Ich and UV

[rsaavedra]

I know UV will kill free floaters, but my understanding is that if you don't hyppo or qt and your tank gets ich by having a uv it will take a few cycles to eradicate the parasite. Meaning as an example:

10 Parasites Cycle 1 goes thru UV, kills 3 parasites and after on the next cycle
7 Parasites survive Cycle 2 goes thru UV, kills 3 parasites and after on the next cycle
5 Parasites survive Cycle 3 goes thru UV, kills 3 parasites and after on the next cycle
3 Parasites survive Cycle 4 goes thru UV, kills 3 parasites and after on the next cycle
1 Parasites survive Cycle 5 goes thru UV, kills 3 parasites and after on the next cycle
0 Parasites survive Cycle 6 goes thru UV, kills 3 parasites and after on the next cycle

If your fish survive all those cycles wouldn't that kill the ich on the tank, however it would be a crime towards your fish but I'm assuming it would kill everything on the long run. I don't know if you guys understand what i'm saying.

Does any UV experts care to comment on this? I'll be interested to hear more about it from anyone else willing to put their .02¢


Raf

 

[weez1959]

UVs only work on the paracite that goes through it, it's not going to help much if you have a full blown case of ich. Unfortunately it's NEVER a case of less than 10, Just one theront will make up to 200 tomites and if just 1 of those attaches and starts over... well do the math Those little Theronts attach themselves to the substrate and then then release thier little guys so while they are attached there is no way they can go through the UV. Here's a link that will give you a good idea of why these gadgets don't help all that much:
http://images.google.com/imgres?img...cycle&svnum=10&um=1&hl=en&rlz=1B2GGGL_enCA177

 

[kevin2000]

Here's one of the better threads discussing UV/ICH

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=353984

Hope this helps