Pros vs cons UV

[Themonsterisme]

What are the pros and cons of running a 58watt UV sterilizer on a 400 total gal mixed reef system?

 

[3dees]

IMO, just a waste of money. better for fresh water tanks.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

All of these are my opinion.

The cons are:

1. Bother to set it up.
2. Expense.
3. Kills bacteria that you may not want to kill.
4. Does not generally kill larger parasites, at least in enough quantity to be useful.
5. Requires some effort to maintain.

Pros are:

1. May be helpful with certain bacterial diseases
2. May increase clarity of the water
3. Is useful if you have a problematic bacterial or phytoplankton bloom

 

[Themonsterisme]

Thanks Randy ...I have a few more questions for you if you had a spare second
1.do you currently use any UV equipment on your tanks
2.what kind of bacteria would I not want it killing and why?
3. If the flow in the UV was slow enough would it help?

 

[Themonsterisme]

Also wanted to add 400 gal was a typo...system is as follows-225 gal display,75 gal sump and a piggyback 40 gal breeder frag tank so total system volume is 340 gal not 400

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thanks Randy ...I have a few more questions for you if you had a spare second
1.do you currently use any UV equipment on your tanks
2.what kind of bacteria would I not want it killing and why?
3. If the flow in the UV was slow enough would it help?

Slow enough still likely won't kill enough larger parasites to be useful, and then you are treating less of the water.

I wouldn't want to kill any free floating bacteria, unless they were disease-causing. I drive bacterial growth with vinegar, in part to feed filter feeders. If the UV just killed them and made them dump their nutrients back into the water to feed alqe, that seems counter-productive.

No, I've never used a UV. :)

 

[Themonsterisme]

Thanks again randy...the UV was a freebie so was trying to weigh the pros and cons before deciding to set it up...plus was worried about added extra heat with the UV pump ...Florida is already hot as it is and am trying to avoid the extra expense of a chiller lol

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

While I know some people use and like them, if I had one laying around, I wouldn't bother hooking it up. :)

 

[N1Husker]

It will kill good parasites as well as bad ones, it is a waste of money. Quarantine fish and dip corals. I dip in Coral Rx and flatworm exit.