UV Steriliser

[bella123]

We have had our tank setup for about 6 weeks now and I have a UV steriliser that I haven't used yet. Is it too early to start using it? My understanding is it will kill the bacteria in the water, including the beneficial bacteria. I am worried my rock won't have seeded properly yet and I will kill all the bacteria in the tank.

My understanding of how they work could be totally wrong so I wanted to check before I turned it on

 

[Timfish]

I use UV sterilizers to deal with ick in tanks (search my user name and "sterilizer" to see threads discussing it's use) but it would be better to use a QT to prevent ick from being introduced. Bear in mind the cysts can be transferred on any hard substrate so make sure you dip EVERYTHING and I use separate QT systems for my corals. As far as killing bacteria in tanks the beneficial stuff is on rocks and the only study I've seen that actually looked at bacteria counts found skimmers alter the bacteria counts in the water column far more than a UV sterilizer.

 

[nereefpat]

. As far as killing bacteria in tanks the beneficial stuff is on rocks

Yep. Run the UV without fear.

 

[bella123]

Thanks for the advice