Uv Sterilizer

[joe.b]

I am contemplating on buying a UV Sterilizer. Are they really useful? I have a 75 gallon mini reef tank. I am having problems keeping any new fish I put in my tank now. They all seem to get white spot, and fin rot. My last fish was a beautiful blue throat trigger and I think he had some type of bacterial infection as well. I saw redness on both sides of his body. Someone suggested a UV sterilizer. My water is good

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Yes I would recommend one (even though I dont use one). They do help a lot to reduce things link whitespot as long as they are setup correctly and is regularly maintained (cleaned and bulbs replaced when they need to be).

More importantly though I would say you need to use a quarantine tank as this will stop new livestock from infecting what is already in the tank.

 

[seffieuk]

It was my understanding that using a UV full time had minimal to no benefits

Seffie x

 

[ben1987]

It will only kill something in the water collum that happens to pass through it. If there is whitespot in there you need to treat ALL fish as they all carry it even if they dont show signs of it. You should properly QT new fish to make sure you dont add anything to the tank.

 

[rabbut]

Redness on the sides of only new fish would suggest a water problem to me. If it was bacterial, the existing stock would be falling over too, they can get used to poisons in the water. Chemical stress may also be causing your disease issues I'd try running some carbon and Polyfilter in there for a week or two before going any further. If you run these normally, refresh them

UV solves the symptom, not the cause. For this reason IMO, it's a bad thing in the home aquarium. Fish fall ill due to stress. If you are loosing fish constantly, something in your husbandry isn't up to scratch and causing stress in your fish. The obvious one here is new fish going strait into the main tank. While I do this myself, it isn't best practice, you should always quarantine new stock in a separate tank for at least a month, preferable longer. If the fish have gone though QT and make it to the main display, it is most likely your husbandry rather than dodgy fish. Sorry if this seems "blunt", I'm just pointing out that almost all diseases come as a result of keeper error, so it's probably something you are doing that's causing your issues.

UV is harmful long-term also, it erodes your fishes natural immunity to disease. Remember, most fish in the trade are wild caught and tough as old boots to most diseases provided the water is right and stress kept to a minimum. The immunity comes about though being constantly being exposed to disease. If you kill off or reduce the pathogen levels in your system, the fish are no longer exposed to diseases and hence loose their immunity. Then your UV fails for some reason, and the pathogens that remain have a field day on the stock in the tank with no immunity to said pathogens.

Anyhow, end of rant/ramble

All the best
Rabbut

 

[joe.b]

Redness on the sides of only new fish would suggest a water problem to me. If it was bacterial, the existing stock would be falling over too, they can get used to poisons in the water. Chemical stress may also be causing your disease issues I'd try running some carbon and Polyfilter in there for a week or two before going any further. If you run these normally, refresh them

UV solves the symptom, not the cause. For this reason IMO, it's a bad thing in the home aquarium. Fish fall ill due to stress. If you are loosing fish constantly, something in your husbandry isn't up to scratch and causing stress in your fish. The obvious one here is new fish going strait into the main tank. While I do this myself, it isn't best practice, you should always quarantine new stock in a separate tank for at least a month, preferable longer. If the fish have gone though QT and make it to the main display, it is most likely your husbandry rather than dodgy fish. Sorry if this seems "blunt", I'm just pointing out that almost all diseases come as a result of keeper error, so it's probably something you are doing that's causing your issues.

UV is harmful long-term also, it erodes your fishes natural immunity to disease. Remember, most fish in the trade are wild caught and tough as old boots to most diseases provided the water is right and stress kept to a minimum. The immunity comes about though being constantly being exposed to disease. If you kill off or reduce the pathogen levels in your system, the fish are no longer exposed to diseases and hence loose their immunity. Then your UV fails for some reason, and the pathogens that remain have a field day on the stock in the tank with no immunity to said pathogens.

Anyhow, end of rant/ramble

All the best
Rabbut

I understand what you are saying. I want to upgrade my tank but I don't think that will happen till next year. So I'm trying to do my best right now. I have a 75 gallon tank with two millenium hang-on filters with power compact lighting. I do think my other fish are immune, they have been in there for over a year. I just recently wanted to add more fish and coral. I test my water myself and take it to the LFS every week and all my test are fine. The only thing I struggle with is keeping my magnesium up, but every new fish (trigger, anthias, naso tang) has died. First sign white spot then fully covered then they die. All the other fish are fine. I even quarantine my naso for a month he was eating like a pig in the quarantine tank, put him in my main tank and in three days he dies. I really dont know what I can do. All my nitrites nitrates ammonia are 0 and I keep my ph at 8.1-8.3 and temp at 78.5 during the day but it drops to like 77.5 when the lights go out at night. Any more suggestions?

 

[milkton]

Redness on the sides of only new fish would suggest a water problem to me. If it was bacterial, the existing stock would be falling over too, they can get used to poisons in the water. Chemical stress may also be causing your disease issues I'd try running some carbon and Polyfilter in there for a week or two before going any further. If you run these normally, refresh them

UV solves the symptom, not the cause. For this reason IMO, it's a bad thing in the home aquarium. Fish fall ill due to stress. If you are loosing fish constantly, something in your husbandry isn't up to scratch and causing stress in your fish. The obvious one here is new fish going strait into the main tank. While I do this myself, it isn't best practice, you should always quarantine new stock in a separate tank for at least a month, preferable longer. If the fish have gone though QT and make it to the main display, it is most likely your husbandry rather than dodgy fish. Sorry if this seems "blunt", I'm just pointing out that almost all diseases come as a result of keeper error, so it's probably something you are doing that's causing your issues.

UV is harmful long-term also, it erodes your fishes natural immunity to disease. Remember, most fish in the trade are wild caught and tough as old boots to most diseases provided the water is right and stress kept to a minimum. The immunity comes about though being constantly being exposed to disease. If you kill off or reduce the pathogen levels in your system, the fish are no longer exposed to diseases and hence loose their immunity. Then your UV fails for some reason, and the pathogens that remain have a field day on the stock in the tank with no immunity to said pathogens.

Anyhow, end of rant/ramble

All the best
Rabbut

I understand what you are saying. I want to upgrade my tank but I don't think that will happen till next year. So I'm trying to do my best right now. I have a 75 gallon tank with two millenium hang-on filters with power compact lighting. I do think my other fish are immune, they have been in there for over a year. I just recently wanted to add more fish and coral. I test my water myself and take it to the LFS every week and all my test are fine. The only thing I struggle with is keeping my magnesium up, but every new fish (trigger, anthias, naso tang) has died. First sign white spot then fully covered then they die. All the other fish are fine. I even quarantine my naso for a month he was eating like a pig in the quarantine tank, put him in my main tank and in three days he dies. I really dont know what I can do. All my nitrites nitrates ammonia are 0 and I keep my ph at 8.1-8.3 and temp at 78.5 during the day but it drops to like 77.5 when the lights go out at night. Any more suggestions?

get kent vitamin C and some other food vitamin enhancers, also try to mimic the fishes ideal habitat i agree with rabbut, its no good long term and id rather have a fish develop immunity to the disease rather than having to change its natural habitat. just remember, less stress will definately help. its not as simple as it sounds, sometimes when you close the fish stand door, close it lightly, if you plan on cleaning your tank, dont clean too often and (this is what happens to me most) when friends come over, dont let them mess with the tank eg. scaring the fish with mag floats

good luck

 

[rabbut]

Do you have any power-heads for flow? Any Live Rock? Skimmer? What water-change regime do you have, and what is your water source? If it's RO, do you know what TDS it has?

It's sounding to me like a FO tank without Live Rock. If this is the case, you may well have part of your problem. Anthias and Tangs do best in tanks with Live Rock, actually Anthias feeding on Copepods and Amphipods and often being picky about frozen/prepared foods can only really do well longer-term with LR and good pod populations present. That does not explain the Trigger death, not why they go over so quickly however.

Considering the symptoms, I'd still suspect a water issue there really I certainly wouldn't be adding any more stock until you get to the bottom of your problems though.

Can you post stats for everything you test for? What equipment do you run? What volume of water dose your tank hold? What stock is in there. Basically, bombard us with all the information you have about the tank, and then we'll hopefully be able to pick though and identify the problem(s) leading to your issues

All the best
Rabbut

 

[joe.b]

Do you have any power-heads for flow? Any Live Rock? Skimmer? What water-change regime do you have, and what is your water source? If it's RO, do you know what TDS it has?

It's sounding to me like a FO tank without Live Rock. If this is the case, you may well have part of your problem. Anthias and Tangs do best in tanks with Live Rock, actually Anthias feeding on Copepods and Amphipods and often being picky about frozen/prepared foods can only really do well longer-term with LR and good pod populations present. That does not explain the Trigger death, not why they go over so quickly however.

Considering the symptoms, I'd still suspect a water issue there really I certainly wouldn't be adding any more stock until you get to the bottom of your problems though.

Can you post stats for everything you test for? What equipment do you run? What volume of water dose your tank hold? What stock is in there. Basically, bombard us with all the information you have about the tank, and then we'll hopefully be able to pick though and identify the problem(s) leading to your issues

All the best
Rabbut

 

[joe.b]

Do you have any power-heads for flow? Any Live Rock? Skimmer? What water-change regime do you have, and what is your water source? If it's RO, do you know what TDS it has?

It's sounding to me like a FO tank without Live Rock. If this is the case, you may well have part of your problem. Anthias and Tangs do best in tanks with Live Rock, actually Anthias feeding on Copepods and Amphipods and often being picky about frozen/prepared foods can only really do well longer-term with LR and good pod populations present. That does not explain the Trigger death, not why they go over so quickly however.

Considering the symptoms, I'd still suspect a water issue there really I certainly wouldn't be adding any more stock until you get to the bottom of your problems though.

Can you post stats for everything you test for? What equipment do you run? What volume of water dose your tank hold? What stock is in there. Basically, bombard us with all the information you have about the tank, and then we'll hopefully be able to pick though and identify the problem(s) leading to your issues

All the best
Rabbut

Well I have a 75 gallon tank your standard tank. I also have 2 Milllenium 3000 hang on filter, power compact lighting (4white bulbs,4blue,4moonlight). I also have a red sea prizm skimmer which I do not run all the time. Also 2 powerheads on each end of the tank. The test I have are magnesium, nitrate,nitrite,ammonia,ph,calcium,iodine the test come out fine and my LFS says the same thing. I am battling with my salt level though I am usually running 1.025 but sometimes it creeps up to 1.026, but right now I have it at 1.024. I have one coral beauty,fire fish,fairy wrasse,another wrasse(that nobody has a name for I even tried looking it up but he's reef safe), purple lobster,cleaner shrimp,peppermint shrimp,scarlett shrimp,(2)knobby starfish,pink carnation,cabbage leather,frag of star polyps,hammer coral,coco worm,purple mushroom.
I was wondering with my setup will a UV sterilizer would even be worth purchasing?

 

[rabbut]

I was hoping for numbers on your test results. What LFS's and test kit booklets say are fine often differs from what us hobbyists think of as fine Look at it from the view-point of an LFS, if the water is "fine" you're more likely to buy some fish. If they tell you it isn't your probably not, and most people will move one elsewhere where the staff will tell them what they want to hear... I'm not saying your particular LFS is like that, as not all are, but I always advise caution over LFS advice until the staff there have proven themselves to know what they are talking about

Why are you lowering the SG? 1.024 would be considered too low for your coral stock by a good many people. 1.026 is where most on here run their salinity The only reason to run it lower would be if it was a fish only tank. Mobile invertebrates and corals want a higher SG

Wrasses can give a warm(er than is good) welcome to new-comers. Fairy Wrasses can be nasty in some set-ups as they mature, and it would help to know what the other wrasse is Again, not necessarily the issue, but if a fish is already stressed and these start picking on it, they certainly won't help

What flow out-put are the power-heads you have? I'm not familiar with any HOB filter particularly, so you'll need to tell me the flow-rates and media they hold before I could possible consider commenting on them.

None of the stuff you have I'd regard as being picky about water as regards to what would happen under "Old Tank Symdrome", which is a rather deceptive name that does not really describe the issues it "describes", so I still cannot really rule that out. You water stats would help give a picture as to what the water is doing here though, and possible rule that out. Stats can be OK in some instances, but results need to be summatively reviewed. One stat does not tell the whole picture. Nitrate, Phosphate and Iodine readings might all be in the fine range, but is the first two are at the top end of fine and the latter at the bottom, it tells you the tank is far from healthy and the maintenance is just keeping up with the bio-loads on the tank for instance. These are things your test kit and LFS are un-likely to tell you about your water test results...

I still wouldn't be looking at buying a UV, at least until you have worked out what is causing your issues and fix it.

I presume as you have not mentioned Live Rock, that you don't have any?

What is your usual maintenance regime (tasks you do and regularity)?

The issue is probably going to be simple to fix, but it will be hard for anyone to identify the issue and tell you how to fix it without having as much data and information about your system and it's current maintenance being thrown at us

All the best
Rabbut