Does UV kill everything
 

I am planning to hook up a small tank to my display tank and able to use it as a quarantine tank sometime. I was wondering if I put the UV on return line of small tank which connects to my display sum.

Would it helps killing parasite, flatworm and aptasia?

Thanks

In short, no. UV can only affect that which passes through it, so with certainty it can not do anything to help manage flatworms or aiptasia. Even for things like cryptocaryon it can only assist in neutralizing the free-swimming stage of their life cycle.

For the most part UV will make a difference for water clarity as it helps break down the compounds which tend to make the water yellow (similar to ozone). For pathogenic control purposes such as for ich control you need a large UV. For example, 50w or up. The smaller units like 8w or 15w or in that ballpark are intended for clarifying water more so than pathogenic control.

Well said :)

I think you should make a quarantine tank completely separate from your other tanks/sump.
Why take any chances?

Hey Tony....I am assuming that you have this on your system? Is it a good idea to have one on a reef tank? I am confused by the UV/Ozone talk and I have never had anyone say that it was the thing to have. But if it does improve water clarity I am always interested. Thanks in advance. B

It seems to me (and mostly just based on casual observation than anything else) that UV and ozone are used more on FOWLR systems. I've seen the occasional full on reef that employs them as well, but like with many things, they are just tools that we can choose to use or not and the usefulness will depend on what the user feels the benefits are versus the costs of doing so. A tank that has carbon will have clearer water quality than without, a tank with carbon and UV will be clearer than one with just one of those things, a tank with carbon, UV and ozone clearer still and so on. But then ozone and UV are things that need to be cleaned regularly, maintained and eventually replaced (UV lamps deteriorate and need replacing at the same schedule as any regular lighting for example). I've heard some say that they are detrimental to things like 'pods, but for the most part those guys cling to substrate anyhow and in event that they let go and go for a swim and get sucked in, then they'll be unlucky and probably get spat out of the UV as fish food but then again that was likely their fate anyhow, it just got sped up a little if anything.

So IMHO there is no real "right" or "wrong" but a million shades of grey in between. :lol: They work for some situations, certainly not necessary in all situations.

UV usually doesn't kill, it sterilizes. To some degree high enough concentrations of UV will kill though the sterilizer, but the primary role is to sterilize to control algae, bacteria, etc.

thanks

a QT tank attached to your main display does nothing apart from maybe getting a stressed out fish to start eating.
you cannot do copper or hypo treatments and any disease in a fish going into your QT will also be in your main display and sump

right, i think i better scrap that idea

I've tried both UV and Ozone, and I'm a huge Ozone fan.
The crystal clear water made the investment worth it alone.

As for Ich control, I found it was very good since I fed Ozone to my skimmer and a high percentage of total water goes through it.

I might just be thinking out loud, but doesn't ozone also help skimmers work more a tad efficiently?

.