Brian's 270 Starphire

Q. for both Brian and Ryan. I see that you run uv, have either one of you tried ozone?
When I was starting up and adding fish, I ran both uv and ozone, but the last couple of years my reactor died and I got lazy and never changed my UV bulb.
I started having algea problems some of my fish were getting spots of ich. Never enough to cause any great concern, but still bothered me. This last year I bought a new ozone unit and run it about 2-3 hrs a day manually because it is too powerful to leave on full time.
But the algea problem is gone, tank looks a ton nicer and the ich is basically invisible.
 
Hmmm... Very interesting Brad.

I do run a 57 watt UV sterilizer, and the first time ich popped up when I decided to fallow the tank was when the UV bulb went out and it took me a bout 2 weeks to get antoher one! Now, I've had a hard time getting rid of it. i see it much more now than I used to.

I had a RedSea 200 mg delux but It never worked very well. Maybe I'll try the ozone and see if it makes a difference.

I also always run into algea problems because I feed my fish soooo much ( love fat fish!) so around a year ago i got hooked on some Zeo products. no rocks or anything just supplements that made a drastic difference in nitrification and now my skimmer pulls thick nasty junk and my sand bed looks great most of the time. Its expensive but I love the way my tank looks...

So are you not seeing any ich sense adding the ozone? and which model did you buy?
 
I was recommended this one from a friend and have been extremely happy with it. It has a built in air pump and has timer settings on it so you don't have to run it constantly.
I don't recommend using it on smaller tanks and I only run it about half strength for an hour at a time. It is very strong, but works fantastic.
It's an Enaly OZX-300AT Ozone Generator.
You can actually watch your orp probe readings climb .
 
bradleyj said:
Q. for both Brian and Ryan. I see that you run uv, have either one of you tried ozone?
When I was starting up and adding fish, I ran both uv and ozone, but the last couple of years my reactor died and I got lazy and never changed my UV bulb.
I started having algea problems some of my fish were getting spots of ich. Never enough to cause any great concern, but still bothered me. This last year I bought a new ozone unit and run it about 2-3 hrs a day manually because it is too powerful to leave on full time.
But the algea problem is gone, tank looks a ton nicer and the ich is basically invisible.
Click to expand...

Well I don't think that the ozone a lone would kill ich , but it would help with the clarity of the water giving you a high transmittance with your UV. If you had an algae problem, your water clarity would be less, thus effecting the UV transmittance.

I my case, I did think of using ozone, but a friend of mine and a few other i talk too before setting up the system, said that the ozone that they had seldom ran with using a BK skimmer. So, it was starched for the plans.

Now, while talking at great lengths about UV with Kevin Kohen, he recommend using pre-filter before the UV. Here a link to the pre-filter. This would reduce the particulates entering the UV, thus increasing the transmittance.

With my system, I seldom have issues with particulates in my sump because of the use of filter socks and decided not to use the pre-filters. A few other idea that were brought out were; clearing your quart selves more often, which I do monthly. Although they never seem very dirty.

The other thing that use mentioned use how often to change bulbs. Kevin changed there bulbs every month or so. He said that they would notice a few spots if they didn't do so. For me that is an expense that I can't afford. While I don't disagree with this, as I run a ton of UV at my work and bulbs are really only effective for 9-12 months. On the other hand we are only worried about bacteria at my work and ich is much harder to effect.

So for me, I think I will be changing bulbs out more often. I have two 40 watt UV bulbs on order. I also feel that I need aleast 80 watts before I will notice a big difference.
 
Its always been my understanding that ich is like gout, you live with it and never get rid of it. Symptoms appear when the animal gets stressed. I believe this to be true from my experience as I had an established tank with no new fish added in over a year and still had some minor ich breakouts on my tangs and latz clowns every once in a while. Just left it alone and they got over it in a day or two.
 
sm-37.jpg
 
Great to see some SPS with a lot of color...living vicariously though you Brian. Have a great weekend.
 
Brian, I seem to remember a past photo of the Pink Sandollar and if it's the same piece man that's great growth. Maybe it's my laptop but photo looks a litte "hot" but great detail on the macro. I think when I set up my display again I'm going to make some room for encrusting montis...which ones do you recommend. I like the Pink Sandollar and maybe an Emma's, the OG Undata or the Wildfire hum
 
DanW said:
Brian, I seem to remember a past photo of the Pink Sandollar and if it's the same piece man that's great growth. Maybe it's my laptop but photo looks a litte "hot" but great detail on the macro. I think when I set up my display again I'm going to make some room for encrusting montis...which ones do you recommend. I like the Pink Sandollar and maybe an Emma's, the OG Undata or the Wildfire hum
Click to expand...

Dan the pic look ok on my lap top, but I don't claim to be a photo expert either :D. As for the growth, it has taken off. It well over tripled in size. That pics a month or two old and I have fraged it since than.

As for encrusting monti's, I like to place them in area's that I can't place acro's, so they are great filler pieces for me ;). I would definitely add Orenji Monti to your list. i also like a few OG monti's, like the sunset and superman, but the do need to be placed carefully as they grow like weeds.
 
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