UV Sterilizers

[CheckRAZR]

Hello - Was wondering if any of you use UV sterilizers and find them effective in getting rid of red or green hair algae. If yes, what brand and UV size are you using for your tank. Thanks.

[Mr. Ugly]

I have a 15w UV sterilizer on my frogfish tank. 40 gallon total system volume. Doesn't help with algae.

Dosing kalk did more to get rid of my algae than anything else. My display cleaned up a few weeks after starting. I finally set up a kalk doser on my frag tank this week, and the algae is melting away already.

[jazzmanb]

i use a cheap odysea 9 watt sterilizer..i think i paid 30.00 with the bulb..this is a product i can personally back as well..it works wonders for me,,,it deffinatly helps with algae,though it wont get rid of it all together..i also feels that it helps kill ich and other good and bad parasites..it also makes your water crystal clear,when my uv bulb went out,i waited a couple weeks to buy another bulb,and during that time my water wasnt as clear,and i started getting a bit more algae on my acrylic..overall i cant imagine running a tank without one anymore,especially considering i only do small 5 gallon water changes once or twice a month..

[ianiwane]

The only type of algae it will help is algae that is suspended in your water column. If will not do anything to help algae that is growing in the tank (on rocks, glass, etc).

[dannieboiz]

I have a turbo twist 3x in my tank that runs 24/7. Don't know if it helps with algae but definitely stopped ick outbreaks for the longest time.

[jmc74]

I personally use 2 18w Odyssea, and I use a small pump on each, on my main tank, I introduced a flame angel, and it got ich even after I quarantine it for 4 weeks and it was fine on the QT tank, but it got stressed by other fishes, then all of my tangs got ich, but I even slowed the UV pump and I didn't lost any.

as for the algae, my tank still grows on the glass, I guess is normal, but my rockwork is free of algae, also the back of the tank has taken over 2yrs to get coraline, now it is covered about 80% on the back. and red cyano I don't get, and if I do, I use ChemiClean it works wonders, just make sure your skimmer is off, and you do a WC after 3 days, your skimmer still may go crazy for a day so be prepared to empty the cup very often w/just water, but don't empty back to the tank even if clear water, as the chemiclean is there....

[CheckRAZR]

Thanks guys for all the feedback. Sounds like the sterilizer will help fish from parasites or maintain the tank if already "algae free".

JMC74 - I look into the Chemiclean. Will the Chemiclean have any effect on inverts? Thanks.

[Mr. Ugly]

Careful of Chemiclean, erythromycin, etc for cyano.

It can be done, but it's easy to accidently crash your tank from killing a lot of cyano at once and dropping your dissolved oxygen.

[GreshamH]

Originally posted by jazzmanb
i use a cheap odysea 9 watt sterilizer..i think i paid 30.00 with the bulb..this is a product i can personally back as well..it works wonders for me,,,it deffinatly helps with algae,though it wont get rid of it all together..i also feels that it helps kill ich and other good and bad parasites..it also makes your water crystal clear,when my uv bulb went out,i waited a couple weeks to buy another bulb,and during that time my water wasnt as clear,and i started getting a bit more algae on my acrylic..overall i cant imagine running a tank without one anymore,especially considering i only do small 5 gallon water changes once or twice a month..

It takes a MAJOR amount of UV to kill Ich. At 9w you'd have to trickle the water thru at less then 1gph to get the exposure needed.

[GreshamH]

Originally posted by Mr. Ugly
Careful of Chemiclean, erythromycin, etc for cyano.

It can be done, but it's easy to accidently crash your tank from killing a lot of cyano at once and dropping your dissolved oxygen.

Not only that but do not use most medications, especially Erythro., with a UV. It brakes it down into a harmfull substance IIRC.

[tuberider]

Originally posted by GreshamH
Not only that but do not use most medications, especially Erythro., with a UV. It brakes it down into a harmfull substance IIRC.

Yep, Cu is an issue as well (not for reefs of course). I don't run UV on any of my tanks, ozone maybe not UV, it's Advil for a brain tumor for the most part.