Does anyone use UV sterilizer?

[JeffL]

Does anyone here use UV sterilizer in your reef tank? Just want to understand if this is good for fighting ich.

[klim]

It will kill all the good and bad bacteria or organism that flow through the UV. It does help to stable the water but it may not kill all the ich as it may still be in the main DT and fishes body.

[klim]

Jeff, I have a UV, you can borrow to try out if you have not purchase. Whatsapp me.

[JeffL]

Thanks bro!! :D

[Guest]

UV will works if the correct size is being used for combating Ich outbreak . UV is commonly used in aqua farming to control diseases for fishes.

[JeffL]

UV will works if the correct size is being used for combating Ich outbreak . UV is commonly used in aqua farming to control diseases for fishes.

Is there any way of calculating what is the proper size for effective sterilization?

Did some reading on the thoughts of using UV on a reef tank. There are pros and cons but most are concern UV may kill the good baterias too.

[Guest]

The sizing actually depend on the types of UV / brand which you used. The most effective one i feel is the UV with "Spiral" design which provide greater contact time to kill the ICH (or other microorganism) passing through it. In general, the intensity of the UV is measure in Micro-watts of energy per second over a certain area (Sq CM) uWs/CM2 . More information can be found on this link here ; http://enaqua.com/en.../what-is-uv.pdf

There has been alot of discussion around the internet over the pro and cons of using a UV in a system i.e killing the good bacteria ect which might be true but we cant measure bacteria count with any test kit so it is hard to judge also.. I would set a timer to run my UV every night where the free floating ich would be most active .

[klim]

No problem Jeff. Hope it helps.

[JeffL]

I like to add that UV only kills free floating organism that is being pumped thru the unit. Those beneficial bacterial that have already attached themselves onto surfaces and medias like biohome should be safe from that.

this is what i read online, experts here may want to comment further

[klim]

Jeff, I think true, all the Bacteria are residing on sand bed or bio home. No time to gloat around. Lol