Is a UV sterilizer REALLY needed?

[BanZI29]

I have been having in issue with cloudy water right after I feed my coral ( no fish). I have a 25 gal AIO tank ( see my build thread if you'd like) and I can not get it to go away even after the weekly water change, which is usually 5 gal, 10 gal if its really bad. it goes away for a couple of days then comes right back!
my filtration: filter floss, carbon bag, a small bottles worth of matrix media, a chaeto fuge with copepods, and a reactor with Rowaphos for now.
levels:
no ammonia or nitrite,
nitrate: 2
pH: 8.0 consistently
calcium: 400 - 420 consistently
dKh: 7-9 ( i know a bit low)
Phos: .13
I do dose special blend and microbactr 7 alternately every week.
my LFS suggested that it is either an algae bloom or a bacteria bloom and I should put in a UV sterilizer.
won't a UV also kill off good bacteria and possibly my copepods and phytoplankton?
SO what do you all think?

 

[9975]

I was torn on using UV or not but dealing with dino for a couple months converted me! As a side note....it definitely clears up the water very quickly to which my daughter walked into the living room this weekend and said the tank looks fake due to how crystal clear it is.

 

[brandon429]

Remove rowaphos/ don’t use, then change 90% water matching temp and salinity and pour slowly, most sandbeds are unrinsed and will cloud up massively

a uv is a fine device to have where a simple large water change won’t fix. the large water change helps nearly always, it isn’t harmful. I’ve been doing 100-150% water changes in a miniature version of that tank, same corals, for sixteen years.

wouldn’t be surprised if non rinsed sand silt is causing that, if it clouds right as you refill then thats it, uv only helps if it’s a bac bloom

phosguard causing blooms: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-to-use-phosguard-does-it-really-work.150705/page-2

 

[AZMSGT]

UV is not needed, however it’s darn useful. It’s just another tool in a reefers tank care kit. It’s great at helping control algae, dinos and parasites depending on how you tune it.

 

[9975]

If you do end up putting a UV unit in place do your best to tie it in after your return pump so you get 100% flow through it to maximize the coverage

 

[StlSalt]

As far as the good bacteria, it's mostly thought of as being on all surfaces in the aquarium not in the water column. Usually uses a low flow pump, I never heard of UV being a danger to pods. Yes UV will kill phytoplankton. I don't always turn mine off when I dose phyto, which I do everyday, but it would be beneficial to keep it off for a few hours after dosing.

 

[sp1187]

it only works if you do it correctly (size, flow rate, dwell time)

some info
https://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/AquariumUVSterilization.html

 

[Thaxxx]

it only works if you do it correctly (size, flow rate, dwell time)

some info
https://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/AquariumUVSterilization.html

^^^^
What he said.
Probably the best website for educating yourself on UV operation.

 

[LegendaryCG]

I have a cheap in tank one I drop in when I feel I need it. Run it for a week or so and things usually dramatically improve and then I remove it. Cost like 50$ but my goal isn’t to kill every algae cell in the water just get things back on track.

 

[Acros]

I am 3 months into a bare bottom tank. I cannot switch on my light without a UV sterilizer. A UV sterilizer won’t affect your good bacteria population as 99% of good bacteria lives on the surface of the rocks and are not free floating.

You don’t need an expensive UV. Even a cheap petco UV will work just fine. They come with a pump as well. So, no stress of matching the flow rate. Matching the flow rate matters if you are using a UV to kill any fish/coral infectious bacteria as well (that is the main purpose of UV in public aquariums).

Innovative marine makes a UV that goes in one of the back chambers.

It is really odd to see cloudy water in a sand bottom. How old is the tank? What sand did you use?

 

[BanZI29]

I am 3 months into a bare bottom tank. I cannot switch on my light without a UV sterilizer. A UV sterilizer won’t affect your good bacteria population as 99% of good bacteria lives on the surface of the rocks and are not free floating.

You don’t need an expensive UV. Even a cheap petco UV will work just fine. They come with a pump as well. So, no stress of matching the flow rate. Matching the flow rate matters if you are using a UV to kill any fish/coral infectious bacteria as well (that is the main purpose of UV in public aquariums).

Innovative marine makes a UV that goes in one of the back chambers.

It is really odd to see cloudy water in a sand bottom. How old is the tank? What sand did you use?

tank has been cycled for 3 months now and I used natures ocean live sand.

 

[BanZI29]

it only works if you do it correctly (size, flow rate, dwell time)

some info
https://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/AquariumUVSterilization.html

Thanks for this! I did read it and for what I am trying to fight which is just clarity, I MIGHT be able to get by with a smaller type of UV. All of my corals look healthy and no fish. the cloudiness does show up after feeding so that is probably the main cause and just doesn't go away for some reason. so any suggestions for in-lines that have a very short length? I only have about 4" from the pump head to the return nozzles.

 

[BanZI29]

What about the green killing machine?

 

[Deep]

As far as the good bacteria, it's mostly thought of as being on all surfaces in the aquarium not in the water column.

is this really true ? is there a paper that documents this finding ? In the sea water there is about 500K – 1500K/mL bacteria. Are we saying almost all of this is bad ?
In a typical heavily filtered reef tank there is probably ~100k ml bacteria. I cant imagine all of this being bad.
Also whats the definition of bad ?

 

[StlSalt]

is this really true ? is there a paper that documents this finding ? In the sea water there is about 500K – 1500K/mL bacteria. Are we saying almost all of this is bad ?
In a typical heavily filtered reef tank there is probably ~100k ml bacteria. I cant imagine all of this being bad.
Also whats the definition of bad ?

I was just using the OP's words which is an over simplification of good and bad bacteria. Probably it would have been more appropriate to say too much bacteria equals bad. The condition caused by too much bacteria causes the cloudy water. Most of our useful bacteria that we use in our tanks seems to be on all of the surfaces and removing the extra bacteria in the water does not harm the our overall biom.

 

[BanZI29]

From what I figured out, I do not have to leave the UV in the tank all the time, just until the water clears up then take it out or is that wrong?

 

[Acros]

From what I figured out, I do not have to leave the UV in the tank all the time, just until the water clears up then take it out or is that wrong?

There are plenty of people who use UV 24/7. That is my plan as well. UV only kills single cell organisms.

 

[Wayne P.]

I have a UV on my 28 G JBJ nano. It has two return pumps and alternates flow between the two. It seems to work very well for me. Water is clear, little algae on the glass and no dinos.

 

[shakey]

it only works if you do it correctly (size, flow rate, dwell time)

some info
https://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/AquariumUVSterilization.html

Good article thanks!