Aqua Ultraviolet 57 Watt Class battling Procentrum Dinos

fishy408 · Nov 26, 2022

Hello Reefers,

Battling Procentrum Dinos and decided to take advantage of the Black Friday specials and pick up a 57 Watt Aqua UV (40 watt out of stock) for my 425XL (112gallon) water volume.

The plan is to put a pump in the skimmer area and the output into the return chamber. The pump I currently have is a Sicce 1.5 (357 GPH Max).

Would this pump be good enough? Is the UV 57 watt too big? Any advice would be helpful.

thank you!

blaxsun · Nov 26, 2022

The 57-watt isn't necessarily too big (better to have a more powerful UV than you need), although you'll probably need to upgrade the pump. The 57-watt is rated @3200 Gph for algae and @1066 Gph for parasites, so you'll want to ensure adequate flow and that you're not over-nuking everything.

I run a Sicce SDC 6.0 with my 57-watt UV, which I've set to 60% speed. Based on a rough height/length/turn calculation in the plumbing (0.5-1.0m in head loss) this works out to somewhere between 555-753 Gph (so I'm probably getting the equivalent of 145,000-180,000 µw/cm2 UV radiation exposure; fine for me - but I also have a Red Sea 750XXL). I run the pump in the front refugium/media chamber and have it exit into the skimmer chamber (the UV is positioned horizontally along the back wall of the cabinet).

fishy408 · Nov 26, 2022

blaxsun said:
The 57-watt isn't necessarily too big (better to have a more powerful UV than you need), although you'll probably need to upgrade the pump. The 57-watt is rated @3200 Gph for algae and @1066 Gph for parasites, so you'll want to ensure adequate flow and that you're not over-nuking everything.

I run a Sicce SDC 6.0 with my 57-watt UV, which I've set to 60% speed. Based on a rough height/length/turn calculation in the plumbing (0.5-1.0m in head loss) this works out to somewhere between 555-753 Gph (so I'm probably getting the equivalent of 145,000-180,000 µw/cm2 UV radiation exposure; fine for me - but I also have a Red Sea 750XXL). I run the pump in the front refugium/media chamber and have it exit into the skimmer chamber (the UV is positioned horizontally along the back wall of the cabinet).

Thanks for the detailed reply especially the details on the pump.Looks like more $$ to spend.

jmichaelh7 · Nov 26, 2022

fishy408 said:
Hello Reefers,

Battling Procentrum Dinos and decided to take advantage of the Black Friday specials and pick up a 57 Watt Aqua UV (40 watt out of stock) for my 425XL (112gallon) water volume.

The plan is to put a pump in the skimmer area and the output into the return chamber. The pump I currently have is a Sicce 1.5 (357 GPH Max).

Would this pump be good enough? Is the UV 57 watt too big? Any advice would be helpful.

thank you!

i would plumb it coming from the display and straight back into the tank.

blow the dinos off the rocks and let it hit the UV

this was in 2019 on my 425xl. Everything tried failed except this method

piranhaman00 · Nov 26, 2022

Yes plumb right into display and blow rocks off at night, ugly for a bit but you will be clear in a week or two.

fishy408 · Nov 27, 2022

jmichaelh7 said:
i would plumb it coming from the display and straight back into the tank.

blow the dinos off the rocks and let it hit the UV

this was in 2019 on my 425xl. Everything tried failed except this method

jmichaelh7 said:
i would plumb it coming from the display and straight back into the tank.

blow the dinos off the rocks and let it hit the UV

this was in 2019 on my 425xl. Everything tried failed except this method

you

jmichaelh7 said:
i would plumb it coming from the display and straight back into the tank.

blow the dinos off the rocks and let it hit the UV

this was in 2019 on my 425xl. Everything tried failed except this method

Did you replumb the UV sterilizer after the Dinos were gone?

jmichaelh7 · Nov 27, 2022

fishy408 said:
Did you replumb the UV sterilizer after the Dinos were gone?

Yes I have two 57 watts below with my sump.

one of the 57 watts I had to interchange with my 25 watt transformer and bulb until I order new one.

I’m a believer in UV for many things .

they also have their own pump. Maybe in the future a separate cor15 so I can adjust on apex to run low during night for parasites and fast during the day for algae.

fishy408 · Dec 12, 2022

jmichaelh7 said:
Yes I have two 57 watts below with my sump.

one of the 57 watts I had to interchange with my 25 watt transformer and bulb until I order new one.

I’m a believer in UV for many things .

they also have their own pump. Maybe in the future a separate cor15 so I can adjust on apex to run low during night for parasites and fast during the day for algae.

Do you have a picture/description of your final implementation of the UV Sterilizer. My temporary setup is a return pump in the display and returning back to the display.

I was thinking of two options but curious what you did.

Option 1: Pump in display - return in display - current setup but will use hard plumbing for aesthics.
Option 1: Pump after filter socks, and return in sump return chamber. (425XL sump space is small, a little worried about flooding).

thanks!