UV Sterilizers. Worth it for FW?

[RightTurnClyde]

I've been doing some research into UV Sterilizers. My main interest in them is to help prevent disease rather then clear the water.

Can anyone provide some real world experience / reviews / opinions on running these? Did you notice a difference in general tank health afterwards?

 

[treemanone2003]

I prefer more frequent WC's. Most often times, any problems associated in aquariums come from water quality issues. The other issues come from introducing new fish without a good QT procedure and adding water that came from the new fishes place of origin. (Back to poor water conditions and lack of QT)

 

[Delapool]

I've been doing some research into UV Sterilizers. My main interest in them is to help prevent disease rather then clear the water.

Can anyone provide some real world experience / reviews / opinions on running these? Did you notice a difference in general tank health afterwards?

For preventing disease (as opposed to just killing algae in the water column you will want a very good unit). I have a separate UV unit running (don't like ones inside canisters as the canister flow rate is usually too high).

It has improved water clarity and may have restricted disease outbreaks to a single fish or school. That's just a suspicion from diseases that I thought would go more through the tank. However still had fungal, bacterial and ich infections with it running part-time. Size might be too small although it was the largest I could buy (options here limited, next time more research!).

Normally I would say water changes, etc will be just as good. I do plan to run it non-stop in about 4 months time when we go from winter to summer. The first heat wave of summer when tank temp jumps is when I seem to have troubles. That will be an interesting test of it.

At the moment it hides some filter pipes so I plan to continue with it. Will decide after using last replacement bulb.