UV Sterilizer

[fishoholic]

I was thinking about getting a UV sterilizer. I know it will kill anything that goes through it. I was wondering (for those who have experience/knowledge about them) do you find you have enough pods/live mysis in your tank while running a UV sterilizer? I would like to get one to help fight off any bad things (edit when I wrote "bad things" I should of clarified and said possible ich parasite, my water quality and parameters are fine) but I'm concerned about a UV sterilizer severely depleting my pod/mysis population.

Right now I have a `fuge with a pipefish in it that lives on pods and live mysis. I have tons of pods and mysis right now. I know with running UV I will lose some, but I'm worried about losing to many.

Any thoughts? Thanks, Laurie

[Skimmerking]

Hey there Laurie I ran a 9X 36 W UV on my 170 and honestly i didnt see anything special about the unit. If you are wanting to try some thing get a Ozone unit that worked great for me and i loves it. i ran a 200mg red unit on mine it cleared up the water so much and helped with the algae a bit too. but it will cause Nitrates thou, since it convets Ammonia and Nitites to Nitrates fast thou. i has a hard time getting rid of my nitrates to so.....



HTH

mike

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by fishoholic

I would like to get one to help fight off any bad things in the water

I think this comment in itself is reason not to use one. It sounds like maybe you're not quite happy with things and you're looking for anothe rgadget to fix things. While UV can fight off bad things, it also kills good things, things that other things use for food sources. I would recommend trying to stay as natural as possible and finding a balance in your tank, rather than trying to tip the scales with too much technology.
Not saying UV is bad, but tons of tanks are beautiful with out it, and personally I try to strive for this without gadgets. JMO

[sphelps]

Since micro-organism activity is highest at night you could run a UV on a daylight duty cycle to minimise the effect on your live food. But you may want to consider your goal from using a UV, "killing bad things" makes very little sense.

[sharuq1]

Tagging along

[fishoholic]

Oops, I guess I should of clarified "bad things" as the possible ich I have in my tank, my water quality and parameters are fine/normal. The idea was that the UV would kill the ich parasite when it passes through it, which in turn would hopefully slow down the ich cycle. I know it won't get rid of all of the ich but maybe it would help.

I honestly don't have the space to QT and do hyposalinity to all my fish for 6 weeks and I don't even know if it is ich in my tank or not. Since my fish aren't stressed out, are eating well and behaving normal, I don't really want to take the chance of stressing them out and losing some in the QT process.

I guess I should of just asked for pro's and con's of using UV.

[MikeP]

I've had a 18watt UV on my tank for about a year now. I have plenty of pods and haven't had any real trouble with algae or disease.