UV effectiveness

[GlassReef]

What are your thoughts/opinions about the effectiveness of UV in controlling Ich, Velvet, etc.

 

[kaiboshi]

UV can only kill whatever passes through the unit. 2 parts of the ich lifecycle involve it being attached to something (fish and substrate). I don't know about velvet.

So it won't cure ich but I think it can help, some people use it as a part of their ich treatment. It can't hurt, lol.

FWIW I've run them in the past and liked it, I recently ordered an appropriately sized unit for my upgraded tank, it arrives monday so I can't speak about effectiveness from a larger standpoint. It'll kill freefloating bacteria and parasites aside from ich, as well as free floating algal spores or whatever they are called.

 

[Stuart60611]

As stated above, it is not a cure, but it can be useful to control parasites. Its usefulness, however, in this regard is predicated on getting a large unit with a slow flow rate. Each unit should tell you what the recommended flow rate is for kiling parasites. I would then have the flow dialed down a bit lower than what is recommended to make sure you are killing parasites. For the best results, I would try to get a unit large enought to turn over your tank water volume 1.5-2 times per hour while still keeping the flow rate low enough to kill parasites.

 

[LargeAngels]

For ich and velvet they are only really affective for multiple tank systems to keep it from spreading from one tank to another.

 

[Stuart60611]

I would have to disagree to an extent with Largeangels. I totally agree with him that they will never eliminate a parasite from the system and are most effective at stopping parasites from passing from one system to another. However, admitedly without any scientific basis to support this assertion which is based exclusively on my own annecdotal personal observation, I think they may be effective at least in materially limiting the number of parasites in the system. This can be critical to those who have opted to live with a parasitic system because I believe it gives the fish a real chance of being able to fight off the parasite when coupled with good husbandry and nutrition and allow the parasitic infestation to go subclinical or in other words the fish show no substantial symptoms of ich. I would also note that they do offer benefits in reducing harmful bacteria which often take hold of fish when weakened by parasites and assist in the break down of organics in the water which overall improves water quality -- something that has been scientifically proven to be a major factor in assisting fish in battling disease.

 

[biger]

They are kind of like those bug zappers. They will kill some but will never kill all the bugs. As already stated they will help keep the numbers down tho.