UV Sterilizer??????

eswebster · 07-18-2006, 09:19 AM

I am having some serious problems with ICK and have done a couple of 50% water changes and it keeps coming back, i was wondering if a UV sterilizer would kill the bacteria, parasite that is currently plaguing my fish, and if so would anybody be willing to let me borrow theirs for a week or so. Any input would be helpful, I may just have to step up to the plate and buy another tank and quarentine all of the fish for a couple of weeks and let the bacteria go through its life cycle and die off.... i am losing fish and cant seem to shake the ICK.

Sea monkey · 07-18-2006, 09:25 AM

certainly would help.

emperor aquatics is the best and aqua UV is a more affordable alternative. check out emperors website.

davidzou · 07-18-2006, 09:35 AM

I used Corasl Life Turbo Twist on my tank. It was very good.

otolith · 07-18-2006, 09:48 AM

The ick issue has been rehashed on this forum a myriad of times...do a search and you'll find a link that nicely describes ich and the treatment for it. The link will be from some guy in Portland who always tends to find the ich threads.

eswebster · 07-18-2006, 09:52 AM

i think i may try this out plus i am sure that it will prevent or at least help prevent this in the future along with improving the overall quality of my water, i just hate looking at the tank and seeing all of my hard work and $$$ wasting away, literally.

Sea monkey · 07-18-2006, 10:52 AM

UV isn't really a treatment for ICK , more of a preventive measure so you don't have to deal with it in the first place.

Zivman · 07-18-2006, 11:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sea monkey

UV isn't really a treatment for ICK , more of a preventive measure so you don't have to deal with it in the first place.

I am running an emperor aquatic 40watt on my 200 and find it helps with algae a bit and helps the clarity of the water. If you quarantine your fish and prevent ick or other parasites from entering your tank, there is no real need for one.

You need to make sure the quartz glass is cleaned bi-monthly and you are changing the bulb ever 10-12 months. I recently added a powder blue to my tank and he got ick within a day or two. I dropped my salinity a bit, raised the temp of the tank a bit, and made sure I had proper flow through my recently cleaned out UV sterilizer. Some reefers don't like the idea of running a UV as it kills some beneficial pods.

Overall, if you have the money and means to set it up, I don't think it will hurt. It will not be a cure to the ick problem

jeffie · 07-18-2006, 12:05 PM

At this point save the money on the UV and get yourself a QT tank ASAP or more then likely you will lose all of your fish. Ich in high numbers can be very fatal, very quick.

eswebster · 07-18-2006, 12:23 PM

so no UV and set up the quarentine, I have purchased some cuppromine by sea chem and would be treating with that, I have an extra light fixture I could use as well, plus i think a quarentine tank would cost about half of what a UV sterilizer would cost, then just let the tank be with no fish for two weeks and let the ICK die off after i belive their two life cycles right???

Graham · 07-18-2006, 01:33 PM

FWIW. some folks feel that Q tanks just stress the fish more. I've never used one, so I can't say.

I've used UV for the past 18 months and can't really say I recommend that either. I think for the average reef tank, the bang for the buck just isn't there. With a slow enough flow rate, it will kill algae and protozoans, but I don't know if it will kill something like a pod. Depending on the layout, I wouldn't think most "beneficial" oganisms would get to the UV in the first place. Definitely not to the point of decimating a population...JMO.

If it were my decsion, I'd probably Q my fishies vs spending a few bills on UV. I've never had to treat ich, though - that wasn't why I got the UV.

eswebster · 07-18-2006, 01:41 PM

I quarentined my purple tang alone when he was pretty much the only one with the ICK now it has spread to all of the other fish and the purple tang died in the quarentine. I may just quarentine the fish, which will be a royal pain and run a UV sterilizer on the tank I have found a used one, 3mo, for $65 from someone on the forum here. I think this would be the best attacking the tank and treating the fish at the same time, i have hade enough of my little creatures being ill and will do just about anything at this point to end it. thanks for all of the imput everyone and let me know if you can think of anything else.

Loverotties · 07-18-2006, 01:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeffie

At this point save the money on the UV and get yourself a QT tank ASAP or more then likely you will lose all of your fish. Ich in high numbers can be very fatal, very quick.

Also big water changes can stress them out too!

Zivman · 07-18-2006, 03:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Graham

FWIW. some folks feel that Q tanks just stress the fish more. I've never used one, so I can't say.

I've used UV for the past 18 months and can't really say I recommend that either. I think for the average reef tank, the bang for the buck just isn't there. With a slow enough flow rate, it will kill algae and protozoans, but I don't know if it will kill something like a pod. Depending on the layout, I wouldn't think most "beneficial" oganisms would get to the UV in the first place. Definitely not to the point of decimating a population...JMO.

If it were my decsion, I'd probably Q my fishies vs spending a few bills on UV. I've never had to treat ich, though - that wasn't why I got the UV.

I feel Q tank stress the fish a lot. Rather than having one move, you now have two. On top of that, your Q tank is usually just a 10-20 gallon bare bottom with something like PVC piping for the fish to hide - not what you would call a happy home. I have tried quarantining 3 fish and lost the fish each time. I find, keeping your fish healthy is the key. I have had fish with ich, but only once did it spread beyond the originally infected fish. Keeping good water parameters and proper supplimentation with regular feedings is the key to beating ich IMO

Sea monkey · 07-18-2006, 03:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zivman

I am running an emperor aquatic 40watt on my 200 and find it helps with algae a bit and helps the clarity of the water. If you quarantine your fish and prevent ick or other parasites from entering your tank, there is no real need for one.

You need to make sure the quartz glass is cleaned bi-monthly and you are changing the bulb ever 10-12 months.

LOL i have never cleaned mine. maybe it is about time, dont think you will catch me doing it every other week though : )

Only time i have ever had ICK was in a Q tank i had up for a while. when i added my UV to the frag tanks it slowed down the spreed of bubble algae by like 75% and the cyano problem i was having was almost eradicated with UV alone. people say cyano is always nutrient related and you need to look for other issues but i am not quite as sure, these tanks never even got fed. The light alone seemed enough for the cyano to take over. anyways the UV helped tremendously with it.

to be honest if you find yourself frequently dealing with ICK i think there may be other issues like water quality, poor specimen selection from the LFS , over stocked tank, inhabitants that dont get along and stress each other out .....

eswebster · 07-18-2006, 04:10 PM

I never have had to deal with ICK, I bought a couple of Royal Grammas from the LFS and I didnt quarentine them since I didnt have a quarentine tank, looked healthy no spots and very active, the fish fought at first then all found a home in the live rock, after a couple of days I noticed that one of the grammas had some ICK then it spread to my purple tang and so on. I have had enough of the water changes and checking water parameters, I dont know what else to do besides quarentine the fish, treat them with the cuppromine and run the UV on the tank while the ICK runs through a couple of life cycles and dies off. not going to be a fun night.