What Are Your Thoughts On UV Sterilizers?

[MarsReefer]

Well UV saved my tank from Dinos, increased the time between glass cleanings by 150%, and made a clearly visible difference in my water clarity, so it is 100% worth it imo.

I buy all my fish pre-QT'd so I don't really use it for disease control, and my system isn't really configured for that, but all the scientific studies i've seen say that if you do it right it works for disease control too.

But I can 100% say that for bacteria, dinos, algae, and water clarity it works wonders.

 

[RZGreef]

Curious to see how many people on R2R use UV Sterilizers on their aquariums.

What or your thoughts on UV Sterilizer lights for Reef aquariums?

I've used UV for clearing up dinos. Specifically I used the drop-in kind from Innovative Marine. I ran it for less than a week, and took it out once it had done its job. I did notice that overall the tank water also looked clearer than I'd ever seen it before. I don't plan to use it continuously as a precaution since I dose phyto, and also want to keep my copepod population up, but won't hesitate to set it back up in the future if there's a need.

 

[GatorGreg]

I haven’t seen ONE picture of anyone’s tanks from either side of this debate. In this thread

let’s see some time stamped FTS from both ends of this debate.

put up or….

 

[BeanAnimal]

I fully agree. A lot of uninformed opinions here.
UV doesn’t work for disease control?
All studies and literature say that it does.

Unbiased studies and literature citations please.... "all studies and literature" is a rather dubious assertion. How do we know that your opinion is not amongst those that you consider uninformed?

We also have to be careful comparing scale and system types. There is a world of difference between bare glass breeding/holding systems with a monster UV (in essence sized to sterilize the water) to hobby size UV on a home aquarium chock full of varied livestock, substrate and equipment where we most certainly are not looking to sterilize the water.

I am not for or against UVs btw.

 

[BeanAnimal]

I haven’t seen ONE picture of anyone’s tanks from either side of this debate. In this thread

let’s see some time stamped FTS from both ends of this debate.

put up or….

What good is a photo?

 

[blaxsun]

I haven’t seen ONE picture of anyone’s tanks from either side of this debate. In this thread
let’s see some time stamped FTS from both ends of this debate.
put up or….

My UV bulb burned out early (that or I had the install date wrong), and literally within 24-48 hours I was having seriously difficulty scraping algae off the side of the glass (even with the Tunze stainless steel blade). It took the wife and I the better part of a day to manually scrape everything off.

Sorry, no images - but if you've ever used a scraper with the stainless steel blade attachment and it *didn't* work - you'll know where I'm coming from.

 

[BeanAnimal]

My UV bulb burned out early (that or I had the install date wrong), and literally within 24-48 hours I was having seriously difficulty scraping algae off the side of the glass (even with the Tunze stainless steel blade). It took the wife and I the better part of a day to manually scrape everything off.

Sorry, no images - but if you've ever used a scraper with the stainless steel blade attachment and it *didn't* work - you'll know where I'm coming from.

Well by that metric, those without UVs must have opaque tank panes that they have to sandblast every few days

Or maybe the UV was killing the good stuff and causing some kind of crazy imbalance that keeps the glass from getting coated....

Or you just have one funky tank that only functions with UV.

Again, I am not in the anti UV camp. I am in the anti-nonsense camp.

 

[GatorGreg]

Well beananimal in my opinion. I prefer to see the results of the stuff people are speaking of. A time stamp of date and time maybe even screen name in front of the system they use the methods they stand behind says a lot and weeds out fake pictures. I don’t want to take information from some random if their tanks look like petco or worse even.

plus I want to see pictures of tanks. That’s why I’m here lol

 

[Dburr1014]

100% killed my dinos where nothing else worked.

Been in a box since.

Not worth running all the time.

If your system is healthy you don't need it. If it's not healthy, you may need it but fix the system also.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Well beananimal in my opinion. I prefer to see the results of the stuff people are speaking of. A time stamp of date and time maybe even screen name in front of the system they use the methods they stand behind says a lot and weeds out fake pictures. I don’t want to take information from some random if their tanks look like petco or worse even.

plus I want to see pictures of tanks. That’s why I’m here lol

I understand what you were asking for...
I just don't see how posting a verified tank photo proves anything about UV efficacy, one way or the other.

One's ability to speak in an informed manner or convey knowledge often has very little to do with one's own success and in fact, posting a photo of a pristine tank or disaster of tank and attributing either to UV or lack of UV is nothing more than anecdotal.

 

[GatorGreg]

All I’m saying is that I think once someone takes the argument to level that they’re essentially arguing back and forth. They should be throwing down tank pictures like nerds at a magic the gathering game.

Your tank looks like the petco tanks don’t they?

I’m a bottom tier reefer don’t get me wrong. A serial coral murderer. But I’m also not on here always arguing sCiEnCe with everyone.

post moar pikturz

 

[BeanAnimal]

Serial coral murderer.. .lol

 

[PeterC99]

@GatorGreg Here a picture take of my 90g aquarium today with 57w UV.

 

[Lowell Lemon]

All my pictures predate the internet lol! All on 35mm film. But I will dig in the bag. However, a man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still. So pictures are not as valuable as repeated results.

It is of utmost importance to use correctly sized UV with the proper pump rate or you are just whistling past the grave yard.

 

[blaxsun]

Well by that metric, those without UVs must have opaque tank panes that they have to sandblast every few days

As I've frequently mentioned, I have a very high bio load.

 

[FishTruck]

Here is a before and after, when I turned the UV on for 24 hours. New setup with a bacterial bloom. Looking across 4 feet of water with sunlight. I had tried waiting it out and using carbon with no effect. 150 watts UV. Total clarity required ongoing work with letting the tank mature.

A couple years later (today)... the bottom pic is looking across 11.5 feet of water, you can just see the returns on the other side. I also use ozone at night and heavy mechanical filtration. Barebottom with messy fish. For me, UV is one of a few tools I use for clear water.

 

[Viking_Reefing]

Unbiased studies and literature citations please.... "all studies and literature" is a rather dubious assertion. How do we know that your opinion is not amongst those that you consider uninformed?

We also have to be careful comparing scale and system types. There is a world of difference between bare glass breeding/holding systems with a monster UV (in essence sized to sterilize the water) to hobby size UV on a home aquarium chock full of varied livestock, substrate and equipment where we most certainly are not looking to sterilize the water.

I am not for or against UVs btw.

For example https://www.researchgate.net/profil...protozoan-oocysts-a-review-THESIS-VERSION.pdf

It’s a matter of arguing about facts. UV unequivocally works in terms of sterilizing bacteria, algae, protozoans and other pathogens as evident both by literature and anecdotal experiences. If one calls UV snake oil, which was done in this thread, yes that’s being uninformed and plainly wrong.

We can definitely have a discussion regarding my it’s limitations and if a proper implementation is feasible.
Most people don’t implement it properly for sure, leading to low efficiency and a seemingly poor result.

For example, my system is around 1300L in total water volume. If I hooked up a 40w Deltec unit and expected it to be an effective addition to ich management I would be sorely disappointed by the results. However, if I went with a 180w unit the story would be completely different as it would give me the ability to run enough water through it for proper tank turnover at the correct dosage of uWs.

Blaming an improper implementation for the lack of results is kind of like saying working out doesn’t work for getting in shape when you only spend 15min on the treadmill a week

I agree to some extent that one should “put up or shut up” I.e show your results. Not by any stretch a perfect way to gauge someone’s knowledge on the subject but it’s something:

 

[BeanAnimal]

For example https://www.researchgate.net/profil...protozoan-oocysts-a-review-THESIS-VERSION.pdf

That is one example - for which I (you or anybody) can find contradictory studies...

You stated succinctly:

A lot of uninformed opinions here.
UV doesn’t work for disease control?
All studies and literature say that it does.

You see the issue there? It is not all studies and literature and absolute positions such as yours simply help people to be (stay) uninformed...

I will note that some of the research that I have read (some of it linked here somewhere even) indicate that Cryptocaryon, Oodinium and others (for example) can be eradicated with UV in the spectrum that we are discussing, but at exposure levels many magnitudes higher than anything we even remotely discussing here.

We can definitely have a discussion regarding my it’s limitations and if a proper implementation is feasible.
Most people don’t implement it properly for sure, leading to low efficiency and a seemingly poor result...

...Blaming an improper implementation for the lack of results...

Part of the issue here (and in these threads) is that nobody is quite sure what the "proper" implementation is or if a proper implementation is even possible for a given pathogen/disease/whatever. It is mostly just a bunch of BS rules of thumb and anecdote.

 

[Moscar]

For clarity nothing beats them. I saw someone say snake oil. Everything in this hobby could be considered snake oil in some way. I know when my uv is off line within a day. Water starts turning a light milky color. Film on the glass faster than normal. I run them on both of my systems and wouldn't run a tank without one. Depends on your goals really. I think people who don't run them are used to the appearance of their tanks. I can tell right away when a tank isn't running uv just by

For clarity nothing beats them. I saw someone say snake oil. Everything in this hobby could be considered snake oil in some way. I know when my uv is off line within a day. Water starts turning a light milky color. Film on the glass faster than normal. I run them on both of my systems and wouldn't run a tank without one. Depends on your goals really. I think people who don't run them are used to the appearance of their tanks. I can tell right away when a tank isn't running uv just by the water.

Hey, bet you can't tell my water isn't run through a UV unit - my water is air clear due to ZeoVit system Coral Snow snake oil stuff. Lots of good ways to get to the same place. I've heard ozone is super effective too.

 

[Cabinetman]

I’ve ran tanks for years without and after adding one I’ll never go without. Mainly for the protection from nasty crap like brown jelly