Help with choosing UV Sterilizer

[Troyer15]

Hello!

Have recently had a small ich issue. I noticed it on a few fish a couple months ago but within a few days it was gone. Now my royal gramma has gotten it back to the point where its scratching itself in the rocks, sand bed, and some corals. It is still eating which is great. So I am looking into a UV sterilizer to help with ich management. I know this will not cure the fish or get rid of the parasite. I try to feed my fish a varied diet with supplements to help with building my fishes immune system. Could anyone recommend a UV sterilizer that will be efficient for my tank? My tank is a 30 gallon display and a 16 gallon sump. I do not have a quarantine tank and probably will not be setting one up at this point. I know its very controversial but I do not quarantine my fish. Any help is very appreciated.

 

[Quietman]

Any of the two main brands (Pentair and the other one - Aqua UV - the brand I have) should work fine. It's going to depend on your pump as well....you'll want the lower flow rates listed for ich management. However with a smaller tank, you should be able to get one that uv exposure can support both the low flow for ich and the high flow (8x turnover) for algae. Might need two pumps. There's an HOB model in both 8w and 15w. (I'd go with 15w but 8 w should be ok at very low flow)

 

[cflores]

The aqua uv 8w or 15 watt. For that size tank are hard to beat price and utility wise.

 

[Quietman]

Just looked up chart from AquaUV . You'll be good with 8 watt. For ich you want 214 gph or less, for algae (when you need it - dinos or such) you'll want 8x turnover so that's 368 gph minimum to get sufficient exposure. You can go up to 642 gph and still get the min exposure needed so that's great. Make sure flow actual and not rated (head loss). Good luck!

One last thing...I would definitely go with separate pump if you can and not route through sump return. I currently am using my return and it's not optimal (but it does work great).

 

[Troyer15]

Just looked up chart from AquaUV . You'll be good with 8 watt. For ich you want 214 gph or less, for algae (when you need it - dinos or such) you'll want 8x turnover so that's 368 gph minimum to get sufficient exposure. You can go up to 642 gph and still get the min exposure needed so that's great. Make sure flow actual and not rated (head loss). Good luck!

One last thing...I would definitely go with separate pump if you can and not route through sump return. I currently am using my return and it's not optimal (but it does work great).

Great. It looks like they sell one that can hang right on the back of the tank or sump. I guess I need to decide if I want to go with the HOB or plumb one into my return.