UV sterilizer placement

piranhaman00 · Oct 12, 2019

Hello,

I set up a 15 watt AquaUV sterilizer yesterday, I had a green killing machine before but after learning more about UV I decided to upgrade, excited to see what a quality UV can do. The ultimate purpose is for a few pesky dinos that have stuck around after clearing 95% with PO4/NO3 dosing. But also hoping for better water quality ect.

Anyway, I have a RSM c250, the sump in connected to the back of the tank. I initially put the pump on one side of the sump and ran the output to the other side, I didn’t think it through at first, one side of the sump basically drained and the other flooded. Now I have the input and output right on the same side.

Will this be at all effective? I have the UV pump on top of the c250 return pump and the UV output comes out below the c250 return. Plan is that water is going through uv before return and then output after return and getting pumped back into display, obviously not 100% efficient but should work right? I have roughly 250 gph going through the 15 watt uv, c250 is 65 gallons.

Thanks for any input!

TARHEEL78 · Oct 12, 2019

I'm having trouble trying to picture it but if I'm reading right both your return pump and uv pump are in the return chamber as well as the line coming back from your uv? If that is the case I'm not sure your uv is going to be doing much good. Can you post pics so we can see exactly what you have going on?

piranhaman00 · Oct 12, 2019

You have it right haha, it’s the way only I can set it up in this type of sump I believe?

The Uv pump is on top of the return pump, and the Uv return line is below the display return so for the uv water to re enter the UV pump it would flow right past the display return, like I said not 100% efficient but at least 50-75%

There are two return chambers on this tank, one on each side. I have the UV pump and return line in same section, the uv pump is a 1/5th size and display return so I’m hoping that a good amount of water will be brought through UV and then returned to display before going through UV again, I guess I will keep on eye on the dinos for now, any other input appreciated! I can’t really return the line to the display because I don’t like how it looks, and returning it to any other place in the sump will cause imbalance in the sump, I can try moving it around elsewhere in the sump I suppose, thanks!