UV - Vecton 600 UV

[xrouter]

Hi,

So I went down the route with my new tank of I believe over sizing with UV. The Vectron 600 is recommended for a 600ltr tank and I'm around 400ltr.

The theory is that if I run a low flow rate (currently 400ltr per hour) I can counter both bugs and bloom as I don't have room for two units to counter both. It is my understanding that to counter algae you need a fast through rate to be processing more water, rather than the lower flow rate needed to kill the bugs with extra contact time. The 600 has a max flow rate of 1900ltr per hour so if I'm running 400ltr this will give me a tank turn over time of once per hour plus a really high contact time.

Am I right in my thinking here? Its really hard to find any solid stats for the 600 on what contact times do what but I do believe that 400ltr is killing something in the water as my ORP dropped massively once UV was turned on:

To be clear there is currently no algae in the tank currently (that is visible) or any bugs this is a preventative measure for long term.

 

[Cory]

How many watts is it? Usually its 8-12 gpw to kill parasites. You can go much higher for algae and bacteria.

Fwiw uv is cumulative. If that parasite goes through a uv a couple of times in an hour its probably getting damaged that much more.

 

[xrouter]

Its a 25w lamp so if I follow what you have said then that works out as roughly 1125ltrs per hour in which cause I'm well bellow that flow rate currently?

 

[Cory]

Yes it seems your good. You could even increase the flow rate. Orp drop is probably from the spilled gut contents of what its killing
.

 

[inktomi]

Apologies if this derails the thread a bit, but I'm curious - what the the common uses for UV? Bacterial & viral infections? Killing algae spores/etc? It doesn't _seem_ like UV is that common, but then again maybe it's more common than I realize?

@xrouter what made you want to add UV to your tank, since you were not having preexisting issues?

 

[xrouter]

Yes it seems your good. You could even increase the flow rate. Orp drop is probably from the spilled gut contents of what its killing
.

Thank you very much, the gpw figure I had never heard of before and that seems to tie in with the flow rate of the unit so I'm now feeling confident its up to the job! Or even somewhat over powered for the job :D

 

[xrouter]

Apologies if this derails the thread a bit, but I'm curious - what the the common uses for UV? Bacterial & viral infections? Killing algae spores/etc? It doesn't _seem_ like UV is that common, but then again maybe it's more common than I realize?

@xrouter what made you want to add UV to your tank, since you were not having preexisting issues?

Well this is a new tank, 1 month cycled rock and now 1 month into first fish added so my first issue will be avoiding a bloom as I slowly cycle the lights in which UV can help with (not suggesting its a cure but there is plenty of evidence to show it will reduce spread and keep water clarity up). In my case I'm growing algae in the sump (chato + now hair algea has started to form in there) and I want to keep it there and hopefully avoid the ulgy stage (ha!)

And secondly for general fish health. Again not a cure but it will absoulty keep it more under control if you get ich in your tank.

 

[Cory]

Apologies if this derails the thread a bit, but I'm curious - what the the common uses for UV? Bacterial & viral infections? Killing algae spores/etc? It doesn't _seem_ like UV is that common, but then again maybe it's more common than I realize?

@xrouter what made you want to add UV to your tank, since you were not having preexisting issues?

Imo it keeps your tanks water like an open ocean. It does this by constantly killing things that reduces their numbers in the tank. Our tanks have problems removing bacteria, phytoplankton, dinoflagelets, ich and ciliates because some systems lack organisms that eat them keeping the population down. So a uv is like a predator to them.

A uv basically sun burns microorganisms and organics. It rearranges organisms dna and rna to make it that they cannot reproduce. It also breaks organics up into smaller pieces and creates new molecules out of existing ones. It can also remove no3 and no2 converting it into co2, water, and nitric oxide by the process of photolysis, but thst isnt proven how well it works in seawater.

In short it will control algae and other microorganisms, reduce yellowed water, and make your tank easier to keep imo. After seeing the dramatic effect on my tank it had, ill always use one now.