Does a UV sterilizer cause cancer in fish?

[that novice guy]

Hey I was recently thinking about adding a uv sterilizer to my tank and was looking up how they actually work, and from what I’ve read it gives out enough uv radiation(canacer) threw the water that passes threw it and kills it, but if I had to think, over time my fish or coral or whatever eats what comes out of my uv could that potentially give them cancer later down the road? Or should it be ran periodically when needed?

 

[Crabs McJones]

That is not exactly how it works. UV doesn't travel through the water outside of the fixture. If you look at a UV sterilizer, the bulb is encased in a housing so that the UV light cannot escape. UV is a wavelength of light, not something in the water. So as the water passes through the steralizer it's blasted with UV light, killing any pest organisms.

 

[CC13]

Hey I was recently thinking about adding a uv sterilizer to my tank and was looking up how they actually work, and from what I’ve read it gives out enough uv radiation(canacer) threw the water that passes threw it and kills it, but if I had to think, over time my fish or coral or whatever eats what comes out of my uv could that potentially give them cancer later down the road? Or should it be ran periodically when needed?

I'm not a scientist or doctor but I would be willing to place my money that the UV sterilizer units that municipal governments use on their drinking water supply are a million times stronger than anything you could stick on your aquarium. If there was a risk, I'm sure it would first have been addressed as a concern on water for human consumption far before someone to attach one on their fish tank.

And technically don't all LED units have UV diodes?

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

I suppose if you constantly ran your fish through the UV it might, but I think the fish would die from stress related causes well before cancer could end them...

 

[that novice guy]

Thank you for all of your reply’s, I guess it not much of a concern, I was just thinking of all of the microfuana that gets killed by radiation, eventually gets eaten or broken down. Thank y’all for your time

 

[saltyhog]

That's not a concern. You could eat cancer tumors from animals and it wouldn't give you cancer. Long UV exposure can cause cancer by damaging the cellular DNA (think skin cancer) but ingesting the cancer cells will not as we don't incorporate the DNA of our food directly. Does that make sense?

 

[roberthu526]

Thank you for all of your reply’s, I guess it not much of a concern, I was just thinking of all of the microfuana that gets killed by radiation, eventually gets eaten or broken down. Thank y’all for your time

UV doesn’t kill bacteria that pass through it. It disables or mutates the DNA so bacteria can’t reproduce. Copepods are too big to be affected in most cases unless you have a commercial grade UV on a 10 gallon tank.

 

[reefwiser]

Not happening UV has been used in both hobby and commercial fish husbandry for 30 years without any problems. UV only acts inside the filter.

 

[mattzang]

my concerning would be how i have the UV light on my ai prime jacked up really high

 

[wesman42]

On a real reef, there's also microfauna losses due to UV radiation from the sun. So no, it won't harm your fish

 

[Scrubber_steve]

That's not a concern. You could eat cancer tumors from animals and it wouldn't give you cancer. Long UV exposure can cause cancer by damaging the cellular DNA (think skin cancer) but ingesting the cancer cells will not as we don't incorporate the DNA of our food directly. Does that make sense?

One tumour on rye pls

 

[that novice guy]

Yeah that’s what I was thinking, if I ate food that had cancer, it would give me cancer. Thanks again for all of your reply’s it has helped out allot !

Haha sign me up for the tumor on rye lol I loved that one