UV Sterilizer - the best thing ever?

[D3DPrintedThingz]

Nothing in my tank changes fast. Other than last week when I got home from vacation, my water was swamp green.

I changed 30% water every night, cleaned glass, dumped in extra phyto&zoo plankton, nothing was working.

my poor corals were so sad looking, the light wasn’t reaching them.

I finally decided to pick up a UV sterilizer. Scared of plumbing and messing up my perfectly tuned overflow & return (ya I’m bragging) I bought a sterilizer that drops in the tank and runs just like a heater would. Submersed, plug it in and it works.

fast forward to this morning. My water was clear. If you want clear, enjoyable water, you must have a UV.

didn’t take any swamp green pics, but this was yesterday. It was even better this morning

 

[TheHunterYall]

I like my little uv, at worse it’s insurance, another level of protection

 

[bestfishes]

Its been a long time since I looked into it, but at the time it was not recommended to use UV in a reef long term. It kills lots of beneficial critters. Has that theory changed?

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Nothing in my tank changes fast. Other than last week when I got home from vacation, my water was swamp green.

I changed 30% water every night, cleaned glass, dumped in extra phyto&zoo plankton, nothing was working.

my poor corals were so sad looking, the light wasn’t reaching them.

I finally decided to pick up a UV sterilizer. Scared of plumbing and messing up my perfectly tuned overflow & return (ya I’m bragging) I bought a sterilizer that drops in the tank and runs just like a heater would. Submersed, plug it in and it works.

fast forward to this morning. My water was clear. If you want clear, enjoyable water, you must have a UV.

didn’t take any swamp green pics, but this was yesterday. It was even better this morning

You definitely dont "need" to have a UV for clear enjoyable water...they also kill the bacterioplankton that coral can consume which doesn't seem to make much of a difference in most tanks as plenty run UV without issues but yeah, you are killing off a little bacterial diversity so I wouldn't use one unless I really needed it for a specific reason

 

[D3DPrintedThingz]

You definitely dont "need" to have a UV for clear enjoyable water...they also kill the bacterioplankton that coral can consume which doesn't seem to make much of a difference in most tanks as plenty run UV without issues but yeah, you are killing off a little bacterial diversity so I wouldn't use one unless I really needed it for a specific reason

Sooooooooooooooooo should I turn Mr. UV off now that the bacterial bloom is dead ? Use it as an 'as needed' type of thing?

My water was clear before the bloom without a UV and I would expect it to stay the same post-UV shut off. I do not want to kill my oh so precious bacteria I have cultivated

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Sooooooooooooooooo should I turn Mr. UV off now that the bacterial bloom is dead ? Use it as an 'as needed' type of thing?

My water was clear before the bloom without a UV and I would expect it to stay the same post-UV shut off. I do not want to kill my oh so precious bacteria I have cultivated

I would just use it as needed...there are plenty of people who run it constantly but personally I'd just use it as needed especially if you say your water was fine before the bloom

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Don't want ur water green. Don't dose phytoplankton.
D

 

[D3DPrintedThingz]

Don't want ur water green. Don't dose phytoplankton.
D

But what will the lil baby copepods eat? Isn't that their nutrition ?

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Your tank already produces phytoplankton.
D

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Dosing Phyto has never caused my water to be green except for maybe 10 minutes after dosing it and it helps support a larger pod population vs not dosing. I'd dose phyto...

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

It's just the flavor of the week. It'll pass. Lol.
D

 

[landlubber]

i've bought phyto once yet have kept a mandarine long term (7+ years) in both reefs i've kept.
there are literally thousands of mystery potions the hobbyist can add to their system and the reality is aside from a decent salt and your means of providing your major elements you don't really need any of them.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

i've bought phyto once yet have kept a mandarine long term (7+ years) in both reefs i've kept.
there are literally thousands of mystery potions the hobbyist can add to their system and the reality is aside from a decent salt and your means of providing your major elements you don't really need any of them.

You think phytoplankton is a mystery potion? It's literally the most natural thing you can add to your tank. No, you don't NEED to add it but it will help support a larger pod population which is all I claimed.

 

[Waters]

I run it 24X7 on all of my tanks......no reason not to IMO.

 

[Lavey29]

Your tank already produces phytoplankton.
D

How does a reef tank produce its on phytoplankton?

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

If your reef tank has bright enough light and nutrients which I hope all of them do than yes your tanks is making a byproduct of phytoplankton. Don't believe everything that the "big wigs" spoon feed you. This is my opinion of course and can be taken with a grain of salt if you like. Lol.
D

 

[landlubber]

You think phytoplankton is a mystery potion? It's literally the most natural thing you can add to your tank. No, you don't NEED to add it but it will help support a larger pod population which is all I claimed.

a natural form of literally everything we add to our systems exists in the oceans. the issue is the amount hobbyists tend to add and how do we know the system even needs it to begin with? i have yet to see a test kit for home use that indicates whether or not phyto levels are up to snuff. to me, adding undefined amounts of anything to a reef is essentially just asking for trouble.
i don't mean to dash your claims, i just personally prefer to only add things i can test for is all.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

We used to say don't dose anything you can't test for.
Old school reef rule
D

 

[KQuillan]

Interesting thread.

 

[Enchanted Reefs]

On my latest build I ran the uv sterilizer for the first year straight and then shut it off. Surprisingly I found this helped me avoid a lot of algae buildup and cyano. I didn’t have alot of the uglies that come with setting up a new tank. I have to say it was the smoothest build I have set up. After I turned off the uv I did notice I had to clean my glass more often, every few days instead of once maybe twice a week. Some may say not to use them but for me I’ll definitely be using them if I ever set up another tank at least for the first year. I’m just sharing what i saw when I set up my tank