AquaUV Advantage 2000+ 15w flow concern

[Saltywaterbox]

I'm trying to figure out what amount of flow to pump through an Aqua UV Advantage 2000+ 15w.
29 gallon Biocube with about 27 gallons of water. So a little more UV than the 1 watt per 3 gallon "rule".

From their website

"Reef Tanks -A UV rated in the 30,000 µw/cm² - 45,000 µw/cm² columns is ideal for the reef environment .UV’s rated at higher kill rates will destroy the planktonic food supply for the reef "

For that they recommend 700 - 466 GPH for this unit. That seems shockingly high to me. It's basically a torrent of water shooting out of it at 290GPH from an MJ1200.

On the dino thread it was stated that lower flow is better.

186GPH. I took apart my aqua uv 15w and cleaned the quartz sleeve. It needed it.

Yeah very important to keep that sleeve clear. I run my AquaUV units at 8-10x their wattage in flow. Anecdotally they didn't seem to work at 20x, but work well at 8-10x. So if it were me I'd reduce the flow slightly to 150gph, though you are probably fine at 186. I haven't done any experiments so this is just based on what worked for me.

For the last 6 hours it has been running at about 150 - 180 GPH and I have seen a VERY noticeable decline in the amount of Dinos.

I'm just concerned that I might be killing EVERYTHING that passes through it.

What does R2R think?

 

[lapin]

Well if its sterilizing dino's then its working. Im sure its sterilizing a lot of other things. My first worry would be the dino's, since they can kill.

 

[Saltywaterbox]

Thank you for the reply.

It does seem to be working quite well.

How worried should I be about "UV’s rated at higher kill rates will destroy the planktonic food supply for the reef"?

 

[lapin]

You can always buy pods and phyto.