UV Sterilizer - How big?

[slojmn]

I'm getting about 240 GPH running through my 25w AquaUV Sterilizer. I was thinking that wasn't enough according to the AquaUV chart, but it sounds good according to what @FarmerTy is noting about his system. Hmmm, I'll go with it and see what is what over time.

 

[Tft12]

@FarmerTy Have had any problems from running a flow rate through the UV sterilizer that is so much lower than what's recommended by Aqua UV? Specifically I'm asking about the bulb overheating and breaking. I talked to Aqua UV about reducing the flow rate through their units so that I could get above their recommended 90,000 uw/cm2 and they told me not to do that out of concern for overheating the bulb. Please let me know your experience and thank you very much for your contributions on this thread.

 

[Reeftroubles]

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

BRS on you tube just did a really informative video on that very question, Go check it out.

 

[FarmerTy]

@FarmerTy Have had any problems from running a flow rate through the UV sterilizer that is so much lower than what's recommended by Aqua UV? Specifically I'm asking about the bulb overheating and breaking. I talked to Aqua UV about reducing the flow rate through their units so that I could get above their recommended 90,000 uw/cm2 and they told me not to do that out of concern for overheating the bulb. Please let me know your experience and thank you very much for your contributions on this thread.

I didn't have any issues with it for the 1-2 years I used that sterilizer at a similar flow rate.

 

[MarineREEFpassion]

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.

Great rundown. Thanks for breaking it down and sharing!