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do people only use these for marine setups or for tropical setups too?

People use UV for both marine and fresh water set-ups. The UV is effective in reducing or eliminating pathogens and algae.

__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
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I heard that the UV will also kill the bio filtration aswell. I could be wrong though.

Hi,
If it is "alive" and floats in the water through
the UV assembly, then the UV light will kill it.
It's used to kill off bacteria, diseases (including
free swimming Ich) and even algae in either salt or
fresh water tanks.

Frank

-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

They are often used for several hours per day on systems where the water is shared between many fishtanks. I have rarely seen them used on individual FW tanks unless they were very large, or housing very touchy fish.



For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

as for the killing off of biofiltration, most of the bacteria that is responsible for filtering the tank are situated in a biofilm that is attatched to pretty much anything in the tank, but mainly concentrating on the filter media and the gravel, and very little is free swimming, so the effect is negligible.

Well, I guess that ansewrs that question. Thanks for clarifying that up for me. Might not be a bad idea for me to try a UV on my 55gal.

If you do, do not run it constantly try about 4hrs a day.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

I disagree with you Cally i run a UV sterilizer on my 125 uk gallon tank permanently it has been running like this since i had a small bout of ich and not only have i had not one problem since, the water stays clearer due to no algae suspension in the water ,which used to happen before.

Gibson SG you know you want one!!

pity the setup cost from what ive seen for sale is so high as it has huge advantages. Algae control in a planted tank wow that would be cool not to mention keeping nasties at bay for the sensitive species! i might look into it although my tank is not huge it would still be worth using by the sounds of it. thanks for input guys/girls

Thats cool K

The reason I said not constantly is probably because the main people I know of that use it are breeders, and if you run it constantly with young fish, they are never exposed to the pathogens and never develop resistance to them, so when you sell them, or transfer them to tanks without UV sterilisation, some fish just up and die because they cannot handle the small amount of pathogens that are naturally in most water.

I am unsure how this affects adult fish, but I'd say that keeping them in a somewhat sterile environment would, over time, weaken their immune systems. This really only becomes a concern if you move the fish from one tank to another, sell the fish, or forget to replace the UV light, otherwise its neither here nor there.

I think there was an article on it in TFH or PFK a while back, and it said that for algae control (when you aren't dealing with pea soup I'll guess) it only needed to be on a few hours a day.

I dunno, I just figure that if you aren't 100% certain that you can replace lights, run lights, keep fish in uv for life, or nurse them through that "ack! bugs!" thing they do when you put them in normal water, its probably safer to not run it 24/7 to give them a chance to build up natural resistance. Most important when they are young, but I tend to think its important as adults too.

I'm glad its working well for you though, did you find that the ich was easier to get rid of with the UV? Often wondered how well it works for the free-swimming stage...

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Ich never returned to this day, but i am lucky enough to have a vortex diatom filter as well which when used would macerate protozoa as well as doing an unbelievable job on water clarity.I have also noticed with the uv running that fish injuries like eye or fin damage from bumping into things when chasing or fighting each other heal very quickly with no meds added.

Gibson SG you know you want one!!

I use a 25W UV sterilizer in my 40gal tank. I run it all the time. Within the first 24 hour after installing it, the water is very clear. I also have Eheim Pro II 2028 and Marineland Emperor 400.

This UV tube seems to have the coiling/helical, I'm not sure if this is a directional or not. I put it in the reverse as the manual suggest for the flow because it would be the easiest set up. I have to wait for the manufacturer to reply.

Last edited by gudel at 25-Nov-2005 16:53