UV on bean animal siphon line?

[ronald jeremy]

Does anyone have their UV plumbed into the drain as opposed to the return?

I am planning to add a Aqua UV 120 Watt matched appropriately to my return flow (1360gph). I understand the normal thing to do is to put it after the return pump on the way back to the tank. My concern though is twofold:

The UV would kill the pods trying to make their way from the refugium to the DT.

The skimmer might work more efficiently being after the UV instead of before it.

So my question is, are there any problems I should be aware of with plumbing the UV on the siphon line of a bean animal drain, before it enters the sump?

Also, would there be any issues if the UV was 2 inch and the siphon drain was 1 inch?

If the pump turns off for feeding and the siphon line goes dry, would a UV be damaged from that? Would there be a measurable difference in water clarity coming from the drain reducing the UV efficiency? Or an increased need to clean the UV?

 

[User]

The flow would likely be too fast for the UV to be effective.

I would get a separate pump pulling from the skimmer chamber, and having the uv output go back into the same chamber.

Or manifold it off the return in a typical configuration

 

[ronald jeremy]

It is an Aqua UV 120 Watt, which is rated for 1360gph for effective sterilization, and matches the flow of my return pump. So flow would not be an issue.

Plumbing it to the skimmer chamber would reduce its overall effectiveness, because it would be filtering some of the same water over again?

 

[Foothill Corals]

The UV will collect garbage in it. The UV can not be ran dry so that would be an issue if you turn off the pump.

120W that is a huge UV. What size is the tank?

 

[ronald jeremy]

The UV will collect garbage in it.

120W that is a huge UV. What size is the tank?

320 gallon tank. 1360gph gives me around 4x sump turnover (sump in basement).

 

[Foothill Corals]

Personally I run my UV off a small pump plumbed separate. That way I can remove it down the road if I decide to without re-plumbing.

 

[ronald jeremy]

The UV will collect garbage in it. The UV can not be ran dry so that would be an issue if you turn off the pump.

I see -- I might be able to setup the Apex to turn the UV and pump off at the same time. The garbage though I don't see a way of getting around, if it really would trap that kind of thing. I would think though water (and garbage) would continue to run through it just fine, whether it is on or off.

 

[ca1ore]

I run my UV on the siphon drain line. Mostly works fine. In my case it’s a TMC110, and the drain runs nominally at 1,000 GPH. I’m always motivated to take advantage of gravity rather than running yet another pump so I use all my siphon drains (I have three) productively. Running a UV dry can be a problem, though if you have a controller like apex it’s easy to setup appropriate programming. Silt buildup will happen on a drain line; but also on a return line or closed loop so it’s a push. The thing to worry about is whether running the siphon through a UV will prevent it from starting up properly versus getting air locked. In my case I’ve also a basement sump room, so plenty of head pressure on the drain line to get through the UV.

 

[Firemanreefkeeper]

UV sterilizer needs contact time with the water to be effective. Mine came with a chart that says like 60 to 100 gallon per hour to kill bacteria and protozoa and 500 to 600 gallons per hour to kill algae spores. You would most likely be ineffective against pathogens. It would probably get plugged with stuff coming from your tank too.
As for pods and whatnot, I have thousands on my glass and probably twice that on my rocks. The UV might get a few but they mostly like on the surfaces of things.

 

[Foothill Corals]

I see -- I might be able to setup the Apex to turn the UV and pump off at the same time. The garbage though I don't see a way of getting around, if it really would trap that kind of thing. I would think though water (and garbage) would continue to run through it just fine, whether it is on or off.

Well with 1300 gal/hr it may not be an issue IDK.

That seems excessive I have a 50W and flow around 240 gal/hr.

 

[ca1ore]

UV sterilizer needs contact time with the water to be effective. Mine came with a chart that says like 60 to 100 gallon per hour to kill bacteria and protozoa and 500 to 600 gallons per hour to kill algae spores. You would most likely be ineffective against pathogens.

The required flow for effective sterilization (as opposed to clarification) depends entirely on the wattage of the UV. Mine, for example, for level 2 sterilization recommends 10-12 GPH per watt .... so between 1,100 and 1,320 total GPH. I’d imagine the Aqua UV would be similar.

No need to worry about pods. Vast majority in our tanks are not swimming in the water column. Actually, UV on the drain means that any pods in the sump that do travel back up have a better chance of surviving.

 

[Foothill Corals]

The required flow for effective sterilization (as opposed to clarification) depends entirely on the wattage of the UV. Mine, for example, for level 2 sterilization recommends 10-12 GPH per watt .... so between 1,100 and 1,320 total GPH. I’d imagine the Aqua UV would be similar.

I disagree. Per. BRS for a 50 watt the suggested flow rate is 260 gal/hr, Max is 330.

 

[ca1ore]

Disagree all you like. I’ll go with the recommendation of the manufacturer of the unit I use. What’s the basis for BRS recommendation, do you know? Do they even know lol?

 

[ronald jeremy]

I run my UV on the siphon drain line.

Ok great, at least I know it is feasible! The AquaUV 120 though has a grid of 3 pipes, so I can see your point of the possibility of air getting locked up somewhere in that matrix. It would be a lot more straightforward with just a single chamber.

I never thought of it this way, but in a basement setup, a UV that normally requires head pressure to run, by putting it on the siphon drain "recoups" some of that energy you would otherwise be wasting by using the drain head pressure to your advantage.

 

[ca1ore]

Yeah, I looked at that one and decided I didn’t want to spend $800. Mine is a grid of just two pipes (dual 55 watts) and I found that if horizontal and level that it purged just fine. When the main pump is off, apex shuts the UV down as well and only restarts after my flow detectors read flow in the drains.

 

[tatties]

i just got pentair 25watt. i would like to put on my return line. got a very good dc pump. wanting to do the manifold way. can someone show me image or explain this method? where does the flow go after going through the uv tube?

 

[Tyrone]

The flow would likely be too fast for the UV to be effective.

I would get a separate pump pulling from the skimmer chamber, and having the uv output go back into the same chamber.

Or manifold it off the return in a typical configuration

What about putting a two little fishies barbed 3/4 gate valve to slow down the flow?

 

[ca1ore]

I recently replumbed my big UV. Still on the drain line, and siphon still starts just fine but now it's not fully purging all the air. Not entirely sure why. Since there's 8' of head pressure above the UV, I'm assuming its under positive pressure so am going to try a vent line in the top.

 

[Simplicity Aquatics]

I recently replumbed my big UV. Still on the drain line, and siphon still starts just fine but now it's not fully purging all the air. Not entirely sure why. Since there's 8' of head pressure above the UV, I'm assuming its under positive pressure so am going to try a vent line in the top.

I was going to mention this as a problem. I ran into this since my sump is about 30' horizontal from my tank. I have a 1.5" drain that goes into a 4" pipe on the horizontal since it goes far. I ran into this mass of air in the horizontal pipe that would create noise where the 1.5" spills into the large pipe. I drilled a hole right at this joint on the top of the pipe and threaded it for a John Guest fitting. I then ran a 1/4" RODI line to the intake on my pump. I figured there was enough suction it would act as a venturi and draw out the air. It works, sort of.. if I ever lose the full siphon, like doing a water change it takes a lot of time and blows a lot of bubbles into the tank as the pump clears the air. If I was going to do it all over again, I certainly wouldn't have done it this way.

 

[ca1ore]

Vent line solved the problem. I’m less concerned about a little noise in the UV, rather the quartz sleeve getting exposed to air and either burning or cracking.