Wtb: Uv Sterilizer

seth16

seth16

New member
The person i was goign to buy from doesnt want to negotiate a place to meet, so it was called off. I need one, and i think it maybe help control my algae bloom even if it is only a little. Please let me know if you have one or know where i can get one cheap (under $50) other than ebay (all they have is Jebo Crap)

Thank you
 
Im sure there are lots of other opinions but I think your money would be better spent on something else. with good QT and keeping your parameters right a UV sterilizer shouldnt be needed. spend that money on a beefier skimmer, extra rock or even salt at this point in the game.
 
seth... since i got my uv i have noticed SUBSTANIAL amount of decrease in algae also the kind on my sand. but i would never have bought one. Mac gave the uv to me. The reason i run it is because i have 2 tangs and a heavy bioload. but i never would have bought onje
 
They really aren't that neccisary if you don't mind scraping glass every once in a while, and some UV sterilizers won't even get that stuff off your glass, but if you are looking for a UV still, JBJ has one with a built in pump, I know that the fishbowl carrys them think its around 65 or 70 for the 5 watt and 75 or 80 for the 7 watt. Its basically a powerhead with a UV sterilizer, adjustable flow and stuff.
 
I've never looked into one, but have always been under the impression that they do more harm than good in reef tanks. They may control nuisance algae, and parasites such as ich, but I have read that they also kill a lot of good nutrients, and small creatures (such as pods) that are beneficial to the reef.

They are supposedly great for keeping fish only tanks healthy, though...
 
they will kill pods, which is why if you have one you need it before your refugium or up in midwater (not near the rocks) to minimize pod genecide.
 
wow

wow

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9538826#post9538826 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Stoney Mahony
5-7 watts is not going to do much for a 75gal+ tank :(. Read through this short link of Uv sterilization and hopefully you will have a better understanding on how to correctly size a UV for your tank. The worst thing to do is to buy something b/c someone told you it would work without understanding why it will work. :)
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1010554
Click to expand...

This isn't exactly correct, with general UVs that you hook up to your return or whatever its entirely correct, the thing is the bigger your tank the more GPH you run on your return the stronger your UV needs to be to be effective, but if you have a UV running on a seperate pump at slow/slower speeds then really it doesn't have to be all that large of a wattage, granted the stronger the wattage the faster your initial clearing but after that initial break in you are really overkilling. The JBJs like I mentioned in my first post, the 5 watt is rated for a 40 gal tank and the 7 watt for a 75 gal tank, due to the fact that they run from something like 75gph to 150gph. I really only mention the JBJ because I haven't heard of any other company combining their UVs with Powerheads, a really great and effiecent idea I think. I started running my 7 watt on my 120 just earlier this afternoon and I already see great results, also I know fish bowl runs a 9 watt on their 400 gal show tank and it runs pretty damn well for them. Plus you have to keep in mind to get rid of stuff like ich you really need to be running the water through the UV pretty slow to maximize contact and really kill it off, I heard somewhere something like 2 gpm or 120gph. Just stuff to keep in mind.
 
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I've been running a sterilizer for quite some time, and would never go without it.
After hooking it up, I saw a huge diffrence in the clearity of my water. Haven't had an algae bloom since hooking it up.
No problems with bacterial or paracitic infections.
I have TONS of pods.

In order for a UV to kill pods, you would have to run your pump rediculiously slow and/or have a very high wattage light.

My $.02
 
Re: wow

Re: wow

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9542424#post9542424 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jsl6v8
This isn't exactly correct, with general UVs that you hook up to your return or whatever its entirely correct, the thing is the bigger your tank the more GPH you run on your return the stronger your UV needs to be to be effective, but if you have a UV running on a seperate pump at slow/slower speeds then really it doesn't have to be all that large of a wattage, granted the stronger the wattage the faster your initial clearing but after that initial break in you are really overkilling. The JBJs like I mentioned in my first post, the 5 watt is rated for a 40 gal tank and the 7 watt for a 75 gal tank, due to the fact that they run from something like 75gph to 150gph. I really only mention the JBJ because I haven't heard of any other company combining their UVs with Powerheads, a really great and effiecent idea I think. I started running my 7 watt on my 120 just earlier this afternoon and I already see great results, also I know fish bowl runs a 9 watt on their 400 gal show tank and it runs pretty damn well for them. Plus you have to keep in mind to get rid of stuff like ich you really need to be running the water through the UV pretty slow to maximize contact and really kill it off, I heard somewhere something like 2 gpm or 120gph. Just stuff to keep in mind.
Click to expand...

Please read the link I posted to understand the logic behind properly sizing a UV for your tank. I will try to explain this to you. When running a uv, you should always have a gate or ball valve to adjust the flow through the sterilizer...you should never just run your hole return through the UV b/c you want to filter the water before it enters the uv so it doesnt gunk it up and there is no way to control the flow rate. The reason you don't use a small UV on a large tank is b/c you want the total volume of water to pass through roughly 1x per hour at the desired killing rate. I looked at 5 different web sites that show these JBJ 5w and 7w and none of them show the kill rates of the bulbs. They should have some rating in micro watts that shows the strength of the bulb so that you know what it can kill and what it cant. From reading the descriptions, they look like they are trying to promise you everything from using there product without giving you any facts. 9w on 400gallons is no good and will not kill ICH. You said that you heard you have to run water through a UV at 120gph to kill Ich but with what wattage bulb and what intensity is that bulb? There is a whole lot more to it than just bringing down the flow rate. Ich specifically takes 336,000 microwatts/cm2 to kill which is a whole lota UV. If you can find the microwatt rating for the JBJ's I would be glad to lay out the facts on that UV for you. Again, please see other link b/c it will explain alot more and I posted a few examples. Hope this helps :)
 
The JBJ's are the compact uv bulbs, like the coralife ones. It is a great idea though not needing an additional pump for an external uv (again, like the turbo twists). It's actually a new product that makes sense.
 
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