UV sterilizer for quarantine

[davidwillis]

I am thinking about setting up a quarantine tank connected to to my display tank, but running a UV sterilizer on the water returning to my display tank. Will this keep the display tank safe from any parasites, etc?

If so, how slow does the flow/watt need to be to make sure and kill any everything? For example if I have a 36W UV sterilizer, how many gph can I run through it and keep the kill rate at 100%?

 

[davidwillis]

Any thoughts on this?

 

[TampaReefer79]

The QT tank cannot be part of the main tank, it must be isolated. And no, a UV sterilizer doesn't get rid of ich.

 

[davidwillis]

Thanks. After doing some research it appears you are correct. Even at a very slow flow rate there is no proof that it kills 100% of the parasite. It does seem to reduce them, and make the water quality better, but my idea does not sound safe.

A UV sterilizer will not kill ich trophozoites already on the fish (but then medications don't either), but UVC can again slow the spread of ich tomites in the water column (but usually not out right kill ich tomites). However by water quality improvement (such as Redox Potential) and lowering of pathogenic bacteria, the fish has more natural resistance to fight Marine Cryptocaryon or FW Ich.

 

[hottuna]

The only applications of UV that I saw that were effective against ich -were at a wholesaler I visited...they had like 2 vertical banks of emperor aquatics sterilizers..each stack was about 10 units high..massive overkill...we as hobbyist would have to spend a fortune to duplicate that kill factor at home..
The owner claimed -with that much UV everything but the largest ectoparasites were eradicated...by the looks of the fishes health in the facility-I would say it works..

 

[RBU1]

In my opinion adding a UV to a QT is an added benefit. The trick to UV is the contact time of the water that flows thru it. I put a 9 watt unit on my 30 gallon qt and run the water thru it at about 100gph.

 

[davidwillis]

The only applications of UV that I saw that were effective against ich -were at a wholesaler I visited...they had like 2 vertical banks of emperor aquatics sterilizers..each stack was about 10 units high..massive overkill...we as hobbyist would have to spend a fortune to duplicate that kill factor at home..
The owner claimed -with that much UV everything but the largest ectoparasites were eradicated...by the looks of the fishes health in the facility-I would say it works..

wow, that is a lot of uv sterilizers. I wonder what his gph/watt was. Probably less than 1. So his fish looked good? can you cause problems with too much uv sterilizing in a tank? I think it drops your ORP, can you take it too low with that?

 

[davidwillis]

In my opinion adding a UV to a QT is an added benefit. The trick to UV is the contact time of the water that flows thru it. I put a 9 watt unit on my 30 gallon qt and run the water thru it at about 100gph.

Sounds good just over 10 gph per watt.

 

[RBU1]

If you read up on UV units it will tell you how much exposure time is needed. Even if I had a 40 watt unit I would run 100gph thru it. If I was getting heating issues then I would slowly increase the flow. In my opinion the slower the better.

 

[davidwillis]

I do agree, exposure time is better than watts. That is why the short high output uv sterilizers are not as good as the longer ones. Is there an optimum contact time? I mean you wouldn't want to drip through a 110 watt uv sterilizer. Is it just the heat? As slow as you can without getting too hot?


A 40 watt at 100 gph would give you more exposure time than a 9 watt at 100 gph, because the 9 watt with have about 5 inches of exposure, and the 40 will have about 15 inches. So you should be able to up your flow rate to 300 and still have the same exposure time..??

 

[davidwillis]

BTW, this is about the best read I have found on UV sterilizers.

http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/AquariumUVSterilization.html

 

[RBU1]

Interesting read. Thanks

 

[Orcrone]

In my opinion adding a UV to a QT is an added benefit. The trick to UV is the contact time of the water that flows thru it. I put a 9 watt unit on my 30 gallon qt and run the water thru it at about 100gph.

Many medications require that you turn off a UV sterilizer, protein skimmer, remove the carbon from a filter, etc. That's why it's often best to just use a sponge filter in a QT.

 

[RBU1]

Or just turn off the UV while treating....

 

[davidwillis]

Yes, my idea was to use it in a quarantine tank before adding the fish to the display. So hopefully there will be no medicating needed. My original idea was to use my sump as the quarantine, but after reading more I found that UV will not really sterilize at 100%, so that idea will not work so well (I could contaminate my main tank).

 

[RBU1]

I would never suggest using anything connected to your main tank as a QT. Seperate is always better.