Cichlabxr Posted April 15, 2006 Share Posted April 15, 2006 Hi all, Just wondered who uses UV's on their cichlid tanks/set-ups? Also interested in which brand you use and how you rate them. i.e. Effectiveness,Reliability, Value for money. If your brand isn't listed could you add a reply naming it. Thank you Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bijengum Posted April 15, 2006 Share Posted April 15, 2006 I use them on all my Tropheus setups. Aquapro fully internal. No problems after about 8 months except for the suction cups. These are a problem on all items though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash Posted April 15, 2006 Share Posted April 15, 2006 Also interested in which brand you use and how you rate them. i.e. Effectiveness,Reliability, Value for money. ← How do you acertain effectiveness? Do some sort of bacterial culture on your return water? Me thinks most will say effective via placebo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sooty Posted April 15, 2006 Share Posted April 15, 2006 I use them on all my tanks and would never go back to without! They can be used without a filter and make the water crystal clear! Amonia is never a problem if you water change regularly. I use the hang ons from Aqua pro, both 11w and 18w... There is an airline one thats currently available and very good indeed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wui39 Posted April 15, 2006 Share Posted April 15, 2006 Also interested in which brand you use and how you rate them. i.e. Effectiveness,Reliability, Value for money. ← How do you acertain effectiveness? Do some sort of bacterial culture on your return water? Me thinks most will say effective via placebo ← Effectiveness could be "I use to have fish dying in my tanks, now with the UV they are not dying and there have been no other regime changes" Surely seeing a UV clear pond water that is green is not a placebo unless your mind can now alter water clarity and colour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash Posted April 16, 2006 Share Posted April 16, 2006 but killing water borne algae & water borne bacteria are totally different kettles of fish. I have seen the wonders of a UV on "green water", but in a tank that was crystal clear & healthy without the UV or setup with one from day dot - how do you really know it's having an impact? edit: Basically I want to hear someone say... I have a sump system of X tanks with a total of Y litres with the return filtered by a Z watt UV steriliser. I bought a new fish via freight from a hobbiest & it got whitespot during the trip. I put it in tank Q on the system & the whitespot didn't spread to other tanks, I would assume due to the UV You need more watts to kill the little nastys than green water too - how do you match the flow rate to watts required? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wui39 Posted April 16, 2006 Share Posted April 16, 2006 Here are some articles: Wikipedia's entry on ultraviolet or this one discussing it effectiveness in waste water treatment: EPA report Yes flow rate has to be matched to light output but I'm not sure how algae differs from bacteria when UV rays attack the basic building blocks of DNA. P.S. A quick check on google will tell you that the amount of energy/cm required to kill bacteria in most cases is less than algae. Though Protozoa and Fungi will require more energy/cm than algae or bacteria. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash Posted April 16, 2006 Share Posted April 16, 2006 Ahh, awesome! I don't doubt the effictiveness of UV one bit, all I'm questioning is whether people are using it correctly (ie: enough watts for a given situation) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wui39 Posted April 16, 2006 Share Posted April 16, 2006 Don't forget flow rate. All the watts in the world is nothing if your flow rate is too fast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cichlabxr Posted April 19, 2006 Author Share Posted April 19, 2006 217 views only 26 Votes. A bit disappointing. i also realised after I should have had 2 polls (what a wally) as you can't vote yes and then add a brand. Oh well Seems 12 out of 26 use them. Good enough for me. Thanks to all who voted. Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spedwards Posted April 19, 2006 Share Posted April 19, 2006 I viewed before voting For what it's worth, I'm going through the same decision as you at the moment. Leaning towards getting it as the tank will (unfortunately) cop a fair bit of sunlight and just for the peace of mind that i'm doing the most to kill any waterborn nasties. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cichlabxr Posted April 19, 2006 Author Share Posted April 19, 2006 Hi Jon, Yes I'm definitely going to get one or two. I haven't lost any fish for awhile to "unknown" causes. My water regime and filtration are more than adequate but I also have a problem with sunlight and algae. I thought if I'm going to buy one might as well make sure it kills the nasties as well. Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spedwards Posted April 19, 2006 Share Posted April 19, 2006 Have you got a brand in mind yet? I have seen a newer Pondmaster version that has some special vortex flow that "exposes the water to longer to untraviolet light" and has similar pricing to the Aqua Pro units sold by AoA and looks better (who's reading a book by it's cover??). Despite what people say, I think there is such a thing as too much choice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash Posted April 19, 2006 Share Posted April 19, 2006 Back to the discussion Wui & I were having (I think we were arguing the same point with slightly different semantics BTW) how do you figure out what UV you need for a certian situation? Is there a rule of thumb that states X watts at Y flowrate is effective? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cichlabxr Posted April 20, 2006 Author Share Posted April 20, 2006 Hi Ash, Yes there is have a read of this page. UV Info Jon could you please Pm me where you saw the newer Pondmaster. Regards Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eddie Salita Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 There is an airline one thats currently available and very good indeed! That would be an ozone generator wouldn't it? Its my understanding that exposing oxygen to uv light, OR a high voltage electrical arc (corona discharge) creates ozone. Of course ozone is a very effective sterilizer. Which gets me thinking if maybe an ozone generator would be a slightly more cost effective way of doing at least some or maybe even all of what the uv sterilizer is doing? By running ozonated air into the water for a certain period of time each day, depending on the size of the tank you are effectively doing much the same thing perhaps. Obviously you would want to keep the ozone bubbles away from your filter intake, just like your uv sterilizer outlet. Fortunately 03 is unstable and reverts back to 02 very quickly. I know that ozone generators are used to control algae and microbes in cooling towers. So I am theorising thats all the UV sterilizer is doing. Just my thoughts.... Cheers, Jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wui39 Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 A ozone generator would be more efficient at killing bacteria but would be a lot more work to keep in check. I always remember a story where an overseas public aquarium killed a whale due to ozone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eddie Salita Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 Absolutely. It would be important to only run it for a certain period, depending on the output of the generator and the volume of the tank. One would definantly use a timer on an ozone generator! Cheers, Jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash Posted April 21, 2006 Share Posted April 21, 2006 Hi Ash, Yes there is have a read of this page. UV Info Jon could you please Pm me where you saw the newer Pondmaster. Regards Martin ← The required UV exposure rate to irradiate common bacteria is 15,000 µWs/cm2, while the required UV exposure for waterborne algae is 22,000 µWs/cm2. Wow, I would have thought algae would be easier to kill, though thinking about it being a larger more complex organism of course it's harder than bacteria. Great article Martin! edit: just read the table at the end of the article, it puts Ich as needing really intense UV irradiation, about 12x the intensity to kill green water! So looks like my first instinct was correct after all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spedwards Posted April 21, 2006 Share Posted April 21, 2006 Is it common practise to have the UV sterilisers running only during daylight hours, or 24x7? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cichlabxr Posted April 21, 2006 Author Share Posted April 21, 2006 All the reading I've come across says 24/7 Jon. You actually shorten the life of the globe if you switch it on/off too often. The average lifespan seems to be 6000hrs for most models. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash Posted April 21, 2006 Share Posted April 21, 2006 Don't pond guys only use them for 2-3 days PW to save globe life? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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