PM and UV

[Tigger240]

has the use of a uv sterlizer helped reduce or prevent pm from occuring in clams? from the article it almost sounds like this could be reduced with the use of a sterilizer, or maybe even ozone. or am i completly wrong here?? i dont use ozone or uv, and i dont have plans to run out and get one, but if it is proven to help reduce pm i will make plans to include that in my set up.

4 of my clams have pm, and i thought that this could help. i am newer to clams, and was not aware of what pm was, so thats why it spread to the other clams, before i caught it. i have done the fw dip and i have ordered the seachem medicine referenced in the reef keeping article. however i am wating the results of the fw before i take any other action

also is the use of a iron based phosphate remover taboo with the keeping of clams? or do you just have to run it through carbon before returning it to the tank? i do not use this as of yet but have it on order.

-my setup-
i have a 180 with medium fish load and 5 clams, and change 30 gallons a week. add about 1 oz of phyto everyother day until my cultures kick into high gear then will up that to 1 cup or more. my calcium and alk are stable. temp hovers around 79.0 - 80.7. i dont really add suppliments except iodine.

thanks in advance

 

[Zoom]

Like you i never saw a PM disease till i got my Baby Derasa clam from my LFS , i put it in my tank and infected all of my clams also i had to do the FW dip to all my clams at the same time .
I don't think you need any thing else just don't FW dip them any more because you can kill them i almost kill the Derasa after i did a second FW dip in a week.
As for the ozone i do use one full time and the PM disease spread any ways . i use iron based phosphate remover full time also but very low amount.
Good luck with your clams.

 

[Tigger240]

thanks for the reply - i went home tonight at lunch and all my clams i dipped looked much better than they have in a while. i dont think a second dip or chemicals are necessary, i just wanted to have medication on hand if something got bad, because no one has any medication like that locally.

i honestly figured clams were like a put em in and nothing bad can happen to them type of deal, and i wrote off the pm as normal, but it didnt go away, and glancing at the boards everyones like pm this and pm that and im like wt.. its 11:30 am where im at....

thanks for your reply but im still curious to the use of uv and if people still get pm, because the article stated its an unidentified protozoan concentration and i thought uv light could kill protozoans. maybe not all of them but maybe it could help keep the levels low so that pm doesnt occur or am i mistaken??

 

[Zoom]

I tell you i don't think any one knows what will help , you like to use a UV go for it.

 

[Tigger240]

thanks again zoom for the replys, i havnt been convinced enough to run out and buy uv or ozone and know that my tank is better because of it. i dunno i guess its the acrylic vs glass type of deal but i thought someone out there might be like yea ive got a big honkin uv sterilizer and ive gotten pm or i havent had pm since i got my uv type of deal. i know it wouldnt be exactly scientific however i thought if a few people chimed in then it would be enough for me.

thanks again

 

[jmaneyapanda]

The thing with UV is that for larger organisms, like protozoans, you will need a long exposure to kill them. I am not sure what it would be for the PM protozoan (does anyone even know what protozoan this is?), but for things like ick, it needs severe irradiation. This means either a slow feed through the UV (long dwell time), or a huge UV sterilizer. If you get a 25 or 40 watt and pump 700 or higher gallons per hour through it, you'll be lucky to even kill any algae. You'll need a higher wattage for higher flow (and consequently higher $$), or just trickle the water through, which has lowere effeciency in "grabbing" the pathogens out of the tank.
Just something to think about.

 

[Tigger240]

pro·to·zo·an (prô'tə-zô'ən) also pro·to·zo·on (-ŏn')
n., pl. -zo·ans or -zo·a (-zô'ə) also -zo·ons.
Any of a large group of single-celled, usually microscopic, eukaryotic organisms, such as amoebas, ciliates, flagellates, and sporozoans.

thanks for the reply, i thought the only way to run it is with a slow flow rate = long exposure time, otherwise your not really doing anything. but if the correct use of it would prevent the protozoans from building up to the correct level that triggers pm - was what im trying to find out. i guess i will have to experiment. I thought a really cool diy would be to have a pvc pipe with a uv in it, and then divide the pvc pipe with acrylic baffels lengthwise, and then make is so water had to go up the tube and back down and back up and back down, as many times as there was baffels but thats for another post!

 

[Tigger240]

Eukaryotes - are organisms with complex cells, in which the genetic material is organized into membrane-bound nuclei. They include the animals, plants, and fungi, which are mostly multicellular, as well as various other groups called protists, many of which are unicellular. In contrast, other organisms such as bacteria lack nuclei and other complex cell structures, and are called prokaryotes. The eukaryotes share a common origin, and are often treated formally as a superkingdom, empire, or domain. The name comes from the Greek eus or true and karyon or nut, referring to the nucleus.

 

[jmaneyapanda]

Yeah- my question was, what specific protozoan actaully causes PM? Different protozoans have different tolarances and sturdiness. A UV exposure that kills one prtotozoan may not kill another. I dont think anyone has yet determine what actual protozoan causes PM, so trial and error will be the only way to go.
Ozone is another alternative. I know ozone has differnt germicidal porperties than UV, but they are similar. Furthermore, all you need for ozone is exposure. Just something to consider.

I still think FWD is the best course, although risky in itself.

 

[Tigger240]

as far as i know fwd is the Only way to go - but you have a good point about the dwell time needed to kill the protozoan too. it maybe a long time, longer than what could be provided in a typical uv, also at what point would the water become too sterile, at what point is the tradeoff too great, even if it does work. many questions. the guy that posted above said he still got pm with ozone, also.

 

[jmaneyapanda]

Your water cannot be oversterilized by a UV. it will eliminate any free floating planktonic which may be floating about, but it wont harm anything that doesn't go through it. I know ick needs a very long exposure to kill it, so I would guess PM would be the same. This exposure could be accomplished by almost any UV, by just minimizing the flow. But a UV with 50 GPH going thorugh it on a 100 gallon tank would take a LONG TIME to kill those bad bugs.

The reason I think thinks like UV or ozone would be good, is that they would assist in preventing spread of PM to other clams. Once a clam has PM, UV or ozone cannot help, because the clam doesnt go in the UV or get exposed to the ozone. But the infectious stage will be free floating, and can be germicidallt killed by UV or oxodized by ozone.

 

[Zoom]

The smaller the tank the better UV or ozone will work so a small quarantine like 10G tank with a good size UV will do wonders .
I try a 30W UV on my 20G quarantine but it gets the water to hot over 87F so i need a smaller UV or a chiller, i may try a small chiller if i get a use one . I need to to get this working so i can get some more corals fish and clams .
i'm getting a new tank in March so i need to set this up by then.