Advice On Uv Sterilisers Please

[shawn-b]

Hi,

I've been toying with the idea of getting a UV steriliser for my tank for a while now as I've heard many good things about them in the way that they are meant to help maintain water quality, both its clarity and the reduction of nasty bugs.

I've worked it out that I would need the 15w Vecton to match the out flow rate of one of my external filters (filter flow rate for Rena filstar xp2=1050litres per hour and the 15w Vecton has a max flow rate of 1300 litres per hour) but at anything from £65 up-wards I was wondering if they are worth the investment.

I would be looking to use it on my 500 litre planted Discus tank. Any advice on the value of such an addition or suggestions of cheaper alternatives please.

 

[smmetz]

I'm not sure of UK prices, but they are not cheap around here either (US). They will greatly reduce bacteria and algae floating in the water. I hear that discus are sensitive to bacteria buildup in the water.

 

[celaeno]

you can get a 24w internal uv sterilizer made by aa aquariums/fish r fun, but they're only effective in tanks up to 106 US gallons. i have the 9w version and used in my 10/20 gallon tanks with good results.

 

[rdd1952]

I think they work great, depending on what you want it to do. Here is a thread I did almost 2 years ago that documents how one helped clear up my green water problem. As for working to keep the water quality up, I'm not sure how it will work. One thing that it won't do is remove nitrate. You still have to do good, old water changes to do that. I may be wrong but I think CFC used to run one all the time on his tanks. You might check with him on the merits. As for price, mine was about $90 in 2005. Probably run you around $100 or so.

 

[cooky]

Im using a 9w im my 33g tank and its not been to good to be honest the water looks the same ???


my plants (ferns) though have gone from around 6-7 inches to about 12 inches since i put it in and they are growing feelers all over the bottoms which wasn't happening before


might be nothing to do with the UV


also mine only seems to trickle out is this right

 

[rdd1952]

also mine only seems to trickle out is this right

Something is wrong with your set up then as it should come out with the same force as your filter or powerhead, depending on how you have it hooked up. How do you have it hooked up? I just used a powerhead rather than putting it inline with my filter incase I wanted to use it on another tank. It worked great for me. The results on the 75 gallon was even better. It went from not being able to see half way back in the tank to crystal clear in less than 2 days. I just didn't think to take pics and document.

 

[cooky]

also mine only seems to trickle out is this right

Something is wrong with your set up then as it should come out with the same force as your filter or powerhead, depending on how you have it hooked up. How do you have it hooked up? I just used a powerhead rather than putting it inline with my filter incase I wanted to use it on another tank. It worked great for me. The results on the 75 gallon was even better. It went from not being able to see half way back in the tank to crystal clear in less than 2 days. I just didn't think to take pics and document.

it has an inbuilt/seperate powerhead that clips on top

 

[celaeno]

Im using a 9w im my 33g tank and its not been to good to be honest the water looks the same ???

also mine only seems to trickle out is this right

i assume you have the same internal uv sterilizer as i do (the one made by aa aquarium). if so, the water is supposed to trickle out, as minimizing the outflow rate means greater sterilization time/exposure to the uv light.

 

[rdd1952]

i assume you have the same internal uv sterilizer as i do (the one made by aa aquarium). if so, the water is supposed to trickle out, as minimizing the outflow rate means greater sterilization time/exposure to the uv light.

I've never seen one like that. That's odd because everything I've read says that the powerhead should pass the water through it at least once an hour so for a 75 gallon tank, you would need a powerhead rated 75 gph.

 

[bertiefish]

Hi,

I've been toying with the idea of getting a UV steriliser for my tank for a while now as I've heard many good things about them in the way that they are meant to help maintain water quality, both its clarity and the reduction of nasty bugs.

I've worked it out that I would need the 15w Vecton to match the out flow rate of one of my external filters (filter flow rate for Rena filstar xp2=1050litres per hour and the 15w Vecton has a max flow rate of 1300 litres per hour) but at anything from £65 up-wards I was wondering if they are worth the investment.

I would be looking to use it on my 500 litre planted Discus tank. Any advice on the value of such an addition or suggestions of cheaper alternatives please.

If you have any problems with clarity in terms of green water they will assist the filters by clumping it together so the filter media can collect it, thats why you should plumb them in before the filtration unit. They'll also kill free swimming parasites and such like.

Ideally don't go over the size recommended and keep the flow rates up if the water clarity is good, they are a sterilizer after all and too much exposure to UV doesn't often make for a healthy aquarium.

Often a cheaper and more effective alternative is an ozonator, they've come down in price and ozone is much more effective than UV, but therefore requires careful application. Definately one to read into though.

 

[rdd1952]

If you have any problems with clarity in terms of green water they will assist the filters by clumping it together so the filter media can collect it, thats why you should plumb them in before the filtration unit. They'll also kill free swimming parasites and such like.

From what I have read, the UV Sterilizer kills the diatoms that cause green water and causes them to clump together. They supposedly are then removed by the filter. I do know that I used one successfully to clear up 2 tanks and both of those were run straight off a power head and had nothing to do with the filter. The water came into the power head, through the sterilizer and straight back into the tank. Maybe the clumps still found their way into the filter. I don't know. It will definitely work straight off a power head. Otherwise they would be useless to anyone that didn't have canister filters.

 

[CFC]

I run them as a precaution on tanks which are difficult to treat with aquarium medications (my stingray tank and large brackish tank) with the algea reducing effect being a bonus. On the tanks that i use them on i have never had any problems with diseases and these two tanks were the only tanks that were not effected in the massive velvet epidemic i had in my fishroom last year.

 

[shawn-b]

One of the reasons I'm considering a UV steriliser is the fact that through not having a quaretine tank when I introduced some new discus to my tank I also introduced some nasty illness that killed of 5 of my discus. Out of 13 I'm now left with 8, the LFS has agreed to replace the ones I've lost so the hospital tank will become a quarentine tank, but I was hoping a UV steriliser might help reduce the possibility of future infections in the main tank.

A quick scavenge around and I managed to set up a hospital tank to save 3 of the other infected discus with a treatment of Furanol whilst the healthy ones stayed in the main tank.

As for algae, touch wood, since starting down the Estimative Index routine of fertilising the tank 3 or 4 months ago my plants are doing very well and algae hasn't been an issue.

 

[rdd1952]

The sterilizer should kill any free floating bacteria in the tank and prevent disease from inside but if you introduce diseased fish from an outside source, it most likely won't help in that case. As you already know, the q-tank is the best solution to that problem. For a discus tank, I would think it would be a good idea. Those fish aren't cheap so I would think any precaution to prevent losing one is well advised.