What's the danger of pulling from my inflow chamber and pushing to my skimmer chamber with a UV Sterilizer (Red Sea 750)?

chemchris

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After battling some outbreaks Im now running fallow and want to reduce risk as much as possible against future outbreaks. I see a lot of people recommend plumbing the UV sterilizer into the tank return since 100% of the tank water goes through the sterilizer and it sounds great in theory. However my return pump will never be a 1:1 match with the suggested flow rate through my UV sterilizer.
I wanted to see what other people with my tank were doing and came across a post where someone pulled from the inflow chamber but bypassed the skimmer chamber to plumb right into the return line. Why not just drop the output of the UV sterilizer right into the skimmer chamber and call it a day?


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Dread Pirate Dave

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Does the return pump flow a higher GPH than your UV is rated for? If I understand correctly you are going to T off of your incoming overflow water with a portion going to your UV. Is that correct? I'm just wondering how you'll monitor that branch's GPH to make sure it is within range.

If it was me I would just add a separate pump with the needed GPH to feed the UV from the skimmer compartment. Or just T off the return pump and use a ball valve to regulate the flow into the skimmer, provided the pump has enough capacity to handle both. (ie. running at 50% now) :)
 

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