DIY UV Steralizer Ideas - Page 3

PaintGuru · 10-09-2004, 05:24 PM

I wonder why that is with the skimmer. Do you think a moron like myself could build one of these or will I have to pay you large amounts of cash to build one for me?

darthteddy · 10-09-2004, 10:01 PM

what kind of pump(s) are you using to flow the water in and out?

Jimbo · 10-11-2004, 02:08 PM

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I wonder why that is with the skimmer

This is to be expected with UV usage. The UV makes the organic particles more sticky and they clump together. Not sure of the exact technical explanation for this.

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Do you think a moron like myself could build one of these or will I have to pay you large amounts of cash to build one for me?

The bulb is very fragile, on the ignighter end there is some aluminum that you need to cover up with silicon. Just drill the hole the size of the bulb and set the bulb in the hole, it should not be big enough that the bulb will fall through, apply silicon to the outside of the bulb. Let silicon dry for a couple of hours and apply some to the inside also. Once you press the cap into the PVC you won't be able to get it loose without busting the bulb, if it's just pressed on alittle that should not be a problem. Put in your inlet and outlet (before inserting the bulb), I probally put them too close together, the farther apart they are, the longer the contact time will be.

Once you are happy with the bulb cemented into the hole go ahead and gently push in the cap, Apply silicon around the edges.

You will need to pick up a 9-15 watt ballast, you can buy a spiral bulb cheap and remove the ballast or buy one from home depot. See pic below

I Don't know if I'm going to try recycling this one after six months or just build a new one. I've seen the long UV bulbs pretty cheap and a 1.5-2 footer would give greater contact time. If the bulbs are cheap enough you could have a spare floating around. Don't really need the peep hole, you can see the light through the silicon on the end.

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what kind of pump(s) are you using to flow the water in and out?

Currently getting around 150gph an hour through a gutted canister filter, except for some live rock in it to create a dark refugium. Although I said the contact time was 4-5 seconds it's probally more like 2-3 seconds. But it seems to be doing something

Jimbo · 10-13-2004, 09:55 PM

Well it's been awhile now and I had some fungus stuff growing on my purple dottyback and it is now gone! Also several of the fish had some fin rot, not much but it is also gone.

I'm glad that the uv experiment is panning out, after the phosban disaster.

aka_bigred · 10-19-2004, 11:23 AM

Looks like a cool project.

Where did you get your UV light, and where are the 1.5-2 footers available. I might try this in my setup.

Do you really need that much flow, or could a maxijet 1200 power it? Why is high flow desireable? Shouldn't reduced flow increase your contact time? Any side effects to "over exposure"?

Just a few thoughts.

PaintGuru · 10-19-2004, 01:03 PM

Can you /did you post step by step plans at all and anything that you would change?

grim · 10-20-2004, 09:49 AM

That looks extremely dangerous, I'm sorry, but exposing a bulb directly to water without an envelope? Please folks, don't replicate this DIY design, it's very dangerous.

jb

davidc · 10-20-2004, 02:35 PM

care to elaborate? do you mean it's dangerous because of the electricity?

I have a glass heater in my tank, and it hasn't exploded, imploded, or otherwise self-destructed. It appears to have a design similar to that of a light bulb - a glass envelope that houses some coiled up wire with electricity going through it - 300W in fact! Also, it gets very hot like a light bulb!

I don't remember the voltage that goes through a 9W CF bulb, but it can't have very much current and still be 9W (at 120V it would be 75mA)?

I think as long as he keeps the electrical part of the bulb away from the water, there shouldn't be any huge risk of electrocution. If the bulb breaks and the gas gets out, there wouldn't be anything to conduct the electricity because the water would be out of contact.

The only risk, if constructed with the electrical part away from the water, is the contamination from the stuff in the bulb.

aka_bigred · 10-20-2004, 02:37 PM

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That looks extremely dangerous, I'm sorry, but exposing a bulb directly to water without an envelope? Please folks, don't replicate this DIY design, it's very dangerous.

I tend to disagree since most of the danger in having a light explode when it gets wet is the very fast tempature change when going from ultra hot when dry and the uneven fast cooling from a splash of water.

When submersed in water, the glass will stay more in thermal equalibrium and shouldn't crack/explode unless it is hit with a strong mechanical force, in which case the mechanical force would crack it, not the thermal forces.

There's plenty of people who use questionable heaters and they still sleep at night. You're doing the same thing with your heaters: if you leave it on to overheat out of the water and then submerge it, it will crack/explode. Leave that same heater in water all the time, and it will not crack from the heat, only some kind of mechanical impact.

In this application, the bulb is being protected from mechanical destruction (like bumping it while cleaning or whatever) since it's encased in a PVC shell, and all that's left is thermal breakage (which I think shouldn't be a huge issue as stated above).

As long as you protect from general electric shorts (the other possible danger), it should be safe IMO.

Just my $.02

PaintGuru · 10-21-2004, 08:46 AM

Why did you use the PC type light and not the HO "warm up" style lights? Would those still work?

Jimbo · 11-07-2004, 02:48 PM

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Why did you use the PC type light and not the HO "warm up" style lights? Would those still work?

Both power connections are on one end of the bulb. Makes for a smaller setup, easier to wire.

Check out thatfishplace.com for quarts envelopes and uv bulbs, they have a close out with some pretty cheap prices.

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That looks extremely dangerous, I'm sorry, but exposing a bulb directly to water without an envelope? Please folks, don't replicate this DIY design, it's very dangerous.

Been working so far, if you use a spiral light electronic ballast and there's a short, it will die quickly, so not much danger there either. I found this out when I got some saltwater on the connection

But just cleaned it up and put another spiral ballast on.

kellymm · 11-09-2004, 08:36 PM

looks pretty dangerous to me wires on the bottom did you ever think that with the wiring on the bottom if it did get a leak where that conductive saltwater would be can you say fire not for me i would just bite the bullet and buy one

Jimbo · 11-09-2004, 08:47 PM

I sealed the wires with silicon

Jimbo · 11-09-2004, 10:40 PM

Ok the thing started leaking again, so I opened it up and found the cause. The silicon that was exposed to the UV became brittle. Unless I can find some substance that won't be eaten up by UV, this diy project is a flop

. Anyway there are 9w uv steralizers with pump on ebay for $29. Cheaper to buy one than make one, unless of course you go with a bigger bulb say 26 watter then it might make sense to build your own. But something that big would act like a heater unless it's in a quarts envelope.

davidc · 11-10-2004, 07:57 AM

Don't forget to include shipping cost on your ebay purchases

I used a 'glass epoxy' type glue to glue a hose barb into a hole in a 5g glass jug (FW aquarium of course

). I bet that stuff would work, because it isn't flexible to begin with. It's very strong.

BTW, my LFS has a stack of about a dozen UVs enclosed in 2-3" pipes similar to your setup. They are stacked horizontally and are all connected together with tees and such. I think the pipes are acrylic painted white. The tees/etc are PVC though. You can see the glow of the lights through the paint! They call them 'torpedos'