UV Clarifier or not?

[seangee]

Just curious if you do or don't. I have never bothered in the past but while re-plumbing my outdoor pond in December it occurred to me that I would not consider being without one there so I bought one of the cheap all in ones on Amazon and been running it 24/7 since. Had no problems that needed fixing but figured it may help protect against potential bacterial blooms.

Its paid for, running costs are negligible and bulbs are cheap. So the only reason for taking it out is appearance if the consensus is that it does nothing. (The peppered cory who has adopted the U tube as his personal cave may disagree.)

 

[Byron]

Are you meaning a UV in an aquarium, or still in the pond (presumably outdoors)?

Second thing, the UV must not be in the actual aquarium/pond, where fish can be impacted. UV light will blind fish and animals, and cause other serious problems, even death.

 

[Toney]

Bryon... the bulb is enclose the fish can't even see it.

They do clear up green water and make the water crystal clear.

 

[AbbeysDad]

I've always had clear water, but I also run a diatom filter for several hours weekly following the water change which filters out free floating algae, virus, and pathogens that ultra-violet light would kill. So although I've never seen a real need, UV units certainly can be beneficial.
Now in ponds, I've often seen them used in-line before the filter box and I've wondered if it wouldn't be better if they were after the filter box so that large debris wouldn't reduce their effectiveness. (just thinking out loud).

 

[seangee]

Are you meaning a UV in an aquarium, or still in the pond (presumably outdoors)?

Second thing, the UV must not be in the actual aquarium/pond, where fish can be impacted. UV light will blind fish and animals, and cause other serious problems, even death.

Yes I did mean in an aquarium. Its like a mini filter with a black PVC canister. Instead of filter media it contains a UVC bulb. Mine has a 9W bulb and flows (not verified) a claimed 200 litres / hour.

 

[NickAu]

Kinda like this?

 

[seangee]

I've always had clear water, but I also run a diatom filter for several hours weekly following the water change which filters out free floating algae, virus, and pathogens that ultra-violet light would kill. So although I've never seen a real need, UV units certainly can be beneficial.
Now in ponds, I've often seen them used in-line before the filter box and I've wondered if it wouldn't be better if they were after the filter box so that large debris wouldn't reduce their effectiveness. (just thinking out loud).

Plenty of debate around this. I do favour after. My pond has 2 canisters in series. These do include UVC (which is after filtration). One of the lids has had water ingress so for the last few years I have been running a single UVC. When I did my winter maintenance in December I bought a separate independent unit with a much higher wattage and installed it between the canisters.

That way I get clean water into the UV and hopefully whatever is killed in the UV will get caught in the second filter on the way out. The original setup was pretty effective, although I did get the occasional algae bloom in warmer weather when the daylight hours are at their peak. Hopefully those will be avoided now as my wattage has quadrupled. Of course it is still a month or two before I turn that light on

 

[Byron]

Bryon... the bulb is enclose the fish can't even see it.

They do clear up green water and make the water crystal clear.

I asked about this because the OP said the cory had adopted the U tube as his personal cave. I thought it best to clear that up.

As for the green water, true...but there should not be green water to begin with; this is one method to deal with abnormal issues but as always it is best if one can find the cause and deal with that rather than masking it.

As for crystal clear water, same here; my sponge filters provide crystal clear water in my tanks at far less risk and cost.

 

[Byron]

Yes I did mean in an aquarium. Its like a mini filter with a black PVC canister. Instead of filter media it contains a UVC bulb. Mine has a 9W bulb and flows (not verified) a claimed 200 litres / hour.

You certainly do not "need" UV in a freshwater aquarium. And, it should not be necessary. Marine tanks are a different thing, as I suppose are outdoor ponds. But as you have now specified freshwater aquarium, I would not bother with a UV.

As was mentioned in another post, UV is useful for green water which is caused by suspended unicellular algae in the water column. However, if you do encounter this, it is better to find out the cause and deal with that. UV will have no effect on any other forms of algae which live on surfaces. UV can only "nuke" stuff in the water as it passes through.

Which brings me to parasites like ich. This will only be effective if all the water passes through the UV before any of it returns to the aquarium...i.e., draining the aquarium completely of the water which passes through the UV, then refilling. Second, as ich is only in a free swimming state for roughly 24 hours out of its 6-7 day life cycle, even this will not deal with it.

The above draining of the aquarium also applies to bacteria; any water left in the aquarium will likely contain these pathogens (ich, bacteria) and as the UV-treated water returns, the pathogens are free to re-colonize that water. UV has been shown to help, but not fully eliminate. And again, there are better treatments for most issues.

And prevention rather than treatment is always top be preferred. A biologically balanced aquarium with regular substantial partial water changes will not likely develop these problems.

 

[seangee]

Just for clarification <groan > ...
It never went in to address any problems.
I won't be posting any rave reviews on Amazon about how it cleared my water - because it was already clear.

Figured it was more of a failsafe or insurance, much in the same way as I have 2 filters when either one of them could easily handle double (or more) the bioload I'm asking them to.

 

[Toney]

What really amazed me is 5 or 6 days into a water change when the water starts looking a little yellowish looking in from the end of the tank, running the uv in my can a day or two a week the fish will look like their still swimming in air.

 

[AbbeysDad]

What really amazed me is 5 or 6 days into a water change when the water starts looking a little yellowish looking in from the end of the tank, running the uv in my can a day or two a week the fish will look like their still swimming in air.

Well as I mentioned, UV sterilizers can be beneficial. However, as Byron was pointing out, a good move would be to try and figure out why your water is turning yellow in 5 days.
I'm retired now, but when I was in industry, for a time I was a shift supervisor in manufacturing where I was, among other things, a trouble shooter for a lot of high tech manufacturing problems. The objective was always to identify and solve a problem at it's root cause, rather than to compensate for it externally.
For example, since the UV knocks it down, we'd have to suspect algae since UV would not remove pollution causing the yellow tinge... so we might look [even more] closely at the water quality and the photo period that promotes algae.

 

[Toney]

Put your water into a white container just before a water change and tell me it doesnt have some color, I don't care how well a tank is taken care of, you might not see it through the front of a tank, but you will looking through from the long end


If you want to try a uv it won't hurt a damn thang, people around here just like preaching


By the way my water is just fine, my can just happen to have a uv built in......

 

[seangee]

What really amazed me is 5 or 6 days into a water change when the water starts looking a little yellowish looking in from the end of the tank, running the uv in my can a day or two a week the fish will look like their still swimming in air.

The narrow end of my tank is next to my desk at home. It does often look like the fish at the far end have escaped and are floating on air behind the tank. If I do want my water to stop looking yellow (I prefer to call it gold) I'll just stop giving them a pot of rooibos tea with their water changes.

 

[AbbeysDad]

If you want to try a uv it won't hurt a damn thang, people around here just like preaching

Just trying to be helpful.