To UV, or not to UV?

[sg1838]

I'm going to try to keep this as short as possible. Basically, at this point my tank is up and running, fully cycled, and seems to be doing well. Since my tank started, I've had my UV unit plumbed and running. Now that it's a "mature" tank (a whopping 3+ months old), should I CONTINUE to run the UV? My thought process was that I wanted to kill anything bad during the initial cycle. But, I also know that UV can/will also kill good stuff too.

So, now that my tank has completely finished cycling and is doing well, is it time to pull the plug on the UV sterilzer? Or, is this one of those things where if it's working now (the tank looks good), why change?

Love to hear your feedback...Thanks...

 

[DEEP BLUE SIX]

Iffy. I have Tangs. I don't UV. I'm successful. Had experince in beginnings with some Ich. Conquered it. Beneficial to just keep it(Ich) all out of your system. But if there is some. Strong fish in established tanks fight occasional outbreaks off rather quickly. Thus is the experience of people like Tom at TRS for example. Where I learned battling it from. The marine form of it that is...

I'm planning on upgrading Tangs to a larger system though. Like a 150. An existing one to be reset up. Transfers are always sketchy & sensitive. I'm considering getting a UV and letting it run quite a while before I put in my Tangs.

You do it or not. A personal choice. As far as for the fish, the UV certainly can't hurt. You won't have any ICH to contend with. Not that it can't be contended with without UV.

But certainly I think it would make it easier, if you want easy & safe water for fish. You may want to consider it. Parasites can always be contended with, however it's sometimes a pain in the rear. UV will elliminate them period.

A further step would an ozonizer as well. But many people consider them unneeded.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

Jason- you've already got the UV. I'd continue to use it. Removing it will very likely bring on a bloom of microalgae that your smal YT won't be able to keep up with (although your snails would be happy).

If you unplug it please let us know what happens

 

[sg1838]

I've heard enough. It's staying plugged in.