UV Sterlization

[ellebelle]

I have read many different views about the use of a UV sterilizer on tanks. The people who oppose it tend to oppose it on the grounds that a UV will kill the good bacteria along with the bad bacteria. And while that may be true, I have heard enough talks now to make me think that doesn't matter. My understanding is that most of the good bacteria in our tanks is concentrated around the corals and to a lesser extent the rocks and sand. If it is not free floating, it will not be killed by the UV sterilizer.

With that thinking, I added a UV to my tank about a week ago. In the last week, I have noticed two things that have happened to my tank:

1) there has been a marked decrease in the amount of cyanobacteria in my tank. I've been fighting a bit with the cyano recently, and it is definitely reducing.

2) there has been an explosion of isopods in my tank. They are everywhere. I have to scrape them off of my glass in the mornings. I have a fat fat mandarin.

While I can understand why this seems to have caused my cyano to decrease, I can't figure out how it would have affected my pod population. Do you think it's just a coincidence?

 

[ari5736]

I have read many different views about the use of a UV sterilizer on tanks. The people who oppose it tend to oppose it on the grounds that a UV will kill the good bacteria along with the bad bacteria. And while that may be true, I have heard enough talks now to make me think that doesn't matter. My understanding is that most of the good bacteria in our tanks is concentrated around the corals and to a lesser extent the rocks and sand. If it is not free floating, it will not be killed by the UV sterilizer.

I have a UV sitting around that I am thinking about adding to my tank for nuking bacteria, to keep sps disease free. Can you point me in the direction of where you heard that it does not matter that good bacteria will be killed along with the bad.

Thank you.

 

[ellebelle]

My point is that good bacteria won't be killed - or at least, not a lot of it - because the vast majority of the good bacteria is not free floating. I can't remember where I read it, but Shaun (ShaunW on this board) has talked about it before in his talks and Ken Feldman reiterated that point on Sunday during his talk.

 

[jhale]

As ShuanW's experiments proved there is very little good bacteria in our tanks water column. what the corals need they are forced to make on thier own. Given that I see no problem running the largest UV filter you want to.

 

[h20 freak]

As ShuanW's experiments proved there is very little good bacteria in our tanks water column. what the corals need they are forced to make on thier own. Given that I see no problem running the largest UV filter you want to.

My point is that good bacteria won't be killed - or at least, not a lot of it - because the vast majority of the good bacteria is not free floating. I can't remember where I read it, but Shaun (ShaunW on this board) has talked about it before in his talks and Ken Feldman reiterated that point on Sunday during his talk.

+2, something about free floating bacteria being eliminated quickly anyway,or maybe it wasn't a "comfortable"life for the little guys...idk but I agree with these guys:lol:

 

[rgun2515]

I can say this.

When I started my tank, I started it using a 25w UV. Never had cyanobacteria. A few weeks ago, my bulb burnt out and it took 2 weeks to get a new one. In this time, cyanobacteria took over my tank. Almost 30% of the sand was covered. I even had it in my sump. All tested fine. About a week ago, I hooked up the UV again. Today, after using the UV for a week+, there is no cyanobacteria.

In my 90 FOWLR, I saw the same results. I would not run a tank with out one.

IMO, it's best to run UV.

Regarding the Pods. Maybe the quality of the water is higher now with your UV and they are reproducing faster?...

 

[ihatefish]

i was think of getting one and so many people called me crazy, i would like 2 read over some papers about it before getting it though.

 

[reefs4life]

From personal experience I think UV sterilizers work wonders and are definitely a good investment for your tank

I had a similar situation to that of rgun2515's....the ballast to my UV sterilizer blew out and it took me a good month to get a new one. I had some yellow polyps in the tank and a few brown and green palys and a little while after the bulb blew out they wouldn't open. I gave some yellow polyps to my friend and they did fine in his tank so there was nothing wrong with the coral. I checked my parameters and all was perfect so I couldn't understand what was wrong. A couple days ago I fixed my UV light and everything began to open again the day after.

The first speaker at the swap yesterday also explained that there is a close relationship between the quantity of bacteria around a coral and the coral itself. I'm assuming I had a large amount of bacteria around the polyps and palys that weren't opening and now that the UV is back in action, it is balancing the amount of bacteria in my tank

 

[Domboski]

Hmmmm. I haven't thought about it much but since I put the UV back on my reef tank and my local tank I haven't had any Cyano :scratch:

I always recommend a UV. It is a good safety measure. You can find some more discussion on this topic here: UV Sterilizer

 

[Keith P]

Any thoughts on UV dependencies?

 

[JLAudio]

I also added an old UV sterilizer to my new 125 gallon tank. Its only a 4 watt Angstrom, rated for only 75. However it seems to be helping out with algae or diatom blooms. This is a large upgrade from my 54 and added alot of new water and sand. a good 40 gallons of the water came from treated tap water so I was preparing (and still am) for a algae break out, but I think a combination of water changes, running a diatom filter, phos reactor and UV Sterilizer are keeping it in check, even with running 250 watts of T5 lighting 12 hrs a day and I am about 10 days into it so usually I would have began developing algae, and other unsightly plant life bacteria by now. Fingers crossed and think UV has alot to do with it

 

[ellebelle]

4 watt is very small. You probably don't have the ability to kill much more than algae with that. It's important that you are able to turn your tank water over at least once per hour with the proper flow rate to kill various "stuff" in the water. At 25w on a 75 gallon tank, I have a flow rate of about 90gph. That is slow enough to kill all bacteria and parasites but fast enough to turn over my tank water. If I had a tank over over 90g, I would go to an even higher UV wattage.

 

[Domboski]

Here is some input from Emperor Aquatics on the topic:

"Hey Dominick,

Thanks for passing this along. Based on the discussion I read through I can tell you without any debate that your beneficial bacteria colonies will not be hurt by adding a UV sterilizer. The only time I would not recommend using UV is on an initial tank start up. Once your tank has been established 4 – 6 weeks, using test kits to make sure you show no signs of any ammonia or nitrite, you can add the UV in. The ammonia eating and nitrite eating bacteria will not become free swimming once they have established themselves on a surface. Can’t really offer you anything regarding the pod explosion, but can tell you the cynobacteria drop is probably due in part to water born bacteria being eliminated and most uv lamps provide small concentrations of ozone. Our units do not as it isn’t really needed and it hurts the effectiveness of the lamps over the course of 9000 hours. Even though cynobacteria grows on the surfaces of your tank, it at some stage before it establishes itself, is free swimming I believe. The long and short of it is that UV will never hurt an established aquarium in any way and can only help your corals open up.

Corals are susceptible to bacterial issues inside home aquariums. This is another form of poor water quality. Most reefers think that if they show no ammonia, nitrite or nitrate and they have high levels of your basic elements that it is a slam dunk the corals will look like they do in the open oceans. This simply is not the case. You are seeing proof just in the 12 posts on your site.

Thanks for the opportunity to speak on this."

 

[JLAudio]

4 watt is very small. You probably don't have the ability to kill much more than algae with that. It's important that you are able to turn your tank water over at least once per hour with the proper flow rate to kill various "stuff" in the water. At 25w on a 75 gallon tank, I have a flow rate of about 90gph. That is slow enough to kill all bacteria and parasites but fast enough to turn over my tank water. If I had a tank over over 90g, I would go to an even higher UV wattage.

My thoughts are that it would still help, yes its only rated for 75 gallons, but its at a real slow flow, so I figure anything that passes it will still have the same effect and die. I wouldnt think this would be great for someone with an outbreak but I dont see how it could be anything but benificial. We will see in the future I guess

 

[JLAudio]

I also found a link stating how some models of UV sterilizers use less watts to have same effectiveness

Here was there explanation:
The table at the right compares several manufacturer's recommendations, which vary considerably. The wattage recommended by Emperor Aquatics are dramatically higher because they apply a 0.45 absorption coefficient factor for water clarity, factor in a 20% transmittance reduction for the quartz sleeve into the formula, and represent the lamp's operating performance when new and at the end of useful life (60%). This compensates for loss of UV radiation traveling through turbid green water and the sleeve's glass, while also taking into account lower efficiencies of older bulbs

This is the link that compares a few models:
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=16+2148&aid=2855

 

[Domboski]

Good post JL! It all depends on your motives.

 

[kigs]

I'm considering adding a 9W Turbotwister for my combined ~110gal. Does anyone have any recommendations on which manufacturer to choose when purchasing one?

 

[Malibu361]

I like Aqua UV very nice piece ..and you can get an optinal wiper to clean it ...

 

[Keith P]

This is the link that compares a few models:
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=16+2148&aid=2855

Great read. Thank you!

 

[henrystyle]

I have read the entire thread and now I'm gonna add my 2 cents. lol
For those who were using a UV sterilizer and stopped and then caught a cyno breakout, that telling me that there is something else causing the breakout. The UV sterilizer is just masking the problem coming from the source of the breakout. Find the source, correct it and the breakouts will be no more. Therefore the UV will not be needed. One thing I learned from this hobby is that if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

We need to start focusing on how to run a reef setup using less energy. I'm tired of plugging stuff. If it ain't really needed then ditch it..

Just my 2 cents...