UV Sterlizer??

Before greebean gets a hold of this :) A UV is good for a variety of reasons. They are not that expensive and are a good tool.
 
Yep just one more tool in the hobby. Some like them some don't. In the end it comes down to personal preference.
If you're not sure I'd recommend buying used and trying one out. Even if the bulb needs replaced you can usually find new bulbs super cheap on Ebay.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12264338#post12264338 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Pmolan
Before greebean gets a hold of this :) A UV is good for a variety of reasons. They are not that expensive and are a good tool.

LOL we don't need greenbean for a different perspective

UV's have little impact on anything other then algae or phytoplankton removal.Then inexpensive ones hardly handle any of the water column in gph to be effective--the expensive ones handle more with a big price tag.

There are much more effective ways of dealing with algae , namely from the perspective that if you have algae it is probably due to high levels of phosphates and nitrates.
There are alot of things you can do to control this:
I have listed some on this thread:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1329802
 
Its just another thing to waste your money on that you dont need. PERIOD>>.......lol

ive used one for two years and i havent noticed a thing with it. It doesnt prevent ich, or other parasites becouse most uv is just not strong enough, it hasnt prevented any algae outbreaks. One thing it has done is raise my electric bill...waste of money imho
 
i had a bad phosfate problem for a year and never from day 1 did i ever have a algea bloom, i did run a uv from day 1 too. could be coincidence or the uv killed the algea spoors. maybe. maybe not but ive seen many tanks without uv and mine is cleaner lookin. food for thought.
 
UV can be useful temporarily for phytoplankton and bacterial blooms. In some tanks, it seems to help make the water a bit more clear. Other than that, it doesn't seem useful, and I have never bought a unit.
 
If you have coral/anenomes is it ok to have a UV? Does it kill the nutrients in the water for them?
 
It doesn't do much to the water except kill bacteria and other small microbes that pass through it, for the most part. It won't hurt an anemone or coral.
 
Aquarist's who did not have success with UV probably used it incorrectly. Follow the guidelines for flow and wattage in Aquatic Systems Engineering. Yes, it will kill crypto and oodinium (parasites) in the free floating stages if set up properly.
 
I haven't seen any reason to believe that it'll kill larger parasites, and it doesn't seem to phase marine ich.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12264717#post12264717 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by 2006
Aquarist's who did not have success with UV probably used it incorrectly. Follow the guidelines for flow and wattage in Aquatic Systems Engineering. Yes, it will kill crypto and oodinium (parasites) in the free floating stages if set up properly.

Do you have links to substantiated data on it killing ich--very intersted in reading.
 
Before greebean gets a hold of this...
Stop me if you've heard this one before...:)
Actually, to answer the original question, sure in most cases I think having a UV is better than not. However, I don't think the associated cost and maintenance usually justify the benefit.

There's lots of good lit showing that sterilizers are very effective at killing larger parasites and if set up properly can have almost a 100% kill rate for what passes through. The problem with using them for parasite control on recirculating systems is everything that happens in between passes through the sterilizer. The biggest one being that the volume of "clean" water in the system is always smaller than the volume of "unclean." No matter how you set them up, under ideal conditions the best you can hope for is a reduction in target organisms, not elimination. In the real world though, things like short planktonic periods and non-random movement prevent you from ever getting near the theoretical reduction. Often in studies the reduction isn't even measurable.

Their main benefit is nutrient control, not parasite control.
 
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