8watt uv

[kenshinH]

is 8 watts uv enough for. 55gal cube ? Or do I need to go higher on wattage ?

 

[brandon429]

UV is perhaps the oldest debated item online aside from salt brands to use, there simply is no concession from the crowd. That being said, I love uv and will always have one at least on backup if i owned a large tank, ive saved countless tanks from various water borne invaders by using UV but it was grossly oversized, it was pond UV's hooked to an aquarium.

When you match UV to the ratings the manufacturer states, and flow, you may or may not get your intended outcome. that sounds like a decent match above.

It doesnt prevent ich if thats a goal however....its great for preventing cyano and dinoflagellates and some algae and thats for sure.

The only way to ensure you hit a home run with uv is to grossly oversize it, we used to run 20 watts on a 15 gallon nano reef with dino invasions from our nano-reef.com peroxide thread and that did kill back his dinos. it was not a permanent setup, it was temporary and the uv was longer than the entire tank. it was oversized

there is no harm from over doing them, but underdoing them, or matching the requirements its rated for, sure could wind up being a waste of money.

whether or not UV kills tank plankton doesnt matter, its why we have to feed tanks. if the plankton in the tank mattered, we wouldnt need to feed.

 

[kenshinH]

The uv I'm referring to is from a friend, he's selling a gamma 8watt uv with new bulb but broken Quartz sleeve, I have my own uv it's an aqua uv classic 15watt, bought it but never had the chance to use it, I accidentally broke the Quartz sleeve as I was cleaning it, check the parts online and it will cost me $100 to fix it (new bulb and sleeve) maybe I should just fix mine ??

 

[brandon429]

i wish i could give a more exacting reponse but at those wattages its simply hit or miss there is no way anyone could give a definitive answer. if the 15 watt has faster flow going through it and a weaker bulb for some reason, just brainstorming, then the 8 watt with slower pass through and a newer bulb may be better. but a used old pond sterilizer would beat them both if it still functioned

there is no combination of correctly sized or approximate sized uv that can be predictable in its outcome, you have to see if it works. only grossly oversizing them will give a predictable outcome, thats why UV is so hard to get clear answers regarding. everyone uses correctly sized or approximately correctly sized ones, so outcomes vary such that nobody agrees on anything lol