Cloudy Water : Which UV sterilizer to choose ?

[Hestianne]

Hello everyone,

I am posting here because I have quite an issue currently with my 240L (63 gallons) reef tank.

From the start (1 year ago), I've been using the oase biomaster thermo 250 as a filter, and everything had been running smoothly. I put a lot of biomedia inside and only kept the prefilter sponges and 2 others in the main filter + one activated carbon pouch.

A few weeks ago, I started getting cloudy water that just didn't go away even with weekly 50L water changes.

I don't think it is a sand problem from my pumps since I didn't change the setting and the sand bee doesn't seem to move from the water flow. So my last guess was a potential bacterial bloom or some microalgae floating around. Which is why I wanted to start looking for a UV sterilizer.

The problem is... I'm a bit lost on which one to choose. I need one that could be simply plugged in after my filter, but then I need one that matches the flow rate of the filter (900L/H max) and the diameter of the tubes (if I don't want to play with size adapters, at least, so ⌀ 22mm).

I had found one of the Eheim Reeflex UV models that fitted perfectly, but of course, since it's made of aluminum, this is a clear nope for a reef tank...

FYI : I currently have only 3 Amphiprion ocellaris, 1 Pictichromis pacagnellae, 1 Synchiropus splendidus and 2 Lysmata amboinensis in my tank. So I don't know if could also be a high population issue...

Thanks in advance for your help

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I think a picture will help to determine if it is bacteria bloom or phyto bloom.

If it is a bacteria bloom, then be careful to oxygenate the water, bacteria bloom depletes the oxygen level. Water changes will prolong a bacteria or phyto bloom, so stop water changes for now.

Activated carbon will help with either bacteria or phyto bloom, so you should run carbon for now.

Why put biomedia in the filter? the rocks in the tank are the biofilter on a salt tank, no need for bio media. Most people empty the media from the canisters.

The uv that I am looking at for myself is the Aqua uv units which are hob and should work for you

 

[Hestianne]

Hello,

Here is the picture. As you can see, the rocks in the back are starting to get a bit blurry, which isn't the case usually.

For the oxygen level, should I add a bubbler or something alike to the pumps and the skimmer ?

And I put biomedia in the filter because I had followed a tutorial at first to start my tank, and I was a bit worried that the rocks wouldn't be enough. If this is indeed a bacterial bloom, do you think taking out some of the biomedia from the filter might help with the issue ?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

To me it looks like a bacteria bloom, normally it should go away on its own after a 1-2 weeks, but don't change the water that prolongs it. A skimmer is good it will oxygenate the water, activated carbon can help too.

Per my understanding a uv can help too but I never used one so need others comments. Good luck