UV Sterilizer Plumbing Questions

[jhatfield]

Merry Christmas all!

I have a Red Sea 170 (40g Cube with sump) and just acquired a jebao UV sterilizer which is slightly too big to fit in the cabinet area.

Thinking of mounting it to a board on the less visible side of the tank. I've never plumbed one of these and was wondering how others would do something similar.

The unit has a 3/4", 1",1.25" and 1.5" barbed fitting. And, I have a Sicce pump that pushes ~500gph than I can use for this which I've had on hand as a backup return pump. Considering silicone tubing for this unless there is a good reason not to.

• Where is the best place to run the plumbing to and from? Before or after filter sock, to the return chamber, etc?
• Would a lower gph pump be more effective, allowing more exposure to the UV?
• Is it best to run UV all the time as a preventative or to deal with problems as they arise?
• What size tubing would best?

Ideas?

 

[RobZilla04]

These can be mounted vertically with the IN line on the bottom and OUT line on the top. Best if supplied after all filtration and then returned directly to the tank. If you can modify your return line to include the output from the sterilizer, that would be perfect. If you must mount horizontally, do so with the IN and OUT lines facing up to avoid potential air buildup.

I ran mine 24/7. Had an AquaUV but recently discovered the wiper seal rings were corroding. Removed it just a couple of weeks ago. Have not noticed a difference with vs without yet FWIW.

 

[stevef22]

There should be a chart in the manual showing you suggested flow rates and what the UV will kill at that flow (parasites, algae, etc). You can measure your flow after plumbing by dumping into a 5 gal bucket and calculating how many seconds to fill up...

 

[miPapareef]

What’s your intended benefit you want from UV? Where it’s plumbed, how much flow you put through it, and duration of use, all will impact the various uses.

 

[jhatfield]

What’s your intended benefit you want from UV? Where it’s plumbed, how much flow you put through it, and duration of use, all will impact the various uses.

I've had a persistent dino problem and nothing else I've tried seems to work. I'm using a Sicce 560gph pump and I'm guessing it's around 400gph with head pressure. May dial it down a bit to get in the 200gph range to increase dwell time.

 

[miPapareef]

I've had a persistent dino problem and nothing else I've tried seems to work. I'm using a Sicce 560gph pump and I'm guessing it's around 400gph with head pressure. May dial it down a bit to get in the 200gph range to increase dwell time.

Do you know the type of dinos? Some that stay tight to the sand are a lot harder to get with the he UV. Also the more armored types need to a lot of UV to kill, so need the higher wattage and lower flow rates. You’ll want to ID the dinos and precisely control the flow rate for those harder to kill types. As a result I would recommend building a specific pump and flow meter for it. Or maybe measure flow with time to fill a bucket method.

I had 3 types of Dino in my tank and I run a 40W smart UV with the pump and return line in my return section of my sump. I also have the APEX 1” FMK and a Varios 2 dc pump so I can make the flow exactly as the UV recommended. In my case 160 gph. This completely removed the procentrium and the very small (idk the name) type. The other type that looks like collio, I still have on my sand bed but not so much as people notice if they don’t know what to looks for. So for me that’s a success. Forgive all my mispelled or just wrong names of the dinos. I never really want to be an expert on those buggers.

I’d also recommend heading over to the Dino thread where the experts can id specific types and give specific recommendations. But I really believe controlling nutrients at elevated levels so other algae grows is more important than UV. For me this meant 2 doser pumps and bottles of nitrate and phosphate additives, and measuring at least once a day. After about 8 weeks of this dinos where not visiblely a problem any more. But I still have them and every now and again I’ll get a few spots show up on my sand bed.

Good luck

 

[jhatfield]

Do you know the type of dinos? Some that stay tight to the sand are a lot harder to get with the he UV. Also the more armored types need to a lot of UV to kill, so need the higher wattage and lower flow rates. You’ll want to ID the dinos and precisely control the flow rate for those harder to kill types. As a result I would recommend building a specific pump and flow meter for it. Or maybe measure flow with time to fill a bucket method.

I had 3 types of Dino in my tank and I run a 40W smart UV with the pump and return line in my return section of my sump. I also have the APEX 1” FMK and a Varios 2 dc pump so I can make the flow exactly as the UV recommended. In my case 160 gph. This completely removed the procentrium and the very small (idk the name) type. The other type that looks like collio, I still have on my sand bed but not so much as people notice if they don’t know what to looks for. So for me that’s a success. Forgive all my mispelled or just wrong names of the dinos. I never really want to be an expert on those buggers.

I’d also recommend heading over to the Dino thread where the experts can id specific types and give specific recommendations. But I really believe controlling nutrients at elevated levels so other algae grows is more important than UV. For me this meant 2 doser pumps and bottles of nitrate and phosphate additives, and measuring at least once a day. After about 8 weeks of this dinos where not visiblely a problem any more. But I still have them and every now and again I’ll get a few spots show up on my sand bed.

Good luck

Yeah, the ones I had were strictly on the sand. Update: Along with the UV, I've been feeding a little more to raise the nitrates a bit since the dinos showed up as soon as nitrates dropped below 3. Sure enough the dinos disappeared rather quickly and were replaced by Cyano. I then waited for the cyano to build up a little before I did a round of chemiclean. This is the first day after the chemiclean treatment so too early to report but the sand is white and clean.

I'm sure my flow rate is way too high but Still haven't measured it. I'm going to try to put together a ball valve somewhere along the tubing to the UV to get it down to an effective dwell time.

 

[miPapareef]

Sure enough the dinos disappeared rather quickly and were replaced by Cyano

Glad to hear the dinos are gone. Good luck going forward.

I had really bad cyano after the dinos left and I just let the cyano run it's course. I had thick mats for 3 months, gone for a 6 weeks, back for 2-3 months, now gone again. I'm just treating it like the new tank uglies as everything (except dinos) gets re-established in my tank. I also have some turf algae that is pretty stubborn, but other than manual removal, I'm just glad it's there and not dinos. Even through my rocks look terrible, the corals all look great, so that's a huge improvement.