UV Sterilizer Issue

bcarl77 · Jan 12, 2020

Hi all,

I have had my UV sterilizer installed from Day 1 of the tank. I have continued to have issues with Cyanobacteria on the rock and sand bed. I have a AquaUV 25 watt sterilizer with a new sleeve and bulb. It is on continuous 24/7. I wanted to mainly control against dinos and cyano so its plumbed to circulate in the return section of my sump with a dedicated Sicce 3.0 running at max speed. Why is the sterilizer not able to control the cyano?

dank reefer · Jan 12, 2020

Try to adjust your powerheads so that you dont have any dead spots in your tank(might be where the cyano is growing) and keep it In the water column.

sp1187 · Jan 12, 2020

UV 's have rated flows.

bcarl77 · Jan 12, 2020

sp1187 said:
UV 's have rated flows.

Yes I should be in that range.

ca1ore · Jan 12, 2020

Not sure why you’d think it would? An UV can only affect that which passes through it. It may well be helping to control the extent of the cyano, but no reason to believe it will eradicate it. Similar story for UV and parasites.

bcarl77 · Jan 13, 2020

Isn’t a UV sterilizer effective against Cyano and Dino at faster flow rates since these are actively present in the water column...?

DarkSky · Jan 13, 2020

bcarl77 said:
Isn’t a UV sterilizer effective against Cyano and Dino at faster flow rates since these are actively present in the water column...?

Some might be in the water column, but not all of it. The mats in your tank don't let go, flow through the UV and then resettle where they are.

What are your nutrient levels like? Do some manual removal and get your NO3/PO4 levels up and it should go away.