UV-C 254nm germacidal light
- Thread starter skimjim
- Start date
nereefpat
New member
Are these lights killing GOOD BACTERIA that are possibly hendering my CORALS from fully growing?
No. Are you seeing detectable levels of ammonia or something?
Btw, is that light safe to be around?
I do hope you have a cover for that UV bulb! Beside the risk of permanant eye damage the UV will degrade acrylic and especially the glue joints.
Get Forest Rohwer's Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas. The subject of bacteria in reefs systems is VERY complex and his book is an excellent and very readable introduction to the subject. The coral holobiont is unique to each species of coral so what's water born should not be to much of a factor. The shifts in the coral holobiont from stress or from algae exuded DOC happen in a corals mucus layer and internally. With sensitive enough testing equipment you might show a decrease in the pathogenic bacteria in the water but the only experiments I am aware off that actually stopped the development of pathogenic bacteria in the coral holobiont was done with antibiotics. Not something you want to do in a DT.
As far as using a UV there's only two reasons I would use one on a DT. One is if there's cloudy water that's casued by bacteria or algae the second is for ich. And once the problem is cleared up I would remove it. (As an aside, when using for ich a UV in the sump usually doesn't work well as the larva that are hatching out in the DT can find fish before going through the filtering system. I've had much better performance using them with their own properly sized pump in the DT behind the aquascaping where it's getting a higher percentage of the larva.)
Get Forest Rohwer's Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas. The subject of bacteria in reefs systems is VERY complex and his book is an excellent and very readable introduction to the subject. The coral holobiont is unique to each species of coral so what's water born should not be to much of a factor. The shifts in the coral holobiont from stress or from algae exuded DOC happen in a corals mucus layer and internally. With sensitive enough testing equipment you might show a decrease in the pathogenic bacteria in the water but the only experiments I am aware off that actually stopped the development of pathogenic bacteria in the coral holobiont was done with antibiotics. Not something you want to do in a DT.
As far as using a UV there's only two reasons I would use one on a DT. One is if there's cloudy water that's casued by bacteria or algae the second is for ich. And once the problem is cleared up I would remove it. (As an aside, when using for ich a UV in the sump usually doesn't work well as the larva that are hatching out in the DT can find fish before going through the filtering system. I've had much better performance using them with their own properly sized pump in the DT behind the aquascaping where it's getting a higher percentage of the larva.)
