U.V. Sterilizers

[FishSticks]

I'm still trying to decide wether to put a sterilizer in my planted tank or not. I haven't found much information on the internet about the effect of uv sterlizers on plants. Does anyone know if it has any bad side effects on plants?

 

[rdd1952]

They won't have any effect on your plants. The light is totally enclosed so nothing but the water is ever exposed to the light. I used one on my heavily planted 75 gallon with great results and currently am using it on my 29 gallon. I just came back from a weeks vacation to find green water in my 29 gallon. It has basically gone through the same chain of events as the 75 gallon. I hope to post pics tonight or tomorrow of the before and after pics. It was about 50% cleared up last night. I hope it is clear tonight when I get home. If you have a problem with green water (I'm talking about light green, not the deep dark green) I would definitely recommend one. I ordered mine (Coralife Turbo Twist 3X 9W) from bigalsonline.com for about $75. You will also need a cannister filter or a power head to run it off of.

 

[FishSticks]

I found this on another web site in a planted aquarium forum:

No activated carbon (charcoal) - it will remove trace elements!
No resins or chemical pads - they also remove trace elements
No UV sterilizers - they oxidize iron
No phosphate buffers - they will cause algae
Be careful of water conditioners - some will remove heavy metals (AKA trace elements!)

Is this guy just crazy then?

 

[StarOrbs]

It may, I'm not totally sure but I add fertilizers so it probally just counteracts any effect the uv has on the iron.

 

[rdd1952]

FishSticks, I'm not sure about that either but I do know my 75 gallon is doing great. Since I only ran my sterilizer long enough to get rid of the problem and then took it out, I can't speak for whether it would hurt plants over the long term or not. I have seen some posts from people that run them all the time inline with their canister filters. Those may not be planted tanks though. I would probably tend to agree with StarOrbs that ferts will replace what the sterilizer takes out.