Uv steralizer recommendations?

Greenstarfish03 · Jan 22, 2020

I have a 100g display with avout 50 gallons in my sump so with contents maybe 120g give ir take. Can anyone reconmend a good cost effective uv steralizer? My first look on brs they were crazy expensive.

R33FLIF3 · Jan 22, 2020

i would recommend the crazy expensive ones on brs. i have a 25 watt pentair, they are worth the$

jlts21 · Jan 22, 2020

X2 what @R33FLIF3 said. UV sterilizers are one of those "you get what you pay for" items

piranhaman00 · Jan 22, 2020

Greenstarfish03 said:
I have a 100g display with avout 50 gallons in my sump so with contents maybe 120g give ir take. Can anyone reconmend a good cost effective uv steralizer? My first look on brs they were crazy expensive.

The jebao UV on amazon work but they are made cheaply and degrade over time. X3 gotta pat a lot for these guys.

Greenstarfish03 · Jan 22, 2020

R33FLIF3 said:
i would recommend the crazy expensive ones on brs. i have a 25 watt pentair, they are worth the$

Yea ive kept a reef tank for 15 years without one so im having a hard time justifying that kind of money

Marlon C · Jan 22, 2020

Look on craigslist for a used one. You can even find one for ponds and you'll be fine i paid 50 for mine

jlts21 · Jan 22, 2020

Greenstarfish03 said:
Yea ive kept a reef tank for 15 years without one so im having a hard time justifying that kind of money

It's well worth the money trust me! I was hesitant on adding one as well because of the cost, but I found 2 used AquaUV 40w on here and I'm glad I added them. 80w on a 120g with 75g sump, roughly 150ish gallons works awesome!

CasaReefer · Jan 22, 2020

BRS has some great video's explaining sizing and flow would Highly Recommend you watch them...

Han · Jan 22, 2020

I have an aqua uv 25 watt. I previously had a coralife one but the plastic fittings kept breaking even after I replaced them.

sawdonkey · Jan 22, 2020

R33FLIF3 said:
i would recommend the crazy expensive ones on brs. i have a 25 watt pentair, they are worth the$

How do the expensive ones perform better? Aren’t we just running water over UV bulbs?

I have the 55W Jaebo that cost $75 and it’s been working just fine for a few years. Changed the bulbs once.
How would the performance differ with a more $$$ option? Just to be clear, I’m not saying cheap is the way to go and I’m not trying to defend my decision to go cheap. I legitimately want to know how I’d get a different result with a more expensive one.

piranhaman00 · Jan 22, 2020

sawdonkey said:
How do the expensive ones perform better? Aren’t we just running water over UV bulbs?

I have the 55W Jaebo that cost $75 and it’s been working just fine for a few years. Changed the bulbs once.
How would the performance differ with a more $$$ option? Just to be clear, I’m not saying cheap is the way to go and I’m not trying to defend my decision to go cheap. I legitimately want to know how I’d get a different result with a more expensive one.

The 55 watt jebao is made from cheap plastic that the UV degrades over a short period of time, the plastic leaches into the water and the unit will leak, there are multiple threads on here showing that.

And 55 watts doesn’t equal 55 watts when it comes to UV, it’s about UV-c watts which are completely unknown with the jebao because well, the bulbs are cheap and not tested.

Greenstarfish03 · Jan 22, 2020

Marlon C said:
Look on craigslist for a used one. You can even find one for ponds and you'll be fine i paid 50 for mine

Good call. Thanks

sawdonkey · Jan 22, 2020

piranhaman00 said:
The 55 watt jebao is made from cheap plastic that the UV degrades over a short period of time, the plastic leaches into the water and the unit will leak, there are multiple threads on here showing that.

And 55 watts doesn’t equal 55 watts when it comes to UV, it’s about UV-c watts which are completely unknown with the jebao because well, the bulbs are cheap and not tested.

I cannot find a thread where people are complaining of what you said (plastic leaching) and how would they even know? Maybe you could point me to it?

When you say “UV degrades,” are you referring to the bulb? Because those can be replaced pretty easily and that is true of all UV sterilizers.
Regarding the cheap and untested bulbs, it sounds like you assume they aren’t 55W....but maybe they are? In my opinion, even if it’s only 30W when it says 55W, it’s still a bargain.

Greenstarfish03 · Jan 22, 2020

jlts21 said:
It's well worth the money trust me! I was hesitant on adding one as well because of the cost, but I found 2 used AquaUV 40w on here and I'm glad I added them. 80w on a 120g with 75g sump, roughly 150ish gallons works awesome!

When you say it works awesome what actualy benefits have you seent that you know are from the uv?

Greenstarfish03 · Jan 22, 2020

sawdonkey said:
How do the expensive ones perform better? Aren’t we just running water over UV bulbs?

I have the 55W Jaebo that cost $75 and it’s been working just fine for a few years. Changed the bulbs once.
How would the performance differ with a more $$$ option? Just to be clear, I’m not saying cheap is the way to go and I’m not trying to defend my decision to go cheap. I legitimately want to know how I’d get a different result with a more expensive one.

Thanks. I agree. I dont mind spending money on something, but I want to make sure expensive really is better in a tangible way before i do so.

R33FLIF3 · Jan 22, 2020

biggest thing is build quality and SIZE, these pentairs are huge + the unions are nice

R33FLIF3 · Jan 22, 2020

Marlon C said:
Look on craigslist for a used one. You can even find one for ponds and you'll be fine i paid 50 for mine

ill admit, i lucked out and picked up my 25watt pentair on CL for $90

piranhaman00 · Jan 23, 2020

sawdonkey said:
I cannot find a thread where people are complaining of what you said (plastic leaching) and how would they even know? Maybe you could point me to it?

When you say “UV degrades,” are you referring to the bulb? Because those can be replaced pretty easily and that is true of all UV sterilizers.
Regarding the cheap and untested bulbs, it sounds like you assume they aren’t 55W....but maybe they are? In my opinion, even if it’s only 30W when it says 55W, it’s still a bargain.

No I’m sure the bulb is pulling 55 watts from the wall, but it’s about spectrum, the UV-C is what does the killing. They work don’t get me wrong , I’m not saying they don’t work.

The UV degrades the plastic. Of course the bulbs will degrade but higher quality plastic material was not used to keep price low, thus leading to plastic leeching into the water and the housing cracking over time.

It took 1 minute to find the thread. Search on google there are more.

Jebao UV light leaching plastic

Hello Reefers! It’s official they leach plastic ..... I read an article about these UV’s leaching plastic and I thought maybe it was wrong I finally cleaned my UV light and black stuff is pouring out after I scrub the sides I continue to get black stuff which is plastic . I no longer...

www.reef2reef.com

Greenstarfish03 said:
Thanks. I agree. I dont mind spending money on something, but I want to make sure expensive really is better in a tangible way before i do so.

The jebao work like I said, but at what cost? There dosing pumps work also but many threads of them dumping gallons. Worth it?

Using the pumps is one thing because if they break its not that big of a deal.

Greenstarfish03 said:
When you say it works awesome what actualy benefits have you seent that you know are from the uv?

UV are not necessary at all. The benefits include clear water, reducing/eliminating dinos parasites ect. Correct flow is huge when dealing with UV.

sawdonkey · Jan 23, 2020

piranhaman00 said:
No I’m sure the bulb is pulling 55 watts from the wall, but it’s about spectrum, the UV-C is what does the killing. They work don’t get me wrong , I’m not saying they don’t work.

The UV degrades the plastic. Of course the bulbs will degrade but higher quality plastic material was not used to keep price low, thus leading to plastic leeching into the water and the housing cracking over time.

It took 1 minute to find the thread. Search on google there are more.

Jebao UV light leaching plastic

Hello Reefers! It’s official they leach plastic ..... I read an article about these UV’s leaching plastic and I thought maybe it was wrong I finally cleaned my UV light and black stuff is pouring out after I scrub the sides I continue to get black stuff which is plastic . I no longer...

www.reef2reef.com

The jebao work like I said, but at what cost? There dosing pumps work also but many threads of them dumping gallons. Worth it?

Using the pumps is one thing because if they break its not that big of a deal.

UV are not necessary at all. The benefits include clear water, reducing/eliminating dinos parasites ect. Correct flow is huge when dealing with UV.

Thanks. I must have misspelled Jebao when doing my search. Yeah, that is scary enough for me to consider taking mine offline. I actually just bought it to clear up dinos, and it did that wonderfully. Now I just run it occasionally to clear up my water....which it also does wonderfully. Thanks for the info.

CpeshalElimpix · Jan 23, 2020

I couldn't find the thread or maybe it was on Amazon but I remember the manufacturer responding to somebody and specifically stated that the Jabao units are not meant for saltwater. I purchased a Lifegard Aquatics uv sterilizer 90w for about 400$ (originally for dinos) and its been running for a couple months now and the results have been amazing. I wont run my tank without one now.