UV Sterilizer - How big?

SteveySingle · Mar 9, 2016

So, I've got a long road ahead of me.
After 10 years of being in the reef game, I've had my first "crash" - I have decided that next go-round, I need to have a UV Sterilizer. I never really believed in them since I had not had such an issue like this (except the occasional outbreak on a single fish here and there). Now that I've lost about a 800 bucks worth of fish over the course of a few days, I'd rather be safe than sorry moving forward(going fallow for at least 12w).
/pittyparty

Here's the question: How big of a UV Sterilizer do I need for my system?

I've got a 300DD DT, 90G Frag Tank, and a 110g sump (one system). I'd say there's only about 40 gallons of water in the sump...so after rock ...350-380g of water..ish
The sterilizers that I've been looking at don't seem to tell me what size of a tank they'll treat, but I understand that too much UV will hurt the planktonic population of the tank.

There's a LifeGuard Aquatics 25W unit for sale locally for a good price, would this be too big or too little? Decent? Great??

Any help or advice is appreciated. Thanks

Retro Reefer · Mar 9, 2016

Not sure about the size you will need but you can control there effectiveness by the amount of water you pump through them.. You could use a lower wattage UVS with a low flow pump and get similar results of water sterilization as a higher watt UVS with a high flow pump, it's about contact time with the water inside the UV unit.. Of course turning the water over more frequently in a larger system would be more beneficial.

d2mini · Mar 9, 2016

If you are going to get a UV, get a good one.
The top two IMO are AquaUV and Emporer Aquatics, but Emporer was bought out by Pentair so not sure what that has done to the brand.
I'd go with AquaUV.
So if you go to the AquaUV their website will tell you how much flow is needed for a reef tank for each of their models. It is very important that you have the correct amount of flow. It doesn't go by tank size.
http://www.aquaultraviolet.com/products/uvsterilizers/classic

Rockhead · Mar 9, 2016

FarmerTy · Mar 9, 2016

Here's what I wrote up on my local forum. Hopefully it is useful for your own research.

So, I wanted to bring this discussion back to light as I am contemplating some things during my more extensive research into ich sterilization with UV.

It started when I ran across an article on the Emperor Aquatics brand of UV sterilizers, basically the main competing company of UV sterilizers to the product I own, the AquaUV sterilizer. Both are highly regarded for their performance and customer support and are considered the better UV sterilizers in the industry. What struck me as odd is the higher recommended exposures recommended for killing marine protists by Emperor Aquatics. Here's what the two companies suggested for exposure levels to kill marine protists:

MODEL Exposure GPH
57-watt AquaUV 90,000 uW/cm2 1066
50-watt Emperor Aquatics 180,000 uW/cm2 ~300

That's 2x the recommended level of AquaUV! So that made me do some more research and found that the marine ich kill exposure of 336,000 uW/cm2 is mainly an extrapolated number from freshwater ich kill exposure of 100,000 uW/cm2. Awesome! Soft science!

Well, that's the best I have so I'll run with it, which basically means I need to only run ~300 gph through the UV sterilizer, instead of the 1066 gph recommended by the manufacturer.

Great reference on ich:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fa164

Chart I found for reference... no idea of the source though:

FarmerTy · Mar 9, 2016

Fyi, I'm currently running a 57-watt AquaUV sterilizer but probably could have gone a little bigger for my 215-gallon tank. I'm only basing that off of when you find the optimal GPM rate for your sized UV unit to get you 336,000, it is suggested that the GPH is 2-3x your volume of the tank.

For me, it was approximately 300 GPH to get 336,000 through my UV unit, so this is ideally suited for a 100-150 gallon tank if that makes sense. If I had a stronger UV unit and calculated my GPH to get 336,000 at 400 GPH, then that would be at least 2x my water volume of 215 gallons so better suited.

Also, more interesting is the fact that I ran across a brief mention of a Japenese study that was conducted on ich and the summary was that ich mainly resides in the lower levels of the tank, which makes sense given what we know about their life cycle. I've since decided to plumb my UV directly to the DT and have the feed pump pull from the lower areas of the tank. I have also reprogrammed my pumps to exclude a calmer night mode and to keep an active flow at night as well since tomonts will usually release trophonts at night. All anecdotal of course but it does make sense to me the more I think about it.

brandon429 · Mar 9, 2016

the way to size uv for your tank is to figure out how much risk you want to take in buying an undersized product and it not working. I once ran a freshwater 10,000 gallon quad array pond sterilizer on a 75 gallon tank for years, needless to say I had zero invasions. since we are burning things, I say burn them and go big, as big as you can install and still look good. I consider a properly sized uv off a label to already be too small, id use pond uv's in any future large setups in my opinion

FarmerTy · Mar 9, 2016

Sorry, my thoughts are all over the place but I based it on observation of my own tank.

I always ran an ich-maintained tank, it was always there but wouldn't manifest unless a stressful event triggered it. Twice, I added a powder blue tang and twice, with its lack of immunity, got the rest of the tank infected as well as it made the population of ich bloom in the tank. The observation I had was the PBT was living in my sump by himself for 3 months in very fast moving water. Not a spot of ich on him. The minute I moved him to the display, ich! You could point to the stress but it was not bullied at all, though I understand it could be a possible explanation.

My thought is the flow is so quick in the sump that ich never had a chance to hatch and attach to him. The minute he was in the display, my calm night mode allowed the ich trophonts to casually swim and attach to all my sleeping fish. It's almost as simple as a flow issue to minimize infection. That made even more sense to me when old school reefers like Paul B brags about his lack of quarantine and long living fish with no ich. He runs a reverse-flow undergravel filter... It basically is his ich filter. They hatch at night at lower levels of the tank, before they can even attach, they are getting pulled into the sandbed and trapped there and die without a host. No ich! Add to it his feeding regiment and his fish are super healthy anyways and can resist an ich infection.

Sorry that my thoughts are all over the place this morning as this is as close to a data dump as one can do. Hope it at least helps someone!

Paul B · May 26, 2016

Maybe all the ich are in my undergravel filter and are to busy partying and doing the macarana to have time to infect my fish. I really never thought if it,

tom reilly · Jun 9, 2016

Do you run the light UV 24/7?
Seems it would be most effective against. ICK at night.
Mine has an 8000HR life on the bulb.

FarmerTy · Jun 9, 2016

tom reilly said:
Do you run the light UV 24/7?
Seems it would be most effective against. ICK at night.
Mine has an 8000HR life on the bulb.

Not sure who you're asking but I run mine 24/7. I have a new one now and still need to plumb it so currently running nothing.

tom reilly · Jun 9, 2016

Thanks
Am new at this. My first reef tank. Trying to avoid any giant goofs by soaking up as much as I can from this site.

77.christy · Jun 9, 2016

FarmerTy said:
Not sure who you're asking but I run mine 24/7. I have a new one now and still need to plumb it so currently running nothing.

Do u notice a difference w/o the sterilizer in the system?

FarmerTy · Jun 9, 2016

I have to wipe the front glass more but I use it more as a preventative than a treatment protocol Christy.

77.christy · Jun 9, 2016

FarmerTy said:
I have to wipe the front glass more but I use it more as a preventative than a treatment protocol Christy.

Wipe as in algae? Can coralline grow w/ a sterilizer? Asking so many questions bc I'm trying to learn more before my 140 build

FarmerTy · Jun 9, 2016

Yes, algae on glass. All algae can grow with a sterilizer on the system. It only kills what gets pulled through the unit itself that is in the water column.

Very costly to get a properly sized unit so I'd think hard about really running one or not.

77.christy · Jun 9, 2016

Thanks. You've solved my Dilemma. [emoji6]

Toomnymods · Dec 23, 2018

FarmerTy said:
Here's what I wrote up on my local forum. Hopefully it is useful for your own research.

So, I wanted to bring this discussion back to light as I am contemplating some things during my more extensive research into ich sterilization with UV.

It started when I ran across an article on the Emperor Aquatics brand of UV sterilizers, basically the main competing company of UV sterilizers to the product I own, the AquaUV sterilizer. Both are highly regarded for their performance and customer support and are considered the better UV sterilizers in the industry. What struck me as odd is the higher recommended exposures recommended for killing marine protists by Emperor Aquatics. Here's what the two companies suggested for exposure levels to kill marine protists:

MODEL Exposure GPH
57-watt AquaUV 90,000 uW/cm2 1066
50-watt Emperor Aquatics 180,000 uW/cm2 ~300

That's 2x the recommended level of AquaUV! So that made me do some more research and found that the marine ich kill exposure of 336,000 uW/cm2 is mainly an extrapolated number from freshwater ich kill exposure of 100,000 uW/cm2. Awesome! Soft science!

Well, that's the best I have so I'll run with it, which basically means I need to only run ~300 gph through the UV sterilizer, instead of the 1066 gph recommended by the manufacturer.

Great reference on ich:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fa164

Chart I found for reference... no idea of the source though:

I recently installed a Aqua UV 57 watt unit on my 220 reef with a 40 gallon sump. You post is confusing to me. Can you break down ur message in 3rd grader terms, lol how much flow is needed to totally rid my tank of ich? Do I need 300gph or the 1000-1200gph flow thru my UV? Really confusing cause youd think the slower flow rate would be more effective?

FarmerTy · Dec 23, 2018

Toomnymods said:
I recently installed a Aqua UV 57 watt unit on my 220 reef with a 40 gallon sump. You post is confusing to me. Can you break down ur message in 3rd grader terms, lol how much flow is needed to totally rid my tank of ich? Do I need 300gph or the 1000-1200gph flow thru my UV? Really confusing cause youd think the slower flow rate would be more effective?

Run 250 GPH. It may not get rid of ich entirely but will help suppress any lethal infestations of the tank. [emoji4]

77.christy · Dec 25, 2018

FarmerTy said:
Run 250 GPH. It may not get rid of ich entirely but will help suppress any lethal infestations of the tank. [emoji4]

I got a 36 watt UV on my 140 (180 total water volume). With a sicce 1.0 on the slowest gph. I have ich. Added a qt-Ed hippo and she broke out. No surprise there, but was able to fight it off. None of my other fish are affected by the ich. I agree with Ty, it’s not 100% gone. But manageable I suppose