So I had ich in my tank and have tried to let it go fallow for two months but there's two fish that absolutely won't go into the Fishtrap and have remained in there. They haven't shown any signs of ich in the past two months since the other fish died, so I'm not worried about them surviving, even though Ich can technically still be in the tank. Since the other fish died I've got about a dozen frags of coral to keep me entertained. The guy I buy my coral from said not to run easy sterilizer all the time. He said maybe a couple days a month. Since I'm hoping that the uv sterilizer can help minimize the ich still in the tank what are your some recommendations about how much I should be running it and whether the bacteria it will kill will affect my coral. Thanks for the input
Any reason not to run UV sterilizer?
- Thread starter MiamiZach
- Start date
ReefHoboBum
New member
You can try UV, but no guarantee it will kill the ich. It will not harm your corals as long as you are using UV size and strength recommended for your tank.
dzhuo
Active member
If you are thinking of running a UV for ich control, don't bother. You will not see any impact at all.
UV has been around for a long time and has been subjected to great studies because of its significancy of controlling various pathogens. UV itself is very effective at doing what it's designed for in a single pass system. Unfortunately, a reef tank is not a single pass system; it's what we called a recirculating system. In a recirculating system, UV has been shown to be no more than ~5% effective in almost every studies (and there are a lot of them). Here is one such study off the top of my head:
Pathogen Reduction in Closed Aquaculture Systems by UV Radiation: Fact or Artifact?
And a few more if you are interested to look further into this:
Herald, E. S., Dempster, R. P, Hunt. M. 1970. Ultraviolet sterilization of aquarium water. In: Hayen, W. (ed.) Aquarium design criteria (Spec ed.), Drum and Croaker, U S Department of the Interior, Washington, DC. 57-71
Bullock. G. L.. Stuckey, H. M. 1977. Ultraviolet treatment of water for destruction of five gram-negative bacteria pathogenic to fishes. J. Fish. Res. Bd Can. 34: 1244-1249
Spotte, S., Buck, J. D. 1981. The efficacy of UV irradiation in the microbial disinfection of marine mammal water J. Wildl. Dis. 17: 11-16
Spanier, E. 1978. Preliminary trials with an ultraviolet liquid sterilizer. Aquaculture 14: 75-84
Gratzek, J.B., Gilbert, J.P., Lohr, A.L., Shotts, E.B. Jr., Brown, J. 1983. Ultraviolet light control of Ichthyophthirius multifiliis (Fouquet) in a closed fish culture recirculation system. J. Fish. Dis. 6:2 145-153.
Despite what others will claim and success they had, it's highly unlikely UV is the answer for your ich problem. It simply does not work well in a recirculating system such as a reef tank.
UV has been around for a long time and has been subjected to great studies because of its significancy of controlling various pathogens. UV itself is very effective at doing what it's designed for in a single pass system. Unfortunately, a reef tank is not a single pass system; it's what we called a recirculating system. In a recirculating system, UV has been shown to be no more than ~5% effective in almost every studies (and there are a lot of them). Here is one such study off the top of my head:
Pathogen Reduction in Closed Aquaculture Systems by UV Radiation: Fact or Artifact?
And a few more if you are interested to look further into this:
Herald, E. S., Dempster, R. P, Hunt. M. 1970. Ultraviolet sterilization of aquarium water. In: Hayen, W. (ed.) Aquarium design criteria (Spec ed.), Drum and Croaker, U S Department of the Interior, Washington, DC. 57-71
Bullock. G. L.. Stuckey, H. M. 1977. Ultraviolet treatment of water for destruction of five gram-negative bacteria pathogenic to fishes. J. Fish. Res. Bd Can. 34: 1244-1249
Spotte, S., Buck, J. D. 1981. The efficacy of UV irradiation in the microbial disinfection of marine mammal water J. Wildl. Dis. 17: 11-16
Spanier, E. 1978. Preliminary trials with an ultraviolet liquid sterilizer. Aquaculture 14: 75-84
Gratzek, J.B., Gilbert, J.P., Lohr, A.L., Shotts, E.B. Jr., Brown, J. 1983. Ultraviolet light control of Ichthyophthirius multifiliis (Fouquet) in a closed fish culture recirculation system. J. Fish. Dis. 6:2 145-153.
Despite what others will claim and success they had, it's highly unlikely UV is the answer for your ich problem. It simply does not work well in a recirculating system such as a reef tank.
MammothReefer
Active member
..Ya don't see the point in it. figure out what's stressing out your fish fix the problem, and the ich will go away.
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