Equipment of the Week: UV Sterilizer
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Nanoreefbro
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I use one on my 150 gal FOWLR. I'm planning on turning that tank into a reef so I will be turning it off once I do that...
Shakeel
Community Member
well I ran mine for a long time but then one day decided to do some energy savings on the tank so I took off my chiller the uvsterilizer and cut off some hours on my lighting and man oh man lets just say after some cyano and a bacteria bloom that started three days ago the uv is back on the tank and honestly in eight hours my bacteria bloom is alost completly gone I will always run a uv sterilizer hands done.
Mike&Terry
Wrasses, Angels, & Tangs, Oh My!
We run a UV sterilizer on our SPS reef tank and just recently added one to our QT. As far as pods go, they thrive in our refugium and DT (even with 3 leopard wrasses). The pods that inadvertently make it into the overflow and down the drain to our sump get trapped by a filter sock and are rescued before the socks are rinsed and cleaned. As for the UV killing beneficial bacteria, we don't really worry about it as there is very little beneficial bacteria in the water column. Most of it resides in live rock and sand.
-M&T
-M&T
if you havent tried one... DO IT... you wont be disappointed!!
I have never had any problems with it killing "everything".
However i wouldnt recommend running it 24/7 at a slow flow rate unless you are trying to kill of parasites.
I have used a uv sterilizer on my last two builds over the last 6 years.
I provides amazing clarity to the water as well as helps kicking some of the nasty algae people run into.
Also can help with ORP if your looking for a little boost, its no ozone but it does help.
if your on the fence, see if you can borrow one from a fellow reefer to check out, it only takes a day or two to see the difference.
I have never had any problems with it killing "everything".
However i wouldnt recommend running it 24/7 at a slow flow rate unless you are trying to kill of parasites.
I have used a uv sterilizer on my last two builds over the last 6 years.
I provides amazing clarity to the water as well as helps kicking some of the nasty algae people run into.
Also can help with ORP if your looking for a little boost, its no ozone but it does help.
if your on the fence, see if you can borrow one from a fellow reefer to check out, it only takes a day or two to see the difference.
robert
Valuable Member
I ran a 36W UV on my system for many years. A while back I took it off and noticed little effect.
To understand how opinions can differ so widely on the effectiveness of UV it helps to understand how it works. UV light striking organic molecules in the water (or in a bacteria, algae cell etc) results in the production of hydrogen peroxide which breaks down the bonds in the organic molecule or kills the organism.
UV passing through clean water (without organics) does nothing - no H2O2 is produced. So the thing to realize is that if your water is very clean, UV does little or nothing. If your water is dirty then UV produces H2O2 which in turn helps break down excess organics.
The same process takes place in the waters over reefs. hydrogen peroxide is produced naturally in seawater by UV radiation. It especially is produced in warm clear waters, in the top 100 meters at concentrations of 200nM to 400nM. Its production and depletion is diurnal, with it peak concentrations reached around noon or slightly after. In clean non-polluted waters it is produced and consumed more slowly predominately through reactions with phyto-planktons. In more polluted water, it tends to deplete through bacterial reactions.
There is no doubt that UV is effective in waters with high organic content - like the algae filled pond someone was talking about a few posts up - but in tanks in which the water is kept clean by other methods, UV doesn't accomplish as much.
So if your tank has a lot of organics suspended (yellow water etc) or if you don't run a skimmer or if you change water less frequently, you'll notice a big difference with UV. If your water is kept clear of organics by other means - you'll notice little difference with UV.
To understand how opinions can differ so widely on the effectiveness of UV it helps to understand how it works. UV light striking organic molecules in the water (or in a bacteria, algae cell etc) results in the production of hydrogen peroxide which breaks down the bonds in the organic molecule or kills the organism.
UV passing through clean water (without organics) does nothing - no H2O2 is produced. So the thing to realize is that if your water is very clean, UV does little or nothing. If your water is dirty then UV produces H2O2 which in turn helps break down excess organics.
The same process takes place in the waters over reefs. hydrogen peroxide is produced naturally in seawater by UV radiation. It especially is produced in warm clear waters, in the top 100 meters at concentrations of 200nM to 400nM. Its production and depletion is diurnal, with it peak concentrations reached around noon or slightly after. In clean non-polluted waters it is produced and consumed more slowly predominately through reactions with phyto-planktons. In more polluted water, it tends to deplete through bacterial reactions.
There is no doubt that UV is effective in waters with high organic content - like the algae filled pond someone was talking about a few posts up - but in tanks in which the water is kept clean by other methods, UV doesn't accomplish as much.
So if your tank has a lot of organics suspended (yellow water etc) or if you don't run a skimmer or if you change water less frequently, you'll notice a big difference with UV. If your water is kept clear of organics by other means - you'll notice little difference with UV.
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sammirooter
Active Member
i run one and love it. Had no uv for a while and noticed it help with the little algae i was getting. no algae and lots and lots of pods. lots.. lol
I've had one for years on my 90, a 57W unit, where I passed all the water from the sump through the UV before entering the tank. I'll do that again on this sytem, but with a smaller UV, as I am no longer running 1000+ gph through the sump.
I've been keeping aquariums for 35+ years. SW for 3 of them. Have never used a UV sterilizer. Never will. I personally don't believe that we can run the water slow enough through them for them to actually do any good.
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dcfluegel
Active Member
woot! happy saturday! noob question time...
we run a 75g mixed reef system and the lady wife has been told that she should look into uv sterilizer - currently housing 2 black occellaris clowns, 3 green chromis, 1 scooter blenny, 1 red (starry) dragonet, 1 spotted mandarin and a scribbled rabbitfish (along with a high fin banded goby who is on sabbatical somewhere with his pistol shrimp sidekick...) along with some ricordea, frogspawn, hammer, xenia, leather and a few small zoa's...
I realize there are mixed opinions on using UV on a reef system - what I have researched thus far seems to indicate that with higher flow rates, you should not destroy reefs planktonic food supply (but higher flow rates also decrease the effectiveness of the UV...)
so, here are my questions...
if we have a UV inline after the return pump, will it kill any copepods/ amphipods that make it into the flow from the fuge? (and, on a parallel note, should I be counting on the return to 'ferry' pods up to the DT from below or should I employ some form of manual mass transit for the little buggers?)
if we have a UV inline on the overflow drain line, will it be effective at all?
having seen some references to plumbing it in before the skimmer, would we want to look at changing out skimmer pump for a higher flow rate unit to offset pressure loss incurred by adding UV if we went that route?
thanks!
David
we run a 75g mixed reef system and the lady wife has been told that she should look into uv sterilizer - currently housing 2 black occellaris clowns, 3 green chromis, 1 scooter blenny, 1 red (starry) dragonet, 1 spotted mandarin and a scribbled rabbitfish (along with a high fin banded goby who is on sabbatical somewhere with his pistol shrimp sidekick...) along with some ricordea, frogspawn, hammer, xenia, leather and a few small zoa's...
I realize there are mixed opinions on using UV on a reef system - what I have researched thus far seems to indicate that with higher flow rates, you should not destroy reefs planktonic food supply (but higher flow rates also decrease the effectiveness of the UV...)
so, here are my questions...
if we have a UV inline after the return pump, will it kill any copepods/ amphipods that make it into the flow from the fuge? (and, on a parallel note, should I be counting on the return to 'ferry' pods up to the DT from below or should I employ some form of manual mass transit for the little buggers?)
if we have a UV inline on the overflow drain line, will it be effective at all?
having seen some references to plumbing it in before the skimmer, would we want to look at changing out skimmer pump for a higher flow rate unit to offset pressure loss incurred by adding UV if we went that route?
thanks!
David
navila06
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just an update, i stopped using one...ha ha ha
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I used one in the past but it is not hooked up right now. To be honest I am going to put it back on when I rebuild my sump. When using it the glass stayed cleaner longer and cyano was non-existent. I don't mind losing a few pods for cleaner sand and glass...
kes
Well-Known Member
I don't think it's necessary but it won't help, if you have sufficient space, no probs with extra wattage, etc, then it can only help. flow is critical for effectiveness, though.
icsparks
Community Member
I have used UV sterilizers in the past and can honestly say they do work to a degree. I have never heard of the UV light making hydrogen peroxide that in turn is what kills the organism. This must be nature’s way of doing things. What I do know it that UV light is a form of radiation that alters the DNA of micro-organisms causing death. The effectiveness of a UV light is mostly through redundancy where you pass clean filtered water through the UV light over and over again effectively reducing the numbers of living organisms with each pass. But passing unfiltered water through the UV light decreases it’s effectiveness greatly. The little critters can hide in the dirty water unaffected. Also a dirty outer tube or aged light will cause less desired results and there is no way to test the effectiveness of the unit. Water flow and contact time must be calculated correctly per the manufacture in order to have a desirable kill rate. This is why you will see UV lights rated to kill green water at a higher water flow rate and a lower flow rate is needed to kill other larger organisms. Use of UV Sterilizer which impacts Redox Balance in a different way than water changes or additional minerals; the UVC irradiation destroys destructive oxidizers in the water column which can otherwise add oxidative stress to fish. Proper setup is key and this may be why some of you have different results using UV sterilizers on your tanks. Double check your setups for flow rates, clean water and aged bulbs.
