Green Killing Machine UV Sterilizer

[wickette]

I was given a 24watt AA Green Killing Machine UV Sterilizer as a, thoughtful but misguided, present.

I wanted one for parasite prevention, I'm fully aware GKM is low end, won't be using it in my 150g. Will it still be effective on a 75g tank if I use a weaker pump with it?

Besides price and how it's setup, what's the actual difference between:
$110 Green Killing Machine-24watt
$175 Coralife TurboTwist 12x -36watt
$395 Emporer Aquatics 25-watt
$410 Aqua Ultraviolet -24watt
$475 Pentair Smart UV -24watt

Plus the option of plumbing 2-3 generic 15watt sterlizers inline at $25 each, almost def. weaker than brand name bulbs... but even at ⅔ effiency it should be much more powerful than a single 24watt bulb for $75.

24watt & up seems to be the minimum sweet spot for parasite, I assume the wavelength and ammount of UV radiation is "better" the more expensive it gets. Do we know the technical difference?

 

[Kmst80]

I had a full on bacterial bloom, the water was brown. Bought the green killing machine and cleared it up in a day and a half. This is on a 200 gal system. Don't know if uv's can control parasites at all.

 

[Drewe]

I had a full on bacterial bloom, the water was brown. Bought the green killing machine and cleared it up in a day and a half. This is on a 200 gal system. Don't know if uv's can control parasites at all.

UVs can help to control the population of parasites. They don't directly kill them but if the flow through the UV is tuned correctly it will sterilize the free-swimming parasites, preventing them from breeding.