Fish only tanks question

[ehaleyjr18]

I have purchased 5 30 gal. tanks that are seperated into 3 10 gal. tanks each. I've got a 30 gal. sump with a skimmer and a UV sterilizer on the discharge side of the sump. My question is this- I've always had reef tanks that had to cure out before placing fish into system, so is it necessary to generate this correct balance of algae and microrganisms in a system that is fish only? Also wouldn't the sterilizer kill most of this anyway. I'm in the process of building the sump and need to know if I need to put rock, sand, grunge, and refrigrum in if the sterilizer is going to kill what I develop.Thanks in advance for your help with this.

 

[namxas]

UV sterilizers have their place in certain setups (generally fry nurseries to control protozoans), but for most setups, they don't really do much good, as they only affect WATERBORNE organisms, and most of the pathogens we're concerned with in the hobby are benthic/demersal.

As far as them destroying pods, unless you have a very high power unit, and run the water thru it very slowly, the pods typically won't be affected at all.

Additionally, UV does NOT take the place of a system's biofiltration...in fact, if it's actively killing organisms, the dead organisms can actually ADD to the bioload of a system.

Bottom line: add the LR, grunge, macro, etc to your sump.

 

[ehaleyjr18]

Thanks namxas, that's kind of what I thought to be true.