UV filter a potential cure/treatment for Cyanobacteria/red slime? It might just be!

[slief]

What size uv would you reccomend for a 250

57 to 80 watts depending on your available space and plumbing layout. The AquaUV 57 watt classic should be more than sufficient in my opinion.

 

[B.BASH]

Thanks I'll look into it

 

[MrineLfRlz]

I have 270 total volume gallons with my system i am very interested in the 57w aqua uv w/wiper would this be more then enough for me i do have some cyano, i clean up and it comes right back.
How is yours still holding up is it still keeping the cyano at bay?

 

[Useful_Idiot]

this was your tank and you had UV running 24/7?

Sorry missed your post. Yes this was my tank and I ran UV 24/7 for the last year and a half the tank was up. I didn't see any less pods while it ran either.

 

[slief]

I have 270 total volume gallons with my system i am very interested in the 57w aqua uv w/wiper would this be more then enough for me i do have some cyano, i clean up and it comes right back.
How is yours still holding up is it still keeping the cyano at bay?

The 57 watt would be great on a 270g system. Flow is going to be the key.. Just match the flow to the UV unit. I'd target between 1200 & 1600GPH through it.

My UV is on my closed loop off the main display. After servicing my UV, it eliminated the few patches of cyano from my main display. I have some in my display refugium but unlike my main display which is almost completely bare bottom, the display fuge has sand, less flow and rarely ever gets vacuumed. I kind of let that tank do it's thing intentionally and I could care less about the little bit of cyano in there.

In your case, I am sure the UV will help but you should also be vacuuming your substrate very regularly, vacuuming the cycano from the rocks and then blasting detritus off off your rocks on a regular basis. Lastly, cyano normally builds up where detritus and waste settles. This is also the areas of the tank with the least amount of flow. Increasing flow in those areas will go a long way to combating cyano.

 

[MrineLfRlz]

The 57 watt would be great on a 270g system. Flow is going to be the key.. Just match the flow to the UV unit. I'd target between 1200 & 1600GPH through it.

My UV is on my closed loop off the main display. After servicing my UV, it eliminated the few patches of cyano from my main display. I have some in my display refugium but unlike my main display which is almost completely bare bottom, the display fuge has sand, less flow and rarely ever gets vacuumed. I kind of let that tank do it's thing intentionally and I could care less about the little bit of cyano in there.

In your case, I am sure the UV will help but you should also be vacuuming your substrate very regularly, vacuuming the cycano from the rocks and then blasting detritus off off your rocks on a regular basis. Lastly, cyano normally builds up where detritus and waste settles. This is also the areas of the tank with the least amount of flow. Increasing flow in those areas will go a long way to combating cyano.

So i should keep it in the 65000-75000 columns because this is on the manual?
Reef Tanks: A UV Rated in the 30,000 to 45,000 columns is ideal for the reef environment. UV's rated at higher
kill rates will destroy the planktonic food supply for the reef.

Also i just recently purchased a diatom filter it works great for vacuuming up the rocks and sand bed i try to do this once a month i was also looking into the santa monica algae scrubber but just doesnt seem big enough to make any impact on my system any ideas on these?
I almost forgot im at 3 gal w/c a day with my renew. I run carbon and gfo, have caulerpa macro algae in my refug and have a over sized skimmer and parameters are great my phos 0.02 or lower and nitrate 2 or lower but still have problems with cyano "bacteria i know" and no other bad algae.

 

[slief]

So i should keep it in the 65000-75000 columns because this is on the manual?
Reef Tanks: A UV Rated in the 30,000 to 45,000 columns is ideal for the reef environment. UV's rated at higher
kill rates will destroy the planktonic food supply for the reef.

Also i just recently purchased a diatom filter it works great for vacuuming up the rocks and sand bed i try to do this once a month i was also looking into the santa monica algae scrubber but just doesnt seem big enough to make any impact on my system any ideas on these?
I almost forgot im at 3 gal w/c a day with my renew. I run carbon and gfo, have caulerpa macro algae in my refug and have a over sized skimmer and parameters are great my phos 0.02 or lower and nitrate 2 or lower but still have problems with cyano "bacteria i know" and no other bad algae.

The higher flow rates will do well for water polishing and won't impact pods that pass through it. The lower flow rates will kill parasites and bacteria. I tend to err towards the middle of the flow range as this provides a happy medium between max kill and water polishing and will also do well with bacteria. I run my flow right in the middle of the range. The lower flow rates seem to be recoomended for reefs because many reefers are concerned about impacting pod populations. For me, Im not the least bit concerned about that. My UV is part of a closed loop that runs within my display. My refugium is part of my return loop and I have plenty of pods in my fuge. If I loose some in my UV, oh well. Not a big deal.

In my experience, Cyano is a photosynthetic bacteria that feeds on waste and detrituts and isn't as dependant on Po4 like algae. As such, husbandry is a bigger thing that Po4 control. I've seen cyano with 0 nitrates and very low Po4. Vacuuming and flow seem to be the best means of cutting cyano off at it's source.