rgoodwill Posted October 22, 2011 Share Posted October 22, 2011 Have you guys had any experience with UV sterilizers for SW tanks? I am looking at one to help control ich and water quality. It seems some people think that they do not work. Any opinions? I was looking at a coralife one btw... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad and Jen May Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 I have the Coralife Turbo Twist and I like it. I dont know how well it controls parasites, but when I first put it on my 90g my Regal Tangs ich was GONE in 3 days. Maybe it was coincidence. I dont know. I now have the same one on my 180, its still size appropriate, and my Powder Blue has had mild ich for weeks. I used to run it 24/7 though and I now only run it 8 hours a day. So who knows..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rgoodwill Posted October 23, 2011 Author Share Posted October 23, 2011 where did you purchase yours? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rgoodwill Posted October 23, 2011 Author Share Posted October 23, 2011 Also, if I put UV filter on a tank that is 37 gallons and the filter is rated for up to 250 would that mean that my water is getting exposed to much more light; therefore, keeping the water more clean? Thanks you have been very helpful! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rgoodwill Posted October 23, 2011 Author Share Posted October 23, 2011 coralife uv sterilizer has been discontinued unfortunently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 With respect to marine ich, I am of the opinion that UV is not the most effective treatment. It kills everything that it comes in contact with. If you have reef inhabitants in your system, UV reeks havoc on the bottom end of the food chain. For the same reason that I removed the protein skimmer, I have removed UV and ozone from my reef displays. I rely on herbevores to clean up nuisance micro algae. The life cycle of marine ich has three distinct stages: free swimming is the only stage in which ich is vulnerable either to copper, contact with UV sterilizer or removal by a diatom filter. The other two stages are dormancy and actively feeding on a host in which it is an active parasite. If the fish immune system is healthy it will fend off this parasite with a thick mucus coat. I have found garlic to be the most benefical proactive treatment for helping fish immune systems and stimulating appetite. Patrick 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rgoodwill Posted October 23, 2011 Author Share Posted October 23, 2011 thanks for the info guys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 I'm not going to completely disagree with Patrick (SubSea) but I not as opposed to UV as he is. I will say it's a lot better if you can quarantine everything you add to your tank (my ideal setup is two seperate quarintine systems, one for fish one for invertabrates). Research done by Ken Feldman, et al, that was published in Advanced Aquarist Online showed UV did not affect the microbial populations. Since UV is killing the larval stages of ich it seems reasonable to me even in light on Feldman's research it is killing a percentage of the 'pods in the tank even if it's not affecting the microbial populations. Keep in mind the maximum tank size the manufacters give is based on using the UV to get rid of single cell algae causing green water which has a much lower kill rate than ich. The major problem I've seen with UV sterilizors is they are often set up so they have an insufficiant kill rate to take care ich and this is usually because they've been set up with to high a flow rate through the sterilizer to give the larval enough UV to kill them in a single pass or set up where there are multiple routes the water takes so a percentage of the water cycled through the tank never goes through the sterilizer leaving ich larval alive. If you use a UV find out from the manufacturer what the flow rate is to get a "single pass 100% kill" and use a turnover rate of one turnover every 1-4 hours with a small pump to pump straight from the main tank to the UV then back to the main tank. This usually translates to a 15W UV on a 100 gal. tank but there is a lot of variation. The reason I prefer to have a pump in the tank is that's where the larval are hatching out. I've seen multi tank systems where a UV was keeping ich from spreading to other tanks but one tank had a multigenerational ich problem which the UV was not taking care of. For more opinions do a topic search in this forum this subject comes up every so often. Also UV's act like heaters so if your tank is already running in the 80's you may have heat issues to deal with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rgoodwill Posted October 26, 2011 Author Share Posted October 26, 2011 great write up thanks timfish! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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