UV sterilizer

[coachV]

How do you use your UV sterilizer? When? How long at the time ? Do you run it all the time or on a timer?

 

[Cliff]

I never believed in UV sterilizer‘s for a long time. I thought they just killed beneficial bacteria and honestly I do have that opinion. But about a year ago I had a fight with dinos. I bought a huge UV light and that cleared it up very quickly. So that changed my mind on UV lights LOL. I think they do have their place when needed but I don’t think they’re essential to run 100% of the time

 

[BRIANW]

Personally I have been running mine full time for about 4 years now, obviously changing the bulb regularly. I have it on a closed loop in the sump with it's own pump. I have mine setup as less than what was necessary for my water volume. Prior to using this, I had two separate instances of ich but since I started using it (knock on wood) I have not had any more, but have added new fish in the meantime.

Now I know that this is a touchy subject for most, but I have had decent success with this, but I also do run a lean system mainly concentrating on softies and fish and have no success with SPS or LPS, even before I used the UV.

 

[Will Penfold]

Big fan of UV sterilizers. From what I've read, they work better when the water it sterlizes is put back into the display rather than sump. Not so sure why, but thats what I read it so thats what I did lol. Plumbed my sterilizer into my return pump with a ball valve. It then has a separate return back into my display. Run it 24/7 as well.

Also the way I understand it, its effectiveness will depend on the rate of flow through it. A slower flow through it is better for combating Ich, however a faster flow through it is better combating algae which spores can replicate much quicker.

 

[coachV]

Big fan of UV sterilizers. From what I've read, they work better when the water it sterlizes is put back into the display rather than sump. Not so sure why, but thats what I read it so thats what I did lol. Plumbed my sterilizer into my return pump with a ball valve. It then has a separate return back into my display. Run it 24/7 as well.

Also the way I understand it, its effectiveness will depend on the rate of flow through it. A slower flow through it is better for combating Ich, however a faster flow through it is better combating algae which spores can replicate much quicker.

Im going to plumb mine like you, going into the DT. I'M looking at something like this on the picture.

 

[Will Penfold]

Nice. That looks like a good plan!. Mine's a bit different, where instead of reconnecting to the one return line, I just have a 2nd return line from the UV back into display, however you plan accomplishes the same thing.

 

[Luigi]

Im going to plumb mine like you, going into the DT. I'M looking at something like this on the picture.

My 2 cents here....
I don't like it...
* something goes wrong with the siphon you have your water tank on the floor
* need a really big pump to go through all the 90deg, and vertical water pressure...
What about coming down from the overflow pipe?
You can use a timer to turn on and off the Uv when not needed

 

[Limey]

I think the return pipe is overly exaggerated in the diagram as you could potentially empty your tank on a back syphon