UV brand choices

[ManyBlenny]

I'm looking to get a UV for a 120g +sump to preventatively curb disease. It seems the 3 choices people talk about are pentair, aqua ultraviolet, or lifeguard.
From reviews I've seen the pentair degrades after not even a year and starts exposing uv to the open room which seems very not ideal. The lifeguard one, reviews say they don't honor the warranty. Which just leaves the aqua which is by far the most expensive option.

I'm starting to think it's not worth the risk / price / hassle based on all that. I can QT but that's not perfect either and I don't have space to separately qt coral and fish and snails. And you can't even quarantine everything since things like blennies need fully established tanks to thrive.

 

[Jekyl]

Drreefsquarantinedfish.com

 

[MarineandReef Jaron]

We sell or have sold all three brands in the past and I have used all three brands personally over the years. AquaUV was the most professional and best build quality IMO. I always got great service and I have used many of their units including the commercial Viper units for many years with very few issues. You really can't go wrong with AqauUV.

I used to really like the Emperor until they got purchased by Pentair. They now seem less helpful and less interested in our industry. They are now far more concerned with pool and aquaculture customers.

I am a big fan of the Lifegard UVs I currently have one on my main reef tank and a second one in my shed waiting for whenever I can set up my pond. The build is not as good as AquaUV but it is at least 80% as good for half the price and it has features that the AquaUV units do not have. I like the Amalgam ballast that alerts you when you need to change the bulb and the replaceable sleeves that preserve the life of the unit body. Lifegard has only about a dozen employees so I almost always get Neal, Edwardo, or Silvia when I call. They are all helpful and have honored the warranty on my personal unit when a power surge fried my transformer. (Apex Showed a 50amp power spike after which the ballast was dead.)

One thing I will say with all of these brands is that there is a huge amount of user error with UV sterilizers that can make some customers feel like companies do not honor their warranty. It is really easy to break a quartz sleeve. So sometimes people overtighten their sleeve retaining nut and crack the sleeve. When someone calls and reports this we all know what happened and it is not a faulty product it was the customer over-tightening the sleeve nut. Likewise, because it is so easy to crack the sleeve other customers under-tighten the nut, and then water slowly gets in the sleeve destroying the bulb and ballast. This is at least 90% of the complaints about a bad ballast or bulb. When we get the "bad" ballast back it is obvious there was water damage. There are also a lot of transformers that come back and it is obvious that they got rained on or splashed. This is especially common when they are used outdoors. The transformers are water resistant but not waterproof. They should be kept as dry as possible.

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

People should really use normal strength. Simple snug and one more is ample followed by a 10 minute paper towel test. Remove the fact that Pentair has a product we, the hobbyists, use which Pentair could care less about, unless I had a pond, how would you rate their quality though. I have two (25 and a 40) and am really happy, but they are pricey. I am going to need another one, larger, and am considering jumping brands, but I only know Pentair.

 

[Raul-7]

We sell or have sold all three brands in the past and I have used all three brands personally over the years. AquaUV was the most professional and best build quality IMO. I always got great service and I have used many of their units including the commercial Viper units for many years with very few issues. You really can't go wrong with AqauUV.

I used to really like the Emperor until they got purchased by Pentair. They now seem less helpful and less interested in our industry. They are now far more concerned with pool and aquaculture customers.

I am a big fan of the Lifegard UVs I currently have one on my main reef tank and a second one in my shed waiting for whenever I can set up my pond. The build is not as good as AquaUV but it is at least 80% as good for half the price and it has features that the AquaUV units do not have. I like the Amalgam ballast that alerts you when you need to change the bulb and the replaceable sleeves that preserve the life of the unit body. Lifegard has only about a dozen employees so I almost always get Neal, Edwardo, or Silvia when I call. They are all helpful and have honored the warranty on my personal unit when a power surge fried my transformer. (Apex Showed a 50amp power spike after which the ballast was dead.)

One thing I will say with all of these brands is that there is a huge amount of user error with UV sterilizers that can make some customers feel like companies do not honor their warranty. It is really easy to break a quartz sleeve. So sometimes people overtighten their sleeve retaining nut and crack the sleeve. When someone calls and reports this we all know what happened and it is not a faulty product it was the customer over-tightening the sleeve nut. Likewise, because it is so easy to crack the sleeve other customers under-tighten the nut, and then water slowly gets in the sleeve destroying the bulb and ballast. This is at least 90% of the complaints about a bad ballast or bulb. When we get the "bad" ballast back it is obvious there was water damage. There are also a lot of transformers that come back and it is obvious that they got rained on or splashed. This is especially common when they are used outdoors. The transformers are water resistant but not waterproof. They should be kept as dry as possible.

I thought Emperor Aquatics was the benchmark in the industry, I mean they are built much more robustly compared to AquaUV and are rated correctly.

 

[14 foot reef]

I was a fan of Aqua Ultraviolet, but now we have had an SL200 burn through the Schedule 40 PVC and flood an electrical socket that luckily tripped because we wired it correctly. We've had a Viper 400 with flow control switch installed burn through the schedule 80 PVC.

The burn through leaks were catastrophic losses. The support from them was less than acceptable and they just blamed us for faulty installs and user error. I cut the SL 200 out of my system and threw it in the trash.
( $3500.00 ) unit. Maybe if they see this post they will respond differently.

I would lean towards Emperor Aquatics (Pentair) go schedule 80 for sure, don't mess around with toy UV's, the cost is not worth the risk.

Good luck on your choice

 

[Raul-7]

Wave UV Sterilizer | Wlim Products

wlimproducts.com

This is another top brand; they built the custom UV for Polo Reef's system. 4kW of UV.

 

[MarineandReef Jaron]

I thought Emperor Aquatics was the benchmark in the industry, I mean they are built much more robustly compared to AquaUV and are rated correctly.

The build has not changed but the support has gotten much more difficult to deal with. When I call Aquaultraviolet I get the same few people who are very helpful. They track all serial numbers and know a lot about their units. Now if you call Pentair the people know nothing about aquariums and they share support staff with items besides UVs so they often don't know much about UVs at all. I generally just have a much better support experience from Lifegard and AquaUV than from Pentair. When it was emperor it was great but now that it has been folded into the megacorp it has not been as good.

 

[MarineandReef Jaron]

I was a fan of Aqua Ultraviolet, but now we have had an SL200 burn through the Schedule 40 PVC and flood an electrical socket that luckily tripped because we wired it correctly. We've had a Viper 400 with flow control switch installed burn through the schedule 80 PVC.

The burn through leaks were catastrophic losses. The support from them was less than acceptable and they just blamed us for faulty installs and user error. I cut the SL 200 out of my system and threw it in the trash.
( $3500.00 ) unit. Maybe if they see this post they will respond differently.

I would lean towards Emperor Aquatics (Pentair) go schedule 80 for sure, don't mess around with toy UV's, the cost is not worth the risk.

Good luck on your choice

I know multiple people who have had viper units explode which is terrifying. It could seriously injure or kill someone nearby especially if it is a stainless steel unit. However, all of these instances were when the flow sensor was removed or deactivated. The Viper units are insanely powerful and super compact so I still really like them but they are a serious piece of equipment that needs to be treated as such. I treat the Viper and SL units like industrial machinery that you need to be extra safe around because it could cut off a limb.

As another note. While AquaUV says you can have a low flow for large parasite control with Vipers and SL units I have had multiple people say that they would never do this. The Vipers and SLs are much more commonly used for lower exposure rates and bacterial control on really large systems. At the high flow rates, there is far less risk of overheating.

 

[Waters]

I used Pentair for years until I experienced the degradation issue you referenced (which ended up leaking). I switched to Aqua Ultraviolet and couldn't be happier. Easier to clean....change bulbs.....etc.