UV Sterilizer Recommendations

[Swank1987]

I intend on purchasing a UV sterilizer to help prevent/mitigate disease on my fish such as ick, etc.

I have a 80 gallon total system tank (68 display).

Which UV do you recommend and what flow rate for disease control would you suggest?

 

[msporleder]

It really depends on how/where you want to mount it.

25-30W is what you would buy for dinos so that's probably a good rule of thumb.

 

[Swank1987]

It really depends on how/where you want to mount it.

25-30W is what you would buy for dinos so that's probably a good rule of thumb.

Thanks for the info. Any brand recommendations?

I’d prefer to mount it in line with my return pump (Vectra M2) but I think my return pump has too much flow for the UV to be effective.

Sump space is limited but I can mount an external. It would require another pump though.

 

[sharis100]

I prefer Pentair. But Aqua UV is good brand as well. Lifeguard is another choice. If you look online you can see specs of each brand and product. You can mount upright or perpendicular- but make sure you can change the bulb as needed easily when placing unit. Also consider when you want to run it - I only run my units for set number of hours per day. Running in line can work depending on brand, you can also run parallel and restrict flow. Remember you will be killing beneficial life as well when setting up your flow rate and timing.

 

[Swank1987]

I prefer Pentair. But Aqua UV is good brand as well. Lifeguard is another choice. If you look online you can see specs of each brand and product. You can mount upright or perpendicular- but make sure you can change the bulb as needed easily when placing unit. Also consider when you want to run it - I only run my units for set number of hours per day. Running in line can work depending on brand, you can also run parallel and restrict flow. Remember you will be killing beneficial life as well when setting up your flow rate and timing.

Thanks for the info. I’ll research each of those brands.

I’ve read that for disease control you want a slower flow so I’m leaning away from putting inline with my return pump (although aesthetically I would prefer it).

Should I offset the time I run my UV with the time my lights run to counterbalance like recommended in refugiums?

 

[sharis100]

I offset and run my UV opposite of my lights but shorter timing since I maintain a lot of pods in my systems.