# UV steriliser a good addition ?



## Murray1983 (Jan 3, 2016)

Is a UV steriliser a good addition to my Frontosa tank ? 180g 6ft , running 2x Aqua One 1250s canister filters . Will have 10 Fronts and a few other Lake Tangs in with them .


----------



## Kanorin (Apr 8, 2008)

I have never used one - I'd say for most freshwater tanks they are not really necessary.


----------



## Murray1983 (Jan 3, 2016)

I know majority of people who use them will be marine tanks . But if anyone had experience with them in a freshwater aquarium I d like to know their opinions . If it can only be good and help he always quality I d happily buy one .


----------



## somebody (May 13, 2014)

I don't really notice a difference in algae. I run a coralife turbo twist 9w on my 125.


----------



## Handyjoe (Jan 11, 2015)

I have two 25W Aqua UV that I have yet hooking them up for my fresh water aquariums. I did, however have use 40W and 80W UV for my out door pond. The UV lights are what kept my pond water Chrystal clear. UV light kill algae and bacteria as they flow by the light.


----------



## kwang (Sep 16, 2012)

I use a Aquatop CF500UV in my Malawi tank for almost 4 years and for the most part the tank is algae free, except for the rocks.


----------



## somebody (May 13, 2014)

Not saying the uv sterilizer wouldn't work but, for people budget bound, a good lighting schedule, plants (when able), mindful feedings, and PWC schedule is all that's really needed. A little algae never hurt no one.


----------



## Murray1983 (Jan 3, 2016)

Want as crystal clear water as possible , not liking for anything over the top or too fancy . Something that will do the job ? Ang good suggestions ?


----------



## Fish Jerk (Mar 9, 2016)

From what I gather it works great but it requires you to have slow flow or else it doesn't have the time to sterilize. Most aquarium filters really shoot out the water quickly, which will not work here. I guess that is one reason it is usually put into a sump.

For the crystal clear water I am considering either a sump or water bridged tank full of poret foam dividers. That should tank out basically anything and really polish the water.


----------



## Tank boss (Aug 4, 2016)

i have a 30w in my 75 gallon tank as there's a lot of natural light surrounding my tank it works a treat keeps my water crystal clear! 
Id definitely recommend one. You'll still get algae though just takes longer to develop.

look for "the green killing machine" on amazon


----------



## LXXero (May 4, 2016)

if you don 't have suspended algae, or other "unknown" problems, it probably wont do anything

it seems like they're a good last resort for a few things though and will fix hard to solve suspended algae/cloudiness issues


----------



## CeeJay (Aug 16, 2016)

I have been using uv sterilizers for over 30 years on fresh and salt water. There a lot of information on the net but there two ways to use them one for algae and the other for parasites. To control parasites you need to slow the flow down to almost a trickle of what you can do for algae control. I have a 25 watt on about 200 gallons and only run about 100 gallon an hour thru it. I have seen a lot less fish scratching on rocks and have not loss any fish over year. I don't know for sure it's the uv or just good maintenance. But what I have read that people have got there ORP higher with uv.


----------



## LXXero (May 4, 2016)

hmm, i have an orp probe on my 120G mbuna tank, and i just recently got a UV light despite my comment a second ago lol, on top of my sunken bellies issue i have noticed some scratching, and I also now have a tropical tank showing some weird stuff, it's just another weapon in the arsenal now....i should be able to prove that concept though, if the orp is higher or lower. I added some bacteria primer stuff to my tank that said to turn off the UV light, so for now, it's not actually on yet, but i'll turn it on soon enough. It's weird though, it seems ORP is rising with ammonia rising. It also seems saltwater guys run way higher ORP's than what mine is showing.

I got one of those green killing machine ones with a little powerhead that drives it. It says it's rated to 120G which is literally the size of my tank, but i have no idea the flow rate on that pump, it'd be easy enough to restrict it and slow it down though. it's sitting in the return chamber of my sump as well so it's getting some decent flow around it...

what do you suspect the scratching is? I've seen similar occasionally but i do wonder if it's just one of those stress things that goes away when the fish are less stressed, my fish were just overnighted not even a week ago so they are settling into the new tank still.


----------



## CeeJay (Aug 16, 2016)

I would really like to see your result on the ORP. I have talk to guy that maintain tanks for a living and he's the one that told me he has seen higher readings. Yes your seeing some kind of parasite if there scratching. It usually isn't something serious.

The killing machine are the way to go for more than one tanks. Nothing clean up green water faster than uv. I getting ready to buy a new one for my 180 to but going to have it in line from my sump. I have it ready to go with the vales all ready in place. Really thinking about 40 watt. For me the cost of replacement bulbs are things I look before buying.

Best of luck and looking forward to your ORP readings.


----------



## LXXero (May 4, 2016)

I'm definitely curious to try this UV out more, for sure. And if it impacts the ORP, that would also be very interesting.

I'm gonna still wait another week or so since i've been adding some beneficial bacteria stuff and trying to kick start the cycle on my tank...Yeah, i'm doing the whole un-advised fish-in cycle, but, it's a large quantity of water and mostly smaller/juvenile fish, and I had biomedia from other tanks, as well as this fritzzyme stuff from my LFS, who seems to swear by it...I also have a system where I can simultaneously drain/fill the tank and I've already timed how much water over how much time (and the flow rate math came out to about 1% WC per minute...which is a perfect ratio if I do say so my self...), on top of that i have the new 2016 apex on this tank with all these probes, and a seachem ammonia alert thing, jbl proscan strips with the historical graphs, got a full array of fish medicines, antibiotics, etc, on hand...and the uv light..and....and.....lol...well needless to say I don't think you could be much more prepared than i am! I'm trying, anyway. Really trying to make maintaining this 120G as easy as possible, with lots of automation, alerts, and whatever else. I only pretend to be an expert the rest of the time, lol.

Though admittedly this is a pretty ridiculous fish-in cycle, there's like 50 mbuna in there, lol. No auratus though, if they were auratus i wouldn't even be worried, i feel like even ammonia doesn't kill those things, lol. They'd just kill each other. Honestly, the fish look better by the day, even my wife commented that they were looking a bit healthier today, so for now i'm not doing anything, just gonna keep doin what i've been doing. I will turn on that UV light though.

So far, my pattern right now, is that higher ORP is equating to higher ammonia levels. This isn't guaranteed to be accurate though. I suspect that once my tank is through this little mini cycle it's going through, that the ORP will stabilize. Right now, given the existing tank conditions, my ORP is just all over the place and i'm pretty sure that's not what it'll be like once things settle down. Once all that chaos settles down, THEN, I will do some UV on/off ORP testing for sure. Super curious to see how that turns out. Should be interesting.

My tank is all plumbed out with a sump & manifold too, I could probably even ditch the pump off the green killing machine and hard-plumb it to the 3rd outlet on my manifold which is unused right now. I also have a purigen reactor setup, but I have it turned off until the tank is cycled. I have bad luck with that stuff messing with my cycles, it'll try absorbing the stuff that the bacteria should be absorbing and make it take forever. Or something, just speculating.

I'm not sure if you mean inline to your returns? But I'd almost think that might be a bad idea due to the high flow rate? I'm almost thinking if i plumb in this one, I want it plumbed off the return manifold so that it's recirculating the water from the return pump back in to the return chamber of the sump....it will give a little bit of recirculation type action, as well as allow you to put a valve on it and individually control the flow rate so it's not too fast. Of course it does mean it'll reduce your overall return rate, but, I purposely oversized my pump, a fluval sp4 @ 1850gph or so, prolly more like, 1450gph after head, so there's no way you'd want that going through a UV, too fast, so plumbing off a manifold outlet would seem to make more sense to me.


----------



## CeeJay (Aug 16, 2016)

I would recommend looking at the instruction for Emperor Aquatics uv sterilizers there's a wealth of information and dell times for all sterilizers. I also would recommend there products. I use there thoughts on a vales one on each end of the sterilizer and one between the two vales. I also want to put a flow gauge in there too.

You don't need to worry to much about your cycle. Just change your water as much as you can, if you can change out 90% a day you don't even need a filter or bacteria. I not telling you to change that much but it could be done. I too have made water changes almost as easy as it goes. I change out over 100% a week. I'm on well water and I run it thru whole house filter before it gets to the tank. I getting ready to drill a hole in my sump for the drain. What I'm concern is if the power goes out will there be enough water in the sump after the power comes back on.

Wow 50 mbuna that a pretty good load. I counted my fish and I'm at 18 fish. Now some of my fish are pushing 7" to 8" and at least 6 should get over 10" it should be good load to. You will need to watch nitrates like a hawk. I changed out about 60% of the water Sunday and my nitrates were still 5 ppm. I would like them to go no higher than 10 ppm. The fish can take a lot higher count then that but it will also stress them some what.

How about a photo of that tank it got look good with that many fish. I will try too.


----------



## LXXero (May 4, 2016)

Oh yeah, I got photos and a video in my thread over here, check it out:

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=393825


----------



## CeeJay (Aug 16, 2016)

Nice tank. Are you doing this for breeding or just for looks? My problem is getting good photos. 
I would love to show video of the fish all begging at one end of the tank. It's wall to wall fish.


----------



## LXXero (May 4, 2016)

Haha yeah they all swim over to me when i walk up to the tank, or if i open the lid, it's pretty crazy. i had an auratus once that followed your finger or a laser pointer, these guys aren't too far off from that.

it's not really for breeding in particular, but the species i picked are all ones that shouldn't hybridize/crossbreed as easily...so it may end up producing decent fry some day. although probably wont right now as i've been keeping the temperature a little cooler.


----------

