To UV or not UV

[Paul B]

I am going to put one in my pond next Spring because you endorsed it buddy I am Serious.

It makes a pond crystal clear.

Please elaborate as to Why . With due respect I am interested not going to argue back . Your the mariner of the month with a trophy not me .

I have used them in the past when the hobby first started. They will kill algae spores and "maybe" some parasites. But I run what is wrongly called here "an ich management" system, which is actually a "normal, natural, healthy, just like the ocean system," so I have no need to kill parasites. Parasites are needed if you want a natural system where you never have to quarantine or medicate.

The tanks where everything is killed are the tanks with all the disease problems, and I don't want that.

UV will also kill microfauna, which is the base of the food chain. Corals eat that stuff, as do amphipods and tiny tube worms, and we want those.

In this hobby, many of us always want to kill something even though it is natural and healthy.

 

[gmavrom]

Regarding tank, 13wt isnt within range for this size tank. Ive seen quite often, QT'd fish contract disease but if quarantined on your own, will reduce risk as in your case

You want to address this with OP. I already questioned wattage myself which I recommend 25wt

I have the same tank and use the Green Killing machine 24 watt. It saved me a couple of times with algae outbreak and possible ick spread

 

[Freenow54]

I still need clarification. Firstly when I say separate I do not mean parallel . I meant it will be supplied by the pump in the tank. then back to the tank Since I am converting a fresh water setup that had no sump I was just going to run canister filters because when I built the stand I did not plan on ever putting a sump in. However now I plan to because I discovered the existence of HOB overflows cheaper and better than trying to cram a pump and skimmer , which will also be HOB . therefore the entire display will be filtered. A 75 .
Now to the part I dont follow . You talk about dose . so besides flow and wattage ie UV-c light intensity all I see when I looked it up was exposure time time wise does the flow not determine that ? If not what does ?

Regards

 

[Freenow54]

I have the same tank and use the Green Killing machine 24 watt. It saved me a couple of times with algae outbreak and possible ick spread

I bought 2 of those the lights burnt out in no time in my experience . As to results yes if water really green

 

[vetteguy53081]

I still need clarification. Firstly when I say separate I do not mean parallel . I meant it will be supplied by the pump in the tank. then back to the tank Since I am converting a fresh water setup that had no sump I was just going to run canister filters because when I built the stand I did not plan on ever putting a sump in. However now I plan to because I discovered the existence of HOB overflows cheaper and better than trying to cram a pump and skimmer , which will also be HOB . therefore the entire display will be filtered. A 75 .
Now to the part I dont follow . You talk about dose . so besides flow and wattage ie UV-c light intensity all I see when I looked it up was exposure time time wise does the flow not determine that ? If not what does ?

Regards

What goes thru the UV channel is determined by flow

 

[NanoSteam]

I bought 2 of those the lights burnt out in no time in my experience . As to results yes if water really green

I've bought two of these for two separate tanks for Dinos and it worked well dealing with that situation but they do burn out fairly quickly. It's more of a short term use item for a specific problem.

 

[Freenow54]

It makes a pond crystal clear.


I have used them in the past when the hobby first started. They will kill algae spores and "maybe" some parasites. But I run what is wrongly called here "an ich management" system, which is actually a "normal, natural, healthy, just like the ocean system," so I have no need to kill parasites. Parasites are needed if you want a natural system where you never have to quarantine or medicate.

The tanks where everything is killed are the tanks with all the disease problems, and I don't want that.

UV will also kill microfauna, which is the base of the food chain. Corals eat that stuff, as do amphipods and tiny tube worms, and we want those.

In this hobby, many of us always want to kill something even though it is natural and healthy.

I was second guessing today . The reason I wanted to use one was because apparently it controls Algae in the display . However When I clean my glass my giant Tang follows me and eats it when I scrape it off so now no in my one tank. As to my first Tank it runs just like yours and only had a problem when I created one . My new tank #3 is going to have very few fish and small ones so I did want to control the algae. If I run it slow without targeting parasites which thankfully I have never had maybe because I do a lot of things you talk about except I am more than a few blocks from the Ocean since I am in Ontario . would targeting algae still kill microfauna ?

 

[lmfbs]

At a guess a pond UV might just be for algae so it would run at a low flow also possibly larger volume , maybe too large physically ?. I don't know I have seen them advertised just never bothered to read about them. You probably would only be able to use it for algae , in that case an algae scrubber would be the way to go if what I have read that they control algae in a way that it keeps it out of the main display

I've recently set up an algae scrubber (I'm battling GHA right now) but something to control free floating algae and help manage it even more would really help, I hope. So the primary reason would be algae (with the added bonus that it would support parasite reduction

 

[Brad Wilkins]

I was running two 40w Pentair smart uv steriliser's for Algae control and the other for parasites, bacteria and viruses, but switched the Algae control off which made no difference to my water quality as its all ways been good. My tank is full of Tangs of all the carrier types for ich and ive never had a out brake. Some Tangs have had Major deep gashes du to Knife fights with each other, but they all had healed up within two weeks where i would have thought bacteria disease and stress causing an ink outbreak would follow.

 

[Australian_Reef]

Just for additional info here is the sizing recommendations from aquatwist as well as a rather complicated technical diagram of the recommended aquarium set up. I didn’t find this chart online only a much abbreviated version. I note pentair only gives MJ to make it difficult to compare the brands.

And Pentair.. very different dwell times on these huge units.

 

[MikeReefs]

The problem with Green machines besides the bulb burning out quick, is the unit leeching. I remember a while back I saw a forum on here of users finding metal in their icp test. The unit rusted after long term use. So keep an eye out for that. I don’t know if that problem was fixed in the newer units. But if you need it for short term use, example Dino ostreopsis I probably wouldn’t hesitate to use it

 

[Paul B]

would targeting algae still kill microfauna ?

Yes, it would, and it won't kill macro algae or hair algae.