Starting my UV was a skimming excursion.

[Mark Novack]

To manage ick I bought an Aqua Medic 55w UV sterilizer for my 220 gallon tank. I assembled the plumbing, hooked it up and rinsed it really well before installing it on the tank. Five days after starting the UV the skimmer went nuts. It remained untunable for a week. Just yesterday it calmed down and started skimming properly again. The residual residue theory does not make much sense given an hour's worth of rinsing and a five day delay to start the skimmer going crazy. Whatever it was, something changed the water tension for a week. Its been on for two weeks now, ick is not appearing, and cyanobacteria is starting to diminish faster than it was before the UV.

 

[blaxsun]

UV initially kills off a lot of crap - so this is probably got consumed by the skimmer. I've had mine for over a year and it still runs flawlessly (skimmer runs normally).

 

[Mark Novack]

All of my prior tanks had UV. My Deltec ballast was broken so I thought I would go without UV. Not a good idea. The algae and cyanobacterias will cycle out but the fish loss is sad and expensive. They are all doing well now.