Is anybody using a UV sterilizer?

[Guest andrejka]

Is anybody using a UV sterilizer? Which one? Wattage/flow rate/on what size tank?

Thinking about getting one; just in case...

[Sph2sail]

nope.  but I'm still new (9month old tank).

 

s

[pez]

Nope.  Not good if you want lots of biodiversity in your tank.

 

-T

[dgasmd]

Although most experts in their own house will agree with Pez's statement, and to a degree I also agree with it, there are lots of people using UV and ozone and have still great success in their tanks. A few weeks ago, I ahd some ick in my tank (not like it has left yet ??? ) so I started to e-mail a few people. Come to find out more people than I thought are actually using it. They had a hard time with the fish, so they added UV and over time the stuff went away. Their corals are still doing very well and some of them are even online frag sellers with their own web site and such. So, if the coral's food is being killed, they must really like cadavers. One guy I know of in Tampa even makes some massive size units and uses them in his tanks. His rationale is different though. He says he doesn't ahve a problem with the fish. He had his water analyzed by a friend of his that is a marine biologist and compared to water collected off shore a few miles close to a large reef area in FL. He said he was petrified to see what actually is thriving in his water. He stated 98% was not the good stuff and 2% was. He was continuosly feeding DT and also rotifers if I remember right although I might be wrong on this. Just realying info I ahve read.

[Marty]

If he's continually feeding DT's and rotifers, that would seem to back up what pez said.  Everything is being killed, so he has to supplement heavily.

[michaelg]

Vibrio is common in our tanks, and I'm sure other nasties are as well, which is why open wounds are strongly disouraged.  Not sure I believe the 98%/2% numbers to be honest- it would take some very complex analysis to determine exactly what was in there- more than a friend would do without a lot of work.  Many of those "nasties" likely fall into place in the food chain and I'm not sure killing all of them would be that great of an idea, but that is just my personal philosophy on the matter.  Comparison to wild collected water in the past has shown just the opposite- our tanks are fairly barren when compared to wild water (on the plankton level).  Our conditions would probably promoter the lower end (bacterial) rather than the upper.  Could be completely off on that though.  I have not seen a good justifiable reason to use a sterilizer from my experience.  IMO problems can be traced to some other source.  Pathogens to fish will always exist in our tanks, they take hold when other conditions are not good and a fish reaches an unhealthy state.  Some of this is beyond the aquarists control though, such as the case with new arrivals.

 

Interesting topic and one we haven't discussed before...

 

Michael

[Guest andrejka]

Thank you, guys, and, personally - Alberto.

I've too heard/red that tanks with UV are doing just fine in therms of SPS and other things growth. Like this one, for example:  Moyesreef

One of the benefits: NO ick ever. I just hate the idea of it hanging out in the tank waiting to strike (like after power outage or other disaster).

We might consider using a UV sterilizer in our quarantine tanks at least...