UV sterilizer questions

[Reefermike]

I am contemplating getting a aqua UV sterilizer . Before doing do would like some thoughts on them . I have heard both sides some say it is snake oil and had no real benifit except for clarity. I want something that will help my tank stay a little less disease prone . Don't want my fish getting Ebola after all . All kidding aside real world experience would be great .

 

[Fish76]

I had one on my old sys and honestly I don't think it really benefitted anything. I initially bought it to help my ich problem and then later tried using it for algae/clarity (depending on what you use it for you need different flow rates). I eventually took it offline and my sys didn't get any worse or better. In my new 120gal build, I decided not to use one.

 

[chemwiz]

The only effect I have ever noticed is I had a good size case of zoa pox before I had installed my UV. The pox went away completely after a week running the UV for 12 hours overnight. Switched to a time of use plan with the power company, and turned the UV off for a month to keep the tank temp down. After 3 weeks the zoa pox slowly returned, then were gone after another week of UV for 12 hours overnight. Now I do also swear the water looks clearer with UV, but that's subjective. Hope that helps as I to read all the conflicting info when I saw this effect in my tank.