GARRIGA
2500 Club Member
The intriguing part of Advanced Oxidation Process using UVC along with ozone and/or peroxide being it oxidizes all matter composed of carbon. Literally sterilizes water of contaminants such as pesticides which could inadvertently enter because wife cleaned or community sprayed the grass or grandchildren thought Windex looks cool. It also converts ammonia directly to nitrates should there be a sudden die off. Kills all pathogens passing through it.
Not something to run 24/7 but perhaps pegged to ORP when it drops below a certain level then turned off when exceeding another or purely manual (preferred) as I will have a controller and receive alerts where certain components can inform something has gone wrong if not home.
The Aqua UV combo is most pragmatic as it creates ozone only when on and dissipates it as well. This avoids the issue of turning on a corona discharge hoping an out of calibration probe didn't turn it on and can't turn it off. Although could program timers to automatically turn it off but does mean less equipment and going to need the low vapor UV lamps regardless to make this work vs just dosing ozone as currently practiced. Honestly not sure why not more prevalent unless has been tried and failed or perhaps lack of proper execution. Was a time refugiums were shunned by the pros and turns out they didn't grasp lighting requirements or dosing iron.
Neat part of dosing peroxide to be dissipated by UVC being one could dose enough and let it mix thoroughly then turn on the UVC and sterilize the entire volume of water in a situation such as inadvertent introduction of a pesticide. Not solving a rusty pump but it's an option for biological concerns including I believe remnants of coral warfare being it oxidizes all carbon based. Post treatment add some MB7 and carbon and get pelagic bacteria back up and running my thinking. Benthic bacteria likely not affected since peroxide dosed won't be high enough to kill inverts. That would be counterproductive. Granted all theory as only place I know testing this is HumbleFish and I've not bothered keeping up. Just going to run my own tests as I don't fully agree with some of their methodology.
It's also an option for QT where a tank can be setup immediately using UVC and ozone to convert ammonia to nitrates which can solved later with one WC or perhaps carbon dosed at high levels between sessions of ozone. Something I'll be testing with unlucky mollies. I'm not a fan of medication and rather promote health via feeding and security and proper filtration where observation and identification better than shotgun treatments plus a bigger believer in acquired immunity through low contact and why the use of sterilizing water in QT might work. Key is a method to ensure most free swimming pathogens are captured for treatments such as peroxide such as in tank baths that can be quickly dissipated once completed. This gets mostly solved by an undergravel filter drawing water via a canister that returns through UVC. Expectation that most pathogens shed will be near the plates and might get sucked by the canister pulling water before they are able to attach. There's also another shot at grabbing them when they do hatch. Fish can obtain immunity against low level attacks. How it occurs in nature my understanding.
Was going to use gradually dropping micron filters to 5 microns but that requires frequent maintenance, several drops from coarse to fine and this is much simpler with considerably less maintenance on my part. Left this option for main tank polishing when and as needed.
Not something to run 24/7 but perhaps pegged to ORP when it drops below a certain level then turned off when exceeding another or purely manual (preferred) as I will have a controller and receive alerts where certain components can inform something has gone wrong if not home.
The Aqua UV combo is most pragmatic as it creates ozone only when on and dissipates it as well. This avoids the issue of turning on a corona discharge hoping an out of calibration probe didn't turn it on and can't turn it off. Although could program timers to automatically turn it off but does mean less equipment and going to need the low vapor UV lamps regardless to make this work vs just dosing ozone as currently practiced. Honestly not sure why not more prevalent unless has been tried and failed or perhaps lack of proper execution. Was a time refugiums were shunned by the pros and turns out they didn't grasp lighting requirements or dosing iron.
Neat part of dosing peroxide to be dissipated by UVC being one could dose enough and let it mix thoroughly then turn on the UVC and sterilize the entire volume of water in a situation such as inadvertent introduction of a pesticide. Not solving a rusty pump but it's an option for biological concerns including I believe remnants of coral warfare being it oxidizes all carbon based. Post treatment add some MB7 and carbon and get pelagic bacteria back up and running my thinking. Benthic bacteria likely not affected since peroxide dosed won't be high enough to kill inverts. That would be counterproductive. Granted all theory as only place I know testing this is HumbleFish and I've not bothered keeping up. Just going to run my own tests as I don't fully agree with some of their methodology.
It's also an option for QT where a tank can be setup immediately using UVC and ozone to convert ammonia to nitrates which can solved later with one WC or perhaps carbon dosed at high levels between sessions of ozone. Something I'll be testing with unlucky mollies. I'm not a fan of medication and rather promote health via feeding and security and proper filtration where observation and identification better than shotgun treatments plus a bigger believer in acquired immunity through low contact and why the use of sterilizing water in QT might work. Key is a method to ensure most free swimming pathogens are captured for treatments such as peroxide such as in tank baths that can be quickly dissipated once completed. This gets mostly solved by an undergravel filter drawing water via a canister that returns through UVC. Expectation that most pathogens shed will be near the plates and might get sucked by the canister pulling water before they are able to attach. There's also another shot at grabbing them when they do hatch. Fish can obtain immunity against low level attacks. How it occurs in nature my understanding.
Was going to use gradually dropping micron filters to 5 microns but that requires frequent maintenance, several drops from coarse to fine and this is much simpler with considerably less maintenance on my part. Left this option for main tank polishing when and as needed.
