Will drop in UV sterilizer kill copepods?

[reefer_evo5]

hello i have a 20g innovative marine AIO tank and i got a drop in uv sterilizer that is made by innovative marine to use for this tank. will this uv sterilizer kill my copepod population in my tank? i do see some pods in the tank and i run a small refugium in one of the other chambers and the tank has been running for 7 months now ive added pods from algea barn four times now within the 7 months and the uv sterilizer has been on the tank for about 3 months now i just feel like i should have more pods than what i see sometimes i also feed phytoplankton to the tank daily also from algea barn. any comments help thanks

 

[T-J]

If they are free floating and get sucked in, it can kill them. It also depends on the flow rate/exposure they get.
If they are terrestrial, then it shouldn't do anything to them.

 

[blaxsun]

It's more likely that the black sponge filter that the UV comes with will catch some of them, but yes - any that pass through the filter into the UV will probably get sterilized. The UV won't affect your refugium in the sump any anything that gets blown into the tank by the return pump. You can always run a small piece of thin filter floss on top of the black UV sponge to more easily spot how many are getting caught.

 

[Zach B]

I believe it would just sterilize a portion of them and make them unable to reproduce but it won't eliminate them from a tank if healthy populations exist. Best of luck

 

[reefer_evo5]

It's more likely that the black sponge filter that the UV comes with will catch some of them, but yes - any that pass through the filter into the UV will probably get sterilized. The UV won't affect your refugium in the sump any anything that gets blown into the tank by the return pump. You can always run a small piece of thin filter floss on top of the black UV sponge to more easily spot how many are getting caught.

thanks for the reply i replaced that black sponge it came with with filter pad that i can cut to size since i felt like that black sponge wasnt catching as much detritous as i wanted it to

 

[reefer_evo5]

If they are free floating and get sucked in, it can kill them. It also depends on the flow rate/exposure they get.
If they are terrestrial, then it shouldn't do anything to them.

awesome thanks

 

[reefer_evo5]

I believe it would just sterilize a portion of them and make them unable to reproduce but it won't eliminate them from a tank if healthy populations exist. Best of luck

i have been adding them to the tank occasionally i wanna have enough of a population to get a green mandarin eventually so the uv was just a concern

 

[T-J]

i have been adding them to the tank occasionally i wanna have enough of a population to get a green mandarin eventually so the uv was just a concern

In a 20g tank, your Mandarin will wipe out your pods FAST!
If you're going to do that, I strongly suggest you start culturing pods/phyto, otherwise it's going to get expensive to keep buying them.

 

[reefer_evo5]

In a 20g tank, your Mandarin will wipe out your pods FAST!
If you're going to do that, I strongly suggest you start culturing pods/phyto, otherwise it's going to get expensive to keep buying them.

i was looking into a captive bread one from biota in hopes that it would already eat frozen food

 

[T-J]

i was looking into a captive bread one from biota in hopes that it would already eat frozen food

It's still going to wipe out your pods in a 20g.
Mandarins are like humming birds, they constantly need to eat. So when the frozen is gone, it's going to hunt pods.