the one i am looking at is below
my question is this worth it???

your help is much appreciated.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7770267775&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MEWA:IT&rd=1

 

[Marc118]

As long as there is a fish for your ich to host you will never get rid of it, sorry.

 

[2revup]

I know i will never get rid of it, which really pisses me off, but at least the UV should kill some of the ICH right, or am i wasting my time and eletricity?

 

[FishFrik]

UV is not a waste. It helps keep ur water clean from parasites and algae. As for treating ich, u'll never get rid of the existing ich, i don't think. There will always be a tiny/small amount of them in ur tank. Im guilty of not treating ich with hypo nor copper but setting up a UV in my 29G. 1 of my fish died before the UV got home , but none has died since I got the UV. My 2 clowns and chromis never seem to be infected anymore. I added a small chromis 2 weeks ago. After one night of being in the tank, 10 - 15 spots appeared on the newcomer but it cleared up after 3 - 4 days and havn't seem to be reinfected for more than 1 week. So...IMO, the UV helps existing fish fight ich by reducing the parasites population, allowing the fish to be exposed to just a small amount of ich. By feeding garlic (which i did) u'll also increase their immunity. With their strengthen immunity vs. small amount of ich, the fish will eventually build an immune system for ich IF the fish are strong enuf. It's just like the concept of vaccine. We are injected with a small, weaken/dead amount of virus when we were young so we could build an immnune system agaisnt it.

Anyway, i hope u make a right choice. I would go with hypo or copper but i couldn't keep up with the WC's. RIght now... im scared of adding any new fish cuz if i get a weak newcomer... HTH

 

[macman7010]

2revup,

UV's are far from a waste and I consider them an important part of a healthy reef aquarium. While a lot of people have great success in reef tanks without UV I think they serve an important role. As for them totally clearing up ich that is likely a no. If there is ich in your aquarium water and attached to a fish (the white cyst you see) then the UV cannot nail it. Although with the right wattage and flow rate UV's are known to be effective against bacteria, free-floating algae, and even some parasites.

While a UV cant totally prevent ich it can keep parasite numbers low and possibly decrese the severity of an outbreak. When keeping corals UV's are very effective at eliminating some harmful bacteria and also keep algae levels down. One thing you want to be sure of is that you are not rushing water through your UV. A flow rate of 100-140 gallons per hour should suffice for your tank with 80 gallons per hour being better.

As for the unit you are looking at I cant vouch for its quality. The UV systems I recommend are those made my Aqua Ultraviolet. While not the cheapest on the market they are well built and effective.

 

[2revup]

thank guys i will start biding.

 

[FishFrik]

2revup, if ur looking for a cheap UV with good performance. I'd say start looking at the Coralife Turbo Twist UV. HTH

PS I probably sound like i work for coralife now lol

 

[2revup]

thanks fishfink i will look into that one cheers.

 

[abnmojo]

UV - some good things have been said in this thread, I won't repeat them. Personally, since I began running UV on my tank I have had NO ich on purple or regal tangs. I also invested in cleaner shrimp as well, and have put NO chemicals in the tank at all. I know I had a bad outbread just prior to buying the UV, I lost 3 fish and my regal tang was looking bad. Between the shrimp and UV, I have had zero problems

I recommend this route the most - shrimp will eat the parasites on the fish, and the UV will get the free-floaters. After enough time has passed, you will get them all. I noticed less and less ich on the tangs and after about a year, zero. This level has been stable at zero for the last year as well.

Make sure you are NOT buying a 'pond' uv unit - they are no good for saltwater. Flow rate is too high, I belive they are not for killing bacteria but only for killing larger algae cells. I would make sure you are buying a unit with a quartz sleave, as glass will block some UV and render the unit a waste.

Look into how easy it is to clean the unit. I gave up on my coralife unit some years ago because there was no way to clean it, on the inside of the quartz sleave. The AQUA unit I got when ich nearly wiped my tank out is pretty good. The entire thing comes apart for easy cleaning every few months.

 

[2revup]

do you use th submersable ones or the dry units?

 

[FishFrik]

The coralife one is a HOB model. The pump has to be submerged but not the UV itself

 

[melosu58]

I also like the Turbo twist. It is a good UV. I personally think they are a valuable asset to any reef tank. I do think also that if you have a pod population it could be bad for them

 

[kwan]

I have had a UV running for a couple of years, no ich and no algae. I always had doubt on whether it was doing anything. However, a few weeks ago, my tank started to show a lot of algae and I couldn't understand why. I then remember my UV tube has been running for about 10 months which I have forgotten to replace. After replacing it, the algae just disappeared. So it is definitely not a waste.

 

[Scoot]

Bought a 24w Jebo from eBay this week - less than 24 hours and I can already see a difference in water clarity. It was around $50. Came with insert attachments that worked great on my 1" flexible tube return line. Took 30 seconds to splice it into the return line and plug in.

Now I can see all the various solids floating around - food, sand, random bits of debris, and see that I need some better mechanical filtering. Before the water always had a white cloudy appearance. I can't wait to see what another 24 hours does to the clarity.

This model didn't come with instructions, so I'm running the flow as low as possible without heating the water, while I wait from word from the manufacturer.

 

[FishFrik]

Lol, i feel u on the part "Now I can see all the various solids floating around - food, sand, random bits of debris". When my CSS125 started clearing up the water in my tank, i saw the same thing XD

 

[Scoot]

After two days now, my UV has really cleared things up - I started running a CSS125 about a month ago, and that helped a lot, but with the UV, the water is crystal clear, except, again, for all the junk floating in the water. I honestly don't think the water can get much clearer than it is now - I can see through the 48" tank from the end, all the way to the other side almost perfectly, where as before it was very foggy looking through that way.

I was getting some temperature increase, so I must have been running the flow rate a little low (my cheap Jebo doesn't have a manual, so I'm running it as slow as I can). I increased the flow a tad, and added a fan over the sump, which has got the temp under control.

Here's to hoping though that I never have another parasite problem! I did have a few problems with black ich spots on my Yellow tang, nothing in the last month though.