uv sterilizers.....

richie822 · 03-21-2007, 05:58 PM

i was planning to buy a uv sterilzer for my 40 gallon tank b/c my blue tang just broke out with ick. I just cant help it i love tangs so i thuoght it wuold be wise to buy a uv sterilzer. I was looking at the coralife twist 9 w, the 8w Aqua sterilizer, and the current USA Gamma sterilzer, but i do not know which one to get and i dont know much about uv sterilizers. I do not have a sump...i only khave a rena canister filter under the tank. I am not sure if the sterilzers above are in the lien sterilizers, hang ons etc??? is it possible to attach one of the uv sterilzers i mentioned above to my filter thruogh the return hose( the hose is about 2 cm thick or 3/4 inch thick) or do they make hang on ones? what wuold be better with my set up. I also have a aqua c remora hanging on my tank. wuold uv sterilzer seems to work?

betamed · 03-21-2007, 06:00 PM

I have used the coralife UVs and they come with a bracket all you need is a pump and some hose. Might want to go with the 18w if you can afford it.

richie822 · 03-21-2007, 06:59 PM

can it be hooked up to my canister filter thruogh the return hose? are brackets the things used to camp the hose? where do i put it? sorry i dont know anyhting about sterilizers

UseSkaForEvil · 03-21-2007, 07:33 PM

UV steralizers are probably not the best way to go about fightign ich. very little of the ich life cycle is spent in the water column from what i remember. i have a 18watt on a 80 gallon tank and ive still gotten ich.

betamed · 03-21-2007, 08:15 PM

I believe UV has helped cure several of my tangs of Ick. Along with keeping stress low and feeding well. For example I had a purple that fought ick for about three months slowly getting worse. I added a 36w uv and a few weeks later spot free. It is true that ick does not spend much of its life in the water column, but this is the part of the cycle that is most dangerous to our fish. With UV you need the proper flow rate to kill the paracyte it think it was asbout 100gph for the 9w, but it came with a chart. IMO UV helps, but it is not a cure for overcrowding, poor diet, poor water, stress etc that prevent a healthy fish from fighting it off.

Geoff · 03-21-2007, 09:46 PM

i am also one to believe that a normal sized UV sterilizer will do nothing in controlling ich. ich just is not in the free swimming stages very long. most of the time they are either attached to the fish or sitting on the substrate. little chance of them getting sucked into an UV sterilizer.

most any affordable UV sterilizer is nothing more than a UV clearifier. only strong enough to kill algae and not parasites. if you look at the fine print for the UV unit you will prolly see that an extremely low flow is needed in order to kill microorganisms. if the UV also gets warm, like most do, they will quickly encrust with Ca deposites and become useless in short order. they need to be soaked in vinegar to keep the deposites from getting to thick.

G~