For my reef tank. Aqua on their site says to run it 900-1200gph to not kill beneficial food bacterias. I see on here people running them very slow so the water has a long contact time. What do you guys think? My return pump is a sicce 4.0. Rubs just shy of 1000gph. I was thinking of running it in line to my return. Or should I keep it seperate?
Aqua 25w uv pump recommendation/placement
- Thread starter michael43
- Start date
fishgate
Active member
That seems like a very high flow to me. But check what you want to eradicate and adjust flow accordingly. Also you could run this 12 hours on, 12 off like perhaps opposite to your main lighting schedule. 25 watt is decent power. You could get away with lower flow without hurting anything.
I'm just looking to minimize any chance of some kind of outbreak. I've always wanted a powder blue tang and I nearly got this just for him. I'm hoping it helps my system run better overall but want to kill and viscious bacterias it can handle. I know it's not an ich destroyer but again just hoping to minimize those chances
DrBoxedWine
New member
I have used a 25w emperor aquatics uv sterilizer on my 75g for ich management for about 8 months now, and I think it really helps. Definitely doesn't irradicate ich, but it does help to really keep it at a minimum.
I agree that sounds like a very high flow rate. I run mine at 90 gph. You'll probably want to get a flow meter, they're like $30 on Amazon. If you run it too high, you won't have enough contact time to kill ich. But if you run it too low you won't get enough water passing through it to really kill enough of the parasite.
Also, I cannot recommend running it off your return line enough. On my current tank I run it with a maxijet, and it's just another thing cluttering up my sump that I have to clean and maintain. I'm setting up a new tank right now and a couple weekends ago I plumbed the new UV sterilizer off my return. It was really, really easy. I just put a T that branches off to a gate valve.
I agree that sounds like a very high flow rate. I run mine at 90 gph. You'll probably want to get a flow meter, they're like $30 on Amazon. If you run it too high, you won't have enough contact time to kill ich. But if you run it too low you won't get enough water passing through it to really kill enough of the parasite.
Also, I cannot recommend running it off your return line enough. On my current tank I run it with a maxijet, and it's just another thing cluttering up my sump that I have to clean and maintain. I'm setting up a new tank right now and a couple weekends ago I plumbed the new UV sterilizer off my return. It was really, really easy. I just put a T that branches off to a gate valve.
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