UV sterilizer with reef tank and refugium

[frdagaa]

I know there are lots of opinions on whether a UV sterilizer is really that helpful on a reef tank. Especially with a refugium set-up, where you'd be killing off some of the beneficial things you hope the refugium is creating for you.

If I had a mature reef set-up that was already stabilized nicely, I probably wouldn't be interested. But I'm just starting a 90 gal reef (theoretically with refugium), and don't mind spending $$$ now to avoid headaches later. I can afford it. The threads that talk about algae blooms, difficult to eradicate algae, and of course various fish diseases have me worried...

So should I put in a UV unit? I'd make sure it was a good one that was plumbed correctly to have appropriate flow rates, etc.

 

[gmpolan]

<span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: Verdana">I think mine has helped sig. as i have alot of tangs but as you noted, it has def played a role with the size of my pods/rots in my display. Personally id rather have a smaller population of those than constantly have fish with ich or something else that could have been prevented. Here is a good write up of properly sizing uvs and flow...</span></span>

 

[skriz]

frdagaa;683039 wrote: so should i put in a uv unit? I'd make sure it was a good one that was plumbed correctly to have appropriate flow rates, etc.

<span style="font-size: 17px">yes!</span>


A properly sized, high-output UV will do wonders for your system.