uv starilizers....thoughts?

AIR-FX

New member
so i have heard of them and i'm starting to read up on them.......but i would like to hear from those who have them or dont feel u need them.
so what are the advantages to using one? i have a 72 gal bowfront. do you go bigger than what you need ,like most things in this hobby? will this help with keeping fish with lower immune systems? i love tangs,but everytime i get one it gets ick n dies. does a uv hurt any corals or inverts,or other fish?
thanks
kevin
 
Kevin,

I got a couple years ago and have never used it. My opinion is that the bad out ways the good of them. They will kill anything (bad and good) in the water column that passes through them.
 
My thought is that a residential uv light that handles 3-10 gpm costs several hundred dollars and operates with a low micron pre-filter. My guess is that the average hobby grade light is ~15% effective when well maintained.
 
Kevin.
I have 4 of them and don't use them on mys system anymore .

They kill mostly planktonic bacteria and I'm not sure that's a good thing in a tank in terms of the food web and or other activity by the micro fuana..
They need to be quite large in terms of watts and flow through capacity to deliever lethal radiation to parasites such as cryptocaryon irritans which are much larger than bacteria. Even then they only kill what passes through them ; most parasitic fish diseases have at least stages where the parasites will never see the inside ofteh uv since they'll be in or on the fish or encysted on the bootom or other surfaces.
I think an oversized sterilizer on a hospital tank could help lower the density of parasites and the chances of secondary infections from smaller microbes like pathogenic bacteria or certain dinoflagellates like velvet(oodinium).

If your fish are getting ich it's because they have it when you buy them or because it's in your tank and the fish already there have developed a partial immunity to the particular strain and the new comer hasn't. Uv even oversized will not erradicate it . I've tried a few times several years ago with the uvs now decorating my shelf.
 
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