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I'm needing and looking to buy a uv light. any reef store/website are asking $250+, beat has them for $75 for ponds. can i go this rough? seems to me they would do the same thing
uv sterilizer
- Thread starter oryansreef
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All UV treatments are not the same and it really depends on what your reason is for the UV. UV can sterilize (kill or eliminate reproduction) lots of stuff in your tank, some of which are beneficial. There is a great write up by another member on one of our forums, but I cannot seem to find it now.
The intensity and amount of time exposed are key factors. There are two critical ranges, the higher one that kills theronts and trophonts (ich) seems to be the most important one. The sterilization only works on the portion flowing by the UV with enough intensity and time, so it is not a catch all to kill all parasites but can greatly reduce them.
I have an Aqua UV sterilizer that is rated at 90,000 um/cm2 for 967 gph, which happens to closely match the flow of my system. The 90,000 is what it takes to sterilize ich to the best of my recollection. I can throttle a gate valve to change the portion of flow through the UV. Maybe someone else knows where the thread is. It really was very well done.
The intensity and amount of time exposed are key factors. There are two critical ranges, the higher one that kills theronts and trophonts (ich) seems to be the most important one. The sterilization only works on the portion flowing by the UV with enough intensity and time, so it is not a catch all to kill all parasites but can greatly reduce them.
I have an Aqua UV sterilizer that is rated at 90,000 um/cm2 for 967 gph, which happens to closely match the flow of my system. The 90,000 is what it takes to sterilize ich to the best of my recollection. I can throttle a gate valve to change the portion of flow through the UV. Maybe someone else knows where the thread is. It really was very well done.
Trying to find the article... believe it's 360,000 um/cm2 for ich.
Found it... good read!
https://atlantareefclub.org/forums/topic/properly-sizing-uv-sterilizers/
https://atlantareefclub.org/forums/topic/properly-sizing-uv-sterilizers/
I am glad to have read this again myself, thanks for posting the link. It looks like I will be throttling my gate valve to run 25% of the flow through my UV instead of 100%.
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