I'm hooked. Finally got all caught up on the backlog of podcasts, since I just found these two weeks ago and now I'm craving more!!
I'm getting ready to upgrade from a 550liter reef tank to 1600liter (that'd be 150g to 425g). My system up until now has been fairly simple - halogen and T5 lighting, venturi-style protein skimmer and live rock. Supplements are made with Triple Buffer (for alkalinity) and Calcium (uh...I'm blanking right now on the exact chemical formula). My flow hasn't been optimal, but will hopefully be correct in the new tank and I've struggled with cyano. I was wondering what your opinion was on UV sterilizers and whether their needed or just an added benefit to helping control parasites and algael blooms??
Thanks for all your time and energy! Looking foward to the future!
I know u aren't asking me, but I personally wouldn't use one on a tank unless its a fish only without LR. UV kills everything both the good and bad. Maybe in a LFS they are useful where there's a high number of fish, lots of potential for pathogens, and a high turnover in livestock. But in a home aquarium, the best cure is to find what is stressing the fish and fix that problem. Best defense against parasites are to buy the best specimans possible from a reputable dealer, using a QT, keeping high water quality, and a low stress environment.
while i dont 100% agree with gwen, i think she is on the right path.
UV steralizers are very simple devices. when setup properly, they will kill everything that passes through them, both good and bad. they have there place in FO and in Reef tanks. personaly i used on my my reef tank for about 6-8 months, without issues.
my rule of thumb on a UV steralizer is, if you need one, you will know it. they are best used in tank where you haev a large bio-load and need some additional filtration, they are also best placed inline just before your Skimmer.
now they are also good to have if you run into any type of parisitic, bacterial, or algae issues. they will help eliminate the symptoms.. but as gwen stated, they will not resolve your problem and that really should be delt with.
proper QT procedures and all that are great to keep sick fish our of your tank, but what happens if a fish you have had for 6 months develops Ick, or a bacterial infection... in a FO tank, you can possible remove the fish and QT it, but in many reef tanks, getting a fish out is next to impossible.. a UV steralizer might come in handy here...
again, if you are not under a heavy bio-load, you probably dont need one. your cyno issues is probably caused by excess nitrates, and poor water flow. personaly i would address those issues first and re-evaluate. you probably dont need a UV steralizer at all.. but understanding there place and roll is good knowledge to have..
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yupz im with rob here, i use uv on my 30 gal for 2 years now with no problems. although gwen is right i dont see the harm if your tank is established. what i did notice when my 9watt uv light broke was a small algae outbreak, but it was nothing serious. any whoo my 75 gal is almost up and ready for transfer!!!!! YES! im so exited......
proper QT procedures and all that are great to keep sick fish our of your tank, but what happens if a fish you have had for 6 months develops Ick, or a bacterial infection... in a FO tank, you can possible remove the fish and QT it, but in many reef tanks, getting a fish out is next to impossible.. a UV steralizer might come in handy here...
If you maintain high water quality and a low stress environment, the chances for problems are low.
If you maintain high water quality and a low stress environment, the chances for problems are low.
My recommendation was if you had a "high bio-load", if you haev a high bio-load, its hard to maintain high water quality, and you may need the extra filtration.
for a tank that is lightly stocked, you can easily maintane a proper nutient level. but if the event that you need more filtration, then using UV or Ozone, might be an option..
again, i dont think its needed in this case, but they do have there places in all types of systems
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I think I'll try without UV then first and see how things go. Since I'll be transferring everything from the smaller tank into the larger tank and will be letting things stabilize for awhile, I can monitor my bio-load a little better and increase slowly with more fish. I think I want to get rid of a couple of my tangs as well...I think they're great algae eaters, but they're toooooo messy!
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but if the event that you need more filtration, then using UV or Ozone, might be an option..
So, what about ozone? In which event would you use ozone over UV and why? I know that it can be toxic for the fish and invertebrates if it's too much. Is ozone something difficult to maintain?
ozone in effect is similiar to UV, again, its seen by some to be a great asset in there systems, but is by no means required. its effectivness is monitored with an ORP meter, adn is usually not as dangerous ans some make it out to be.
as apose to a light, ozone is usually fed into your water in a gasious form, usually through a skimmers venturi valve of some sorts. its usualy generated on the spot, so there is no ozone container or anything like that.
again, this is probably not something you will need in the near future, but again, for educational reasons might be worth further esearch. i persoanly have not used ozone so i cant speak to its effectivness
it should be noted that you can NOT use ozone and UV and the same time, as it can cause bad things to happen..
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Does that mean that you would just have a small diversion of flow from the overflow through the UV and into the skimmer - and the rest of the overflow would proceed through the skimmer? My new setup has an overflow in the middle of the tank and I was planning on having the overflow collect in as small a volume as possible for skimmer efficiency. How would a UV best work here then? I thought that the flow through the UVs should be fairly slow in order to best kill.
yes of course you have to take the skimmer flow rate and the UV flow rate into account. in your case the flow rate may be to high for this.
when i had dont my setup, i had my skimmer and UV running out of my sump seperate from the overflow line.
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