UV Sterilizers

[D&KSac]

Hey guys ive got a question about UV sterilizers. Are there any good small ones that are decent? I lost another fish this week. After talking to Matt at exotic he was telling me i must have parasites and that i should think about getting one if im gonna keep fish. Problem is my sump is pretty full just with my return pump and my skimmer. really the only place i have to put one is in the other chamber where my heaters are. Problem with putting it there is when it needs service i have to pull out everything above it to get to that section. Any ideas? Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[MrMikeB]

David,

Do you know why you are losing fish or is the UV ideas simply a gunshot approach at the problem? I am hesitant to jump on the 'you need a UV' bandwagon unless there is good reason to believe you need one. Have you thought about running a quarantine tank and passing all your livestock through that for a couple of weeks (you can put a UV on this)? UV systems have some negative side effects for reefs in the way that they are not discriminate to zappng only the bad things in the water stream.

As for what types are good to run, there are many out there, but I think the key is to make sure your wattage is at the level needed for your tank size. For your 37 gal, a 9W UV would work well in most cases. Typically UVs are not submerged into the water stream directly. You plumb in a pump that passes the water through it back into the sump, but the actual UV stays out of the water, so if you have room for a small pump you are golden.

 

[D&KSac]

No it is just a shot in the dark. I thought maybe it was ICK but i treated for that and it seemed to not help. Some people i talk to say i need to find out whats stressing out the fish but i cant find anything doing that. I have one foxface left and he seems happy and healthy and my corals look great. I could set up a small QT tank for the fish and treat them with copper. Then maybe i wont need a UV.

 

[xia]

Don't know how good it is, but 9watts for $25.

http://www.aquatraders.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=14

 

[Nuuze]

I was also wondering how beneficial is a UV sterilizer? I don't have any algae bloom and fish are healthy for the most part, but when doing water changes I notice a slight green tint in the water in a white bucket. Are there any drawbacks that are bad?