UV Sterilizer Worth it or Not??
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TxReefer21
Well-Known Member
Seeing your comment now. How long did you run your UV sterilizer to break the dinos. I have some Dino’s that are small and coming up so I’m getting them in time now with my green killing machine. But don’t know how long I should truly run it. I have a small 13.5 so with the big bulky green killing machine in there makes it look horrible so I want it out as soon as I can
Miami Reef
Clam Fanatic
Question, how long does it take to see the results from a UV sterilizer? I just installed an 80 watt sterilizer to my 250 gallon tank. I’m ruining it very slow and it’s been running for 2 days but I’m not seeing any drastic improvement. Running a diatom filter made my tank look extremely clear within a day, but this UV is not matching up.
jay1976
Community Member
Using a green killing machine in my 25 gallon peninsular and it definitely works on all types of algae ,helped with water clarity ,my fish don't even seem to be swimming more like floating in air the water is that clear.Only took two days to almost eliminate gha and Dino's are disappearing rapidly.Im a fan....my 20 cube with out a UV is directly next to the peninsular and the water clarity is very noticeable.
100% worth it, but you need to buy quality and set them up properly. I recommend over-wattage and under-flow vs the manufacturer recommendations. The goal (for me at least) is to kill off anything floating in the water column up to the size of parasites.
therootcause
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Totally worth it. Pick up a green killing machine at petco for about $100. I have one and wouldn't run a tank without it.
therootcause
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A few questions, hoping to help.
Can you post a link to your sterilizer? How did you did you determine the flow rate? Does flow enter and exit into the same area? This is the least effective method of UV sterilization.
Miami Reef
Clam Fanatic
Old thread. I don’t use a UV anymore.
Tired
2500 Club Member
Jumping on this thread: do they put a measurable dent in beneficial organisms? Phyto, copepods, all the little things that various filter-feeders eat. I'm looking into one, but I have a fair number of live rock hitchhikers (fanworms, clams, a couple tunicates, even some small filter-feeding cucumbers) doing well, and I'd hate to starve them out.
Mikeltee
Valuable Member
No they do not. I ran a 57 watt in 130g for years and had tons of pods. I never dosed pods once. UV doesnt kill... it sterilizes. The most beneficial Pods tend to stay near the rock. Tiggers on the other hand like to venture the water column, but they are so big that most pod eaters leave them be. Apocyclops and tisbe are rock dwellers and they hang near the rock. Those are the pods your mandarin and wrasse will favor. They also populate much quicker than tiggers. You aren't going to grow phyto in your tank. You are going to feed pods and corals with it so it doesn't matter if it gets sterilized. People argue sometimes if the beneficial bacteria gets sterilized. Usually it too stays on the rock. I suppose if you got some rubble and threw it in your sump and wanted to seed 100# of dry rock, a uv might slow the process down, but I doubt that is a concern to many people. Run a UV once your tank is seeded and you have coraline growing. It's good practice! Run it to kill protozao as well. I doubt many people are quaranting inverts and coral for 80+ days. While it's rare that they will bring something that kills fish into the tank, it does happen. You will see more benefit from keeping dinos and other nuisance algae away though. There are no downsides to UV aside from potential lower flow rates by running it inline as well as the yearly maintenance. Those people that run a closed loop sump to sump are wasting their time. Run it either inline sump to display via your return or better yet, a closed loop in the display.
I have one back in the box in storage and another plumbed but unplugged. I just didn't notice any benifit while running them. Not undersized either.
EDIT : @Tired sorry I couldn't quote you in an edit. I didn't have any problem keeping critters you mentioned above when mine were running. I have so much life in my sumps at times it's more interesting than the DT
EDIT : @Tired sorry I couldn't quote you in an edit. I didn't have any problem keeping critters you mentioned above when mine were running. I have so much life in my sumps at times it's more interesting than the DT
Cyano, dinos, diatoms, gha, glass needs cleaned daily or at least every other day. Correct size UV, correct flow etc. I just didn't see anything different running the UV on two tanks. I ran one for over a year and nothing at all changed after unplugging it. I've come to the conclusion that patience usually cures most of the nasties in my tanks. But every tank is different.
Mikeltee
Valuable Member
I didn't run a UV for a decade. I bought one for dinos. It was $600 so ill be danged if it sits in a box. Lol
I picked up a second one for $40. I run it for a few hours in my mixing station when I reset my phyto cultures. That absolutely benefits me in this case as Isocrysis needs a sterile medium.
I probably wouldn't go out of my way and buy one unless I needed it. Occasionally a deal too good to be true pops up. I suggest Pentair or Aqua Ultraviolet and considerably oversized so that you can kill protozoa and still turn your tank over at least 3 times if you want to run it inline with your return. You can find them here for a couple hundred. For a closed loop display, you don't need an oversized one unless you want to target algae and protozoa at the same time.
I picked up a second one for $40. I run it for a few hours in my mixing station when I reset my phyto cultures. That absolutely benefits me in this case as Isocrysis needs a sterile medium.
I probably wouldn't go out of my way and buy one unless I needed it. Occasionally a deal too good to be true pops up. I suggest Pentair or Aqua Ultraviolet and considerably oversized so that you can kill protozoa and still turn your tank over at least 3 times if you want to run it inline with your return. You can find them here for a couple hundred. For a closed loop display, you don't need an oversized one unless you want to target algae and protozoa at the same time.
Tired
2500 Club Member
There has to be some amount of phyto or similar growing in the average reef aquarium, though, since turkey wings and other hitchhiker clams can sometimes do well without being directly fed. I have a small tank that's only ever fed pellet food and has three live, healthy turkey wing clams I've had for over a year- they're eating something.
Thanks for the info, all. Good to know these aren't too hard on things. Is it possible to just pop the sterilizer into an otherwise empty compartment of an AIO to avoid extra plumbing?
I have actually been QTing everything wet, but I've messed up somewhere and gotten what looks like ich, so I'm debating management vs removal and treatment.
Worth it. At least for white spot
Mikeltee
Valuable Member
It has been my experience that culturing phyto relies on clean, freshly mixed-up saltwater in a sterile environment with an insane amount of airflow to keep it stirred up. If you take one of these factors away it will most likely crash the culture or another strain of phyto will outcompete what you are attempting to grow. Phyto requires fertilizer that plants use... f2 and miracle grow. While I do believe that when you dose phyto to your tank it will uptake some phosphates and nitrates, it doesn't have the proper medium to flourish so it quickly dies and becomes food. Your animals are obviously eating. I doubt that they are eating phyto unless you are dosing it.
Tired
2500 Club Member
I'm not dosing phyto, no. There are just tiny amounts naturally present in a reef. It's why people occasionally have green water blooms- the phyto living there multiplied. Kinda like how culturing mysis shrimp on purpose is a lot of trouble, but some tanks have them living in small numbers of their own accord. Different densities of growth have different needs, and not trying to grow one specific strain makes things less complicated.
Definitely not a necessity by any means. I personally run one and am pretty happy with it, but there are many arguments to be made for pros and cons of them. For me, the pros outweigh the cons.
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