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.

 

[msporleder]

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?

For disease I think you really want the UV drawing directly from the display - sumps don't have fish to host the parasites.

 

[gill]

Aqua UV is awesome.

 

[Cali Callaghan]

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?

Personally, I like redundancy. I have two 300 gph powerhead UVs as backup. I have two 400 gph UV powerheads and I use one in my 80 gallon system. If I'm gonna do a big clean up, I install a second 400 gph stir it up and let the foam filters get most the grime. They are easy to pull out and reinstall after you clean foam blocks and that process too is fast and easy. Boosting UV exposure is a great way to help drive up ORP. YOu can also use the air intakes on these UV powerheads to inject air into the tank which also raises ORP. Today I just rigged a new high volume inline UV filter. It is 55 Watts and rated for thousands of gallon per hour. I will be pushing it with an Iwaki 750 gph that pushes water through the NuClear cannister and then through the UV filter and back into the subgravel (reverse flow). The head pressure effectively reduces the flow through rate to about 600 gph. Hence the need for the UV powerhead which increase tank turbulence--very important for air turnover. Tomorrow I change out the filter media, do a 30% water change and install the new UV filter. I expect it will fry the dissolved organics and raise ORP. I'll let you know how it goes.