Quick UV question

[Jongalt26]

I have a 150 gallon reef tank, total water volume of less than 175 gallons max flow rate will be approx 1250 gph.

Someone who's opinion I value suggested going with the Aqua UV classic 80 watt Link and that there's no such thing as going 'too big'.

According to Aqua UV's site, going above 75,000 µw/cm2 will destroy the planktonic food supply for the reef and this means i should go with a 40 watt link

If thats the case then i should go with an 80 watt however everything i've read basically says go big or go home. Are there any real world negative issues going with the 80 watt?

Thanks
Jason

80 watt link
http://www.aquaultraviolet.com/products/uvsterilizers/classic/80watt

40 watt link
http://www.aquaultraviolet.com/products/uvsterilizers/classic/40watt

 

[Monroereef]

A UV will only kill what goes through it. Ask yourself why you need it. Is it for cleaning water or for controlling algae and parasite. If latter you need to run it at 75K/90K. There are many places where planktons and pods grow in the system. Not much of them are in water. Also water does not has a lot of bacteria. That said, a UV will not kill off everything.

I have a 200 watt Aqua UV classic on my reef and it works great. The key is to install it on the return line and make sure everything goes through the UV before it hits your DT.

What kind of return pump do you have? Where is the pump located, in the stand or in the basement? This will govern your head pressure.

Depending on the flow you can use 80 or 57 or 40 Watt.

Sunny

 

[lion king]

Do your research on sites not related to selling you a uv sterilizer. 1st off flow rate is very important, for either one of those your flow rate would need to be between 250-500 gph to be effective at all. At best a uv sterilizer is used as a water clarifier, anything else is just a placebo. I use to run and temporarily run a uv as a water clarifier. When I ran a 40 watt on a 210g at 262 gph full time, my tank still got ick and flukes.

 

[Jongalt26]

Thanks for getting back to my Sunny. I definitely want to have the ability to run it at 75k/90k for potential parasite control etc. I definitely understand that its not a cure all, just want to make sure that if i oversize the unit that it wont be detrimental to my corals.
I have an ecotech vectra L1 now, currently running at 50% power roughly 1400 gph in my DT plus its feeding my manifold with 2 reactors and a chiller. Im moving to a new house in January and will be setting up my sump in the basement hence i want to add a UV system during the move. When I move I intend on plumbing the UV inline with the return pump and running the manifold off of another pump. Im estimating a 1200-1400 gph flow rate after the move (after head pressure loss and turns etc). I think my choice should be between the 57 and 80 watt, what would you recommend?

Thanks!
Jason

 

[Jongalt26]

Do your research on sites not related to selling you a uv sterilizer. 1st off flow rate is very important, for either one of those your flow rate would need to be between 250-500 gph to be effective at all. At best a uv sterilizer is used as a water clarifier, anything else is just a placebo. I use to run and temporarily run a uv as a water clarifier. When I ran a 40 watt on a 210g at 262 gph full time, my tank still got ick and flukes.

I've read quite a bit, there's just a lot of conflicting information and theres a thread on R2R with some calcs. I just want to make sure that if i go with a larger size than recommended by aqua uv, i wont run into issues.

 

[Monroereef]

A larger size will not hurt at all. As I said it will just kill what goes through it. Also @lion king UV is not to eradicate ich or flukes. It keeps the spread under control if used properly. Every tank will get ich and what UV does is keep it from spreading at a rate that can be detrimental to the fishes. Another mistake I see people make is that they do not change the bulbs regularly. The bulb should be changed 10 - 12 months.

 

[Jongalt26]

Thanks everyone, I appreciate it. From my research ich (the theronts) are suspected to live near the bottom of the water column. People have reported better UV results in regards to ich if they have the supply pump hidden at the bottom of the display and return back to the display. Paul B uses an undergravel filter and speculates that the filter type is part of his long term success.