who runs a UV on there SPS tank

[tanya72806]

the 9w turbotwist says up to 125g tank is that true ?

[ReefWreak]

Originally posted by reefgeek84
Everyone is getting way to into...get a big one for your tank and call it a day. I run a 40w on my 90gal with 20gal in the sump...It works wonders, I had to run with out for about two weeks, and a couple of the fish caught ich...I was then able to get it up and running and the fish went back to perfect health. I will never run a tank with out one ever again...

I would really work on the underlining problem... Relying on any one component to keep your fish and invertebrates alive is always a bad idea because Shisse happens...

IMO it's fine to use it as a supplimentary measure to just make sure that if there is a swing here, a nitrate spike there, that the fish are uneffected. However, if your fish are getting ich as soon as the UV stops, that's a big no-no in my book. Maybe look into getting a cleaner shrimp (if you're running a tank capable of supporting one).

I've got a UV sterilizer that came with my tank. I ran it for about a week when the tank was first setup, but realised that the bulb must have been 3 years old, run 24/7, and realised that it's totally useless, other than maybe for growing algae on the tube. It's plumbed inline, so I've been letting water flow through it. I've had one outbreak of ich when I bought a maroon clown, but it went away after 3 days, no problems with fast breathing on any fish or anything like that, and that was 7 months ago. I've got a cleaner shrimp, who I've seen occasionally clean my fish, so maybe the ich is still there, but as long as it's not effecting anyone, and they all know where to get cleaned, then no biggie.

[tanya72806]

I am looking to add one myself my fish are all fine nothing at all wrong with them all extrremely healthy. I want it for just incase

[Stoney Mahony]

They are pretty easy to size. Alot of descriptions give ratings as GPM @ say 30,000 uws/cm^2. Multiply the gpm by 60 to get GPH.
Then, divide the GPH until you have the desired uws/cm^2 rating for whatever you are trying to kill. As long as you are running your tank volume through the UV at least 1 x an hour, you will be fine.

Here is an example:
We can use Tanya's 100gal water volume. Depending on how much and what you want to kill, your uws/cm^2 will be the starting point. Lets say you want to kill anything that could possibly hurt your fish and you want 400,000 uws/cm^2.
For this example we can look at using a 40w emporer UV that is rated at 26.2gpm@30,000uws/cm^2. First convert to gph so 26.2gpm x 60 = 1572gph. 30,000uws/cm^2 is not enough so divide the 1572 gph x 2 and you get 786gph. At 786 GPH you are killing with 60,000 uws/cm^2. Still not there, divide by 2 again and at 393gph you have 120,000 uws/cm^2. Again and you have 196.5GPH @ 240,000 uws/cm^2. Divide it out one more time and you get a kill rate of 98.25GPH@480,000 uws/cm^2. This is just under 1 turn over an hour and you can kill just about anything that hits the water. But...this is when the bulb is brand new . In 6 months, your only going to have 288,000 uws/cm^2 if you look at loosing 40% efficiency over the period. Take this into account when sizing your UV's. If I had 100g tank, and I wanted to kill at 400,00, I would go slightly bigger than 40w but it will work for 6 months to kill anything 288,000 or less.

Whenever you size, size it off of the lamp output rating after 6 months of use or a year of use or whatever the manufacturer provides. If they don't provide that data, then take 40% off of the rating they give you as new and use that. Hope this helps!

[Stoney Mahony]

Originally posted by SDguy
LOL, ya think?!

Thanks for the great info!

[tanya72806]

lol nope dont get it lol so your saying bigger then a 40w for a 100g system ?

[Stoney Mahony]

lol... a 40 watt unit will work if everything you want to kill dies off at 288,000 or less. Most waterborn algaes die at around 22,000 so you are going to obliterate them but some water born pathogens and bacteria require a lot more light to effectively kill them. It all depends on what you want to kill. Hatcheries use a larger unit with a higher kill rate b/c a small infection can wipe out alot of there stock where as a fully grown fish can fight off the same infection before you ever even knew it was there. I suggest researching what you want to kill first, then size according to your strongest foe

[tanya72806]

I just want to use it as a precaution of ick in my reef tank which as of now I never have had. My tank in every which way is OVERKILL but thats me I want to make sure everything stays healthy so I was thinking a 9w turbo twist with very slow water passing through it what do you think

[reefgeek84]

Originally posted by ReefWreak
I would really work on the underlining problem... Relying on any one component to keep your fish and invertebrates alive is always a bad idea because Shisse happens...

IMO it's fine to use it as a supplimentary measure to just make sure that if there is a swing here, a nitrate spike there, that the fish are uneffected. However, if your fish are getting ich as soon as the UV stops, that's a big no-no in my book. Maybe look into getting a cleaner shrimp (if you're running a tank capable of supporting one).

I've got a UV sterilizer that came with my tank. I ran it for about a week when the tank was first setup, but realised that the bulb must have been 3 years old, run 24/7, and realised that it's totally useless, other than maybe for growing algae on the tube. It's plumbed inline, so I've been letting water flow through it. I've had one outbreak of ich when I bought a maroon clown, but it went away after 3 days, no problems with fast breathing on any fish or anything like that, and that was 7 months ago. I've got a cleaner shrimp, who I've seen occasionally clean my fish, so maybe the ich is still there, but as long as it's not effecting anyone, and they all know where to get cleaned, then no biggie.

You realize that ich is always present in water, correct? Its just a matter if it will affect your fish. Not all fish died from it. I have done everything to try treat my fish and nothing has really worked... I soak food in garlic and selco, before feeding them. UV is just another way to take care of the tank...you could say that a skimmer is a band to take nitrites out in between water changes...it is really all relative.

It keeps everything in my tank healthy and my water clearer, so I will stick with it...

[mmotown]

Just wanted to ask this one question. I run carbon on my tank and I have both returns going into a filter sock and I think my water is pretty clear. Are you saying with a UV my water will be even clearer?

[Gwee]

Great info!
Apparently though I'm having trouble understanding most of it
Could you please recommend me a UV that kills almost everything? A rate/flow that you would have on a 79G tank without quarantining the fish you recieve before?
I know that it's alot more complicated than it seems

I was thinking of a 15W or 25W Gamma UV with around 200gph flow?
Not enough?
Thanks!!
Guy

[gasman059]

2 5watts should b enuff- and IMO lifeguard r very relaible as previously mentioned i run one in my koi pond as well as my reef.

[Gwee]

Thanks for the answer!

So 2 5 Watts with 100gph flow in each would be good?

Guy

By the way I'm looking into Marine Depot site and I am not seeing a 5Watt made by Pentair (Lifegard) is that the one?

[Stoney Mahony]

Originally posted by reefgeek84
You realize that ich is always present in water, correct? Its just a matter if it will affect your fish. Not all fish died from it. I have done everything to try treat my fish and nothing has really worked... I soak food in garlic and selco, before feeding them. UV is just another way to take care of the tank...you could say that a skimmer is a band to take nitrites out in between water changes...it is really all relative.

It keeps everything in my tank healthy and my water clearer, so I will stick with it...

A common misconception but ich IS NOT always present in water.
Here is a good link with a good explanation of why this is such a misconception:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/20...ture/index.php

[Stoney Mahony]

Originally posted by mmotown
Just wanted to ask this one question. I run carbon on my tank and I have both returns going into a filter sock and I think my water is pretty clear. Are you saying with a UV my water will be even clearer?

Yes it will be clearer. Less algae means less division and not as much particulate matter in the water column.

[Stoney Mahony]

Originally posted by Gwee
Great info!
Apparently though I'm having trouble understanding most of it
Could you please recommend me a UV that kills almost everything? A rate/flow that you would have on a 79G tank without quarantining the fish you recieve before?
I know that it's alot more complicated than it seems

I was thinking of a 15W or 25W Gamma UV with around 200gph flow?
Not enough?
Thanks!!
Guy

I think that he ment 25 watts not 2 x 5 watts . I would use 25watts at a flow rate of 100gph. You will kill most anything at that intensity and flow rate. The only problem is that you still need to QT. UV's only kill the microorganisms that pass through the tube. If you buy a new fish that has ich and stick him right in your display, all he has to do is brush by another fish and he can contract it. UV's are awesome but I would still QT. Now, you could effectively have your qt plumbed into your display with the UV inline between them so that it zaps any water going from the QT to the display. Current makes very good units so thats a good choice IMO.

[Stoney Mahony]

Originally posted by tanya72806
I just want to use it as a precaution of ick in my reef tank which as of now I never have had. My tank in every which way is OVERKILL but thats me I want to make sure everything stays healthy so I was thinking a 9w turbo twist with very slow water passing through it what do you think

Do you have a link to this turbo twist so that I can see the kill rates?

Here is a link to a chart with kill rates for various microorganisms: http://www.tmc-ltd.co.uk/data/bacteria.asp

[Gwee]

Thanks!
Chart is very helpful..
Bottom of the chart has the white spot at 336,000 uv dosage.
Thats a huge difference from other micro organism's.
Why is that?
I'm sure this was asked already but I misunderstood, but how much uv dosage would I be getting with 25W at 100gph flow rate?
And how about 15W at 100gph?
Low chances are that I will be getting the 15W Current Gamma instead of the 25W but if you say that 15W is not enough then I'll get the 25W.
Guy

[Stoney Mahony]

Originally posted by Gwee
Thanks!
Chart is very helpful..
Bottom of the chart has the white spot at 336,000 uv dosage.
Thats a huge difference from other micro organism's.
Why is that?
I'm sure this was asked already but I misunderstood, but how much uv dosage would I be getting with 25W at 100gph flow rate?
And how about 15W at 100gph?
Low chances are that I will be getting the 15W Current Gamma instead of the 25W but if you say that 15W is not enough then I'll get the 25W.
Guy

Glad it helped. I don't know why white spot takes so much, but it's one of the hardest to erradicate using uv. Ok, I just did some figures and here is a break down of the current gamma 15w vs 25w:

15w unit: brand new out of the box it will produce
120,000 @ 180GPH
240,000 @ 90GPH
214,286 @ 100GPH

Using the advertisers disclaimer that says there bulbs put out 60% after 13 months of use here are the ratings after 13months:

72,000 @ 180GPH
144,000 @ 90GPH
128,571 @ 100GPH

Here are the stats for the 25w New:
240,000 @ 150GPH
480,000 @ 75 GPH
321,600 @ 100GPH

After 13 months:
144,000 @ 150GPH
288,000 @ 75GPH
192,960 @ 100GPH

If everything you want to kill falls within the range for 15w, then that will work fine. The biggest thing is deciding what you want to prevent and then matching according to that

[Gwee]

Nice!
320,000 with 100gph for 25w I guess should be ok, althought 400,000 would be much better because basicly I want to kill everything
Well I definetly would like to prevent the white spot disease at it's swimming stage so I'll probably go with 25W at 100gph.
Although.. at 100gph I wouldn't be sucking up much water would I?(Or is that in no way related?)
Thanks again for your helpful info
Guy

[Stoney Mahony]

As long as your total tank water volume is circulated at least 1x per hour you should be fine. The only problem is that your still not going to kill the white spot b/c it is so strong. And, you have to take into account that the bulbs start loosing intensity from day 1 so thats why I usually size off of the 60% rating.

You said you have a 79g tank that probably has some rock/sand in it so the total water volume is going to be even less than that. If you have less than 75 gal of water then you can drop your flow rate to 75GPH and the intensity will rise to 480,000 when new which WILL kill white spot. If you go month by month and track the intensity you will be loosing about 14,769 in intensity per month. Since white spot dies at ~336,000, you can effectively kill it for 9.75 months. After that point you will be dropping below the required kill rate.

Hope that helps!

[Gwee]

Yes it helped alot actually!
I now have the minimal understanding of UV killing rates
Thing is I really don't know how much the flow rate is in my aquarium but I have 2 powerheads from left and right doing quite a good job.
Thanks once again,
Guy

[tanya72806]

but for which units are these figures for ? I was thinking of a 9w @ 50gph or a 18w corallife turbotwist for my 100g water volume I have at 100gph. Dont they work better then the other UV's out there ?

[Stoney Mahony]

Those figs are for current gamma uv's 15w and 25w models.
Unfortunately, I can't seem to find the kill rates for the corallife twist uv's. Here is a link to what I found:http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produc...&N=2004+113778

If you read under more info it gives some approximations but no exact data. Anyhow, 9w @ 50gph is only 1/2 of your tank volume per hour and you need AT LEAST 1x an hour turnover, the more the better. As far as them working better than other uv's, thats just a marketing ploy and I have heard that many people have a problem with them leaking. If you want to kill whitespot, I doubt either will work. If you can find a link with some #'s I can be more specific.

[tanya72806]

o ok so what do you recommend then brand ?