UV Sterilizer Use and Lamps

[SkiFletch]

Two-part discussion. First, how many of you use them and for what reasons do you use them? Second, and perhaps more importantly, for those of you that do (or even those that don't): do you change your bulbs with some kind of frequency? Or do you not bother? I mean all it is, is a flourescent tube with NO metals in the glass to produce color. All lamps by default output UV light, so what's the point of changing them yearly? To pad the bulb maker's bottom line?

 

[GMaquarium]

I personally think its not something you want on a healthy reef. They are very useful to combat some algae outbreaks like green water. By zapping phytoplankton in the water column. Uv is useful in hospital tanks during qt. You should change the lamps, how often? That has always been tricky for me. Since I don't use most of my UV units fulltime it's hard to gauge. Once a year or so would be a good point to swap. I used to have one that took very expensive replacement lamps and I actually kept a log of how many burn hours we had on the bulb.

 

[SkiFletch]

Yes, but WHY are you changing the bulb? Have you ever paid attention to what it actually is? It's just a clear tube with no phosphoresecents or halides in it and the arcing elements. The reason other bulbs need changing is that the phosphorescents and halides burn up over time and no longer emit the same color spectrum of light as before. A UV lamp is just a clear glass tube... It strikes the arc and pours out UV spectrum which is un-modified.

FWIW I only use mine as a treatment option, not as SOP. I also use it briefly when adding new fish, even if they were in QT. Been burned by parasites once, never again

 

[GMaquarium]

These bulbs do degrade. I know this mainly from running uv on outdoor ponds. Sometimes a new bulb can fix green water issues in a pond in matter of couple days. While the old bulb was running 24/7 for months. Another thing to keep an eye on is the quartz sleeve some of the sterilizers have. Calcium and waste can build up making it opaque, obviously less direct uv light into the water passing through.

 

[SkiFletch]

Oh yeah, I've always had to clean calcium, sponges, and tube worms off my sleeve whenever I do use it (it's funny, the thing turns into a cryptic zone under normal conditions) but I guess I'm just wondering what "wears out" on them?

 

[tmz]

I have 4 of them. I haven't changed the bulbs since they have not been used in over 4 years. I used them in desperate misguided efforts at disease control in the past and had one on each display. I took them off line since I decided I didn't wan't to kill anymore bacterio plankton.
I did hook a 39 watt set up to the 29 gallon quarantine tank with a large aquaclear powerhead recently. I ws ,hoping it was large enough to deliver lethal doses of radiation to any parasites hanging about that were drawn through it. It overheats the tank unfortunately.

It's good to know bulb replacement is overstated by manufacture's and not surprising as it falls in line with over statements about their overall utility in reef tanks ,imo and experience.