Skimmer to UV

[oz]

Planning on hooking up my upgraded skimmer (thanks Alan) and larger 40G fuge.....any issues with running the output of your skimmer into a UV? I can't see why this would be an issue but before I start the re-plumbing, I figured I'd ask the gurus.

The UV will be mounted horizontally unless I need to go vertical for some reason.

 

[roland jacques]

Skimmer discharge is by gravity. So the water leaving your skimmer wont have any pressure, and if your UV is the slightest bit restrictive your skimmer wont drain properly. ( most UVs are a little bit restrictive so unless you get creative, it wont work) you can however run your skimmer water going to your skimmer through your UV first (assuming you aren't using a insump skimmer)

 

[sprayin70]

Hey Chris. I have seen people run the skimmer feed pump through the UV then to the skimmer.

 

[oz]

I think I can make the UV to skimmer work. I was going to have the skimmer drain 4 feet high and use gravity for over 2 feet to feed the UV then drain another 2 feet down to the chiller.

so you can have much back pressure on the skimmer drain, that make sense. I'll figure something out (I hope).


Thanks for the input.

 

[jeff_mcphail]

:unsure: sounds like a recipe for a wet mess if you ask me.

 

[george]

Interesting idea, but very dependent on what kind of skimmer and how it's designed. If the water flow is too high going into the skimmer, you could see lowered UV efficiency because of high flow. The other possible problem would be if the water flowing through has a high bubble content which would cut down on the efficiency of your UV by diffusing and refracting the light.

 

[george]

Agreed. Since the input for a recirculating skimmer is right around the flow you want through a UV sterilizer, I'd say that's a great idea.

Come to think of it, it's an outstanding idea. My big problem with UV in the past has been that it kills some of the live foods I've wanted to keep in the water column (to cut down on artificial feeding). However the stuff that goes into the skimmer will be mostly lost anyway, so killing it on the way in is a much lesser concern. I think I'll put my UV back on for my next tank.

 

[oz]

killing then skimming was my idea, i have the skimmer emptying to my fuge so I would be good regardless but having 1 pump push to the 2 devices is efficient. thanks guys.

 

[xyzpdq0121]

I do not know if this has been said before (I did not read ALL the posts but I can see on BIG problem with UV to skimmer or skimmer to UV, Flow rate. Unless you are using a HUGE UV, the flow rate from the skimmer pump is going to be WAY too much for the UV to do anything. Flow through a UV has to be very slow. To give you an idea, on my turbo twist 3 I run about 50-75 gal an hour... On my 24W UV I run about 125-150. Anything more then that and you are not getting contact time to kill the things you want to.

 

[oz]

Vertically mounted 57W with input from the bottom = should be pretty slow, right?

 

[roland jacques]

<span style="color: black;">To get the best kill exposure flow should be relatively slow. But a good 57 Watt UV is a big UV and can handle a good bit of flow and still get good kill exposure. </span>
<span style="color: black;"> </span>
<span style="color: black;">For AU 57 watt UV they recommend 1066 gph to get high UV exposer (for parasites and harder to kill stuff) http://www.usakoi.com/pdf/aquauvpdf.pdf"><span style="color: #800080;">http://www.usakoi.com/pdf/aquauvpdf.pdf</span></a> </span>
<span style="color: black;">I might go 30% slower than that to compensate a little for lamp getting weaker over time... </span>
<span style="color: black;"> </span>
<span style="color: black;">I don&#8217;t know what kind of skimmer you have so im not sure your desired flow rate. But for a normal recic skimmer on a 150 gallon tank is about 300-400 GPH. They also have a minimum suggested flow rate of 675 gph. (I don&#8217;t think this is critical) I think it for Lamp operating temp issues. </span>