Running U.V.?

[anthony]

Just was wondering. It seems to me that running a UV all the time is bad for the system. A lot of times we need them in cases where we have an outbreak like ich.. would it not make more sense just to rent these things for a couple of weeks kind of like a par meter? Maybe we could get one for the group and Loan /rent it out? I don't know if that's a good idea or not just looking to see what other people think?

 

[civics14]

 

[anthony]

Could you be a little more specific on why that's a bad idea?

 

[anthony]

That's what I thought!

 

[wantsummora acropora]

I’ve been running UV for 4 years now. I’m still green at this but it seems by my limited experience, you won’t get the results you are looking for on such a short term basis. UV is more of a control or maintenance device not a cure so your issue will probably return once you stop. I use to run UV all the time and it does prevent some good bacteria and micro stuff from thriving but that would depend on how you use it also. while I have seen ich on my fish early on, I haven’t seen any ich in over three years and that’s despite my tank crash and my two tangs stressing from spiking each other constantly. The ich is undoubtedly still there, I just had it on a super UV smack down.
Cross contamination from whatever you are trying to get under control would be another issue, device maintenance, who is liable if the device fails and you get electrocuted. A good half a dozen or more.

 

[anthony]

I’ve been running UV for 4 years now. I’m still green at this but it seems by my limited experience, you won’t get the results you are looking for on such a short term basis. UV is more of a control or maintenance device not a cure so your issue will probably return once you stop. I use to run UV all the time and it does prevent some good bacteria and micro stuff from thriving but that would depend on how you use it also. while I have seen ich on my fish early on, I haven’t seen any ich in over three years and that’s despite my tank crash and my two tangs stressing from spiking each other constantly. The ich is undoubtedly still there, I just had it on a super UV smack down.
Cross contamination from whatever you are trying to get under control would be another issue, device maintenance, who is liable if the device fails and you get electrocuted. A good half a dozen or more.

Thank you for putting out there a good explanation. I agree with what you said but still you admit the same thing I said which it's not good to run u.v. constantly but to do so either during times when you're having problems or on and off to keep from having problems.. from what I've read and experienced in the past running a u.v. constantly without a break can be detrimental to corals and at the very least slow their growth.. but they are definitely a good defense for disease and pest like ich.. once again thanks for the explanation and I do appreciate your input.

 

[wantsummora acropora]

Your welcome, but also know sometimes you have to make tradeoffs depending on your situation. Running endless UV when you have a cyano, bacteria or algae blooms can be your best friend while your corals may not thrive they will be ok until you get your issue under control. Having it installed and ready to go at the start of my build to me was a no brainer because I knew I was going to have the above issues and I wanted to get through them as quickly as possible and be ready WHEN they surface again.

 

[enderg60]

Short answer no. Renting a unit to treat an ongoing outbreak of ich will not help anything. It will however keep the parasite population down to lessen the possibility of another outbreak.

They are good for controlling populations of stuff you dont want from getting high enough to be a problem. What it kills depends on how powerful the unit is.

 

[NAS]

I leave mine running 24/7. I know a lot of people disagree with that but it’s worked for me.

 

[sumtingwong]

dont get UV sterilizer and UV light confused. the light itself can be harmful to corals, but a sterilizer is usually contained separate from corals.

 

[anthony]

Short answer no. Renting a unit to treat an ongoing outbreak of ich will not help anything. It will however keep the parasite population down to lessen the possibility of another outbreak.

They are good for controlling populations of stuff you dont want from getting high enough to be a problem. What it kills depends on how powerful the unit is.

Thank you for the reply it is great to hear for educational purposes. I don't claim to know everything about UV because I've only used them a couple of times but I have read that most cases a UV can eradicate it in 8 weeks. This is the reason why I pondered and proposed the question. I spent a lot of money on a pae meter and as you know they are great to have but once you measure out the par of your lights they just kind of sit around not doing much.. which is the reason I proposed the whole situation with the UV. And if you're only using it to treat ich that is temporary. Providing of course that you've got all the fish in your aquarium that you're going to add. However I'm seeing by what you in a few others are saying that a lot of people use it for other purposes. Which in that case I understand would be better just to keep connected and running. Thanks once again for the reply and I hope you have a blessed day Anthony

 

[anthony]

Thank you for the reply it is great to hear for educational purposes. I don't claim to know everything about UV because I've only used them a couple of times but I have read that most cases a UV can eradicate it in 8 weeks. This is the reason why I pondered and proposed the question. I spent a lot of money on a pae meter and as you know they are great to have but once you measure out the par of your lights they just kind of sit around not doing much.. which is the reason I proposed the whole situation with the UV. And if you're only using it to treat ich that is temporary. Providing of course that you've got all the fish in your aquarium that you're going to add. However I'm seeing by what you in a few others are saying that a lot of people use it for other purposes. Which in that case I understand would be better just to keep connected and running. Thanks once again for the reply and I hope you have a blessed day Anthony

That should have said par meter but my phone likes to correct me

 

[wantsummora acropora]

Your welcome Anthony. To be clear, UV doesn’t eradicate anything. It just kills or damages things that flow through them, meaning it will only affect what’s in the water column. What’s on the fish, rocks, substrate or even on invertebrates will not be affected. Another reason I installed UV., you really can’t affectively quarantine inverts which can and do harbor ich. I don’t worry about ich or bacteria due to UV use but my method does little to stop other diseases from entering without quarantine.

 

[anthony]

Your welcome Anthony. To be clear, UV doesn’t eradicate anything. It just kills or damages things that flow through them, meaning it will only affect what’s in the water column. What’s on the fish, rocks, substrate or even on invertebrates will not be affected. Another reason I installed UV., you really can’t affectively quarantine inverts which can and do harbor ich. I don’t worry about ich or bacteria due to UV use but my method does little to stop other diseases from entering without quarantine.

We thanks again for the information.. I just bought a 40 watt for a 65 gallon .. what would be your suggestion on how you would run it given this setup?

 

[wantsummora acropora]

A 40w for a 65 Gallon?!! lol. That’s a lot of UV for the tank. I have a 40w Pentair for a 150 gallon tank and that’s more than what I need. Your challenge will be in tuning the UV for a specific task I.e. algae and cyano control vs bacteria and disease. The two groups require different UV contact times. Due to the size of your UV, you may end up killing everything that flows through it including the good stuff you were concerned about earlier. I consider myself the king of overkill but in some cases, like this I think, overkill can be detrimental. I’m not an expert so fact check me on that.

 

[anthony]

A 40w for a 65 Gallon?!! lol. That’s a lot of UV for the tank. I have a 40w Pentair for a 150 gallon tank and that’s more than what I need. Your challenge will be in tuning the UV for a specific task I.e. algae and cyano control vs bacteria and disease. The two groups require different UV contact times. Due to the size of your UV, you may end up killing everything that flows through it including the good stuff you were concerned about earlier. I consider myself the king of overkill but in some cases, like this I think, overkill can be detrimental. I’m not an expert so fact check me on that.

Ok.. I'm gonna have to consider running it only periodically.. I plan on upgrading to 120 or 150 soon so I picked it up for that purpose..

 

[wantsummora acropora]

Ahh, good planning. I’m going to try one week per month and see how that works. I would recommend you do a microbiome test. They are expensive but will tell you what’s in your system at the microbe level, what you are lacking, what bad stuff is present, what you will potentially be killing, etc.. If you have (or build) a healthy, diverse microbiome that also helps stave off bad microbes and other problems.

 

[enderg60]

A 40w uv on a 65g is NOT overkill. My QT systems are 75 gallon tanks with 80w UV's.

I constantly tell people a 40w UV is a minimum size if you actually want to kill anything more than algae. In order to kill ich you need a flow rate of around 100 GPH on a 40w UV. Thats decent for tanks under 100g, but anything larger and its not going to process water fast enough to be effective.

With a "large" uv you can turn the flow down to kill EVERYTHING, or you can turn it up to just zap algae and bacterial blooms.

At the end of the day, its just another piece of equipment to help clean your water. Just like you dont actually need a skimmer, or a fuge, they have their place and can be very useful.

 

[bcampbe-1]

I recently added UV to my system to manage ich outbreak. I'm unable to QT current or future fish population. I will be using 24/7. The trade off is minimal in order to control ich.

 

[anthony]

A 40w uv on a 65g is NOT overkill. My QT systems are 75 gallon tanks with 80w UV's.

I constantly tell people a 40w UV is a minimum size if you actually want to kill anything more than algae. In order to kill ich you need a flow rate of around 100 GPH on a 40w UV. Thats decent for tanks under 100g, but anything larger and its not going to process water fast enough to be effective.

With a "large" uv you can turn the flow down to kill EVERYTHING, or you can turn it up to just zap algae and bacterial blooms.

At the end of the day, its just another piece of equipment to help clean your water. Just like you dont actually need a skimmer, or a fuge, they have their place and can be very useful.

I've read the same thing. In fact the guy who wrote the article I saw said he would never go lower than 40 watts because anything less is inefficient