Uv Sterilisers - Are They Worth The Money

[jkilby]

I am running my Eheim Ecco Pro 300 on my 200 litre tank and it is doing a great job. I went into my LFS a few days ago and was looking at the UV Sterilisers (V2 Vectons) and they have them running on all their large display tanks and I was wondering if they are really worth the money, are they a 'nice to have' or a 'should have' item?

 

[always4lora]

I am running my Eheim Ecco Pro 300 on my 200 litre tank and it is doing a great job. I went into my LFS a few days ago and was looking at the UV Sterilisers (V2 Vectons) and they have them running on all their large display tanks and I was wondering if they are really worth the money, are they a 'nice to have' or a 'should have' item?

Although i do not have any yet (always on ebay looking for them!) i'd say they're a must have! They not only stop the majority of disease's but also help with crystall clear water and getting rid of algae.

One thing to think of is if you need to medicate your tank for whitespot for example for a prolonged period of time it's going to cost you a fair bit! where as a uv sterilised doesnt cost much to run just the inital cost.

 

[anon02]

I personally wouldn`t go out of my way to install uv. The problem with relying on uv to eradicate disease is that it doesn`t treat all of the water at once so there is the potential for putting treated water back into an infected tank

 

[GavinB]

The way I see it, If you have the time to look after your tank properly, you should never need UV.

 

[Rorie]

I too am looking at them and wondering....

Is iradicating disease and clearing the water more the only thing they are good for?

How does it clear the water? I understand that the UV can do something to the disease, but how does UV effect the water clarity?....dont worry, not looking for technical speel, just rough idea!

For water clarity, can you not just filter it better?

 

[anon02]

As far as I know uv can`t remove suspended solids or tannins but I believe it can reduce algal spores, I haven`t looked into the efficacy of uv at killing bacterium or viruses for the reasons I mentioned

 

[ian]

The way I see it, If you have the time to look after your tank properly, you should never need UV.

agreed^^^

If you're just using for water clarity, then i would save some money and add some Seachem Purigen in the filter.

 

[karin]

I have a smallish UV sterilizing unit that is off right now. The one thing that it has been fabulous at is eradicating green water. I know that the story line is to figure out why you have green water and I tried, but the UV filter solved my problem. I don't us it for disease and when I was running it I still got ICH so I don't know about disease control. I also have used Seachem purigen and it is pretty amazing at helping to acheive clear water.

 

[ian]

again, i agree with you Karin. I have seen/read about some battles with green water and the 'only' thing that has worked is the UV. So they do have their uses, i just feel they don't need to be used in a freshwater aquarium. I have also read a lot of people getting problems when using them long term, and as soon as the bulb starts going, problems arise.

 

[markandhisfish]

The way I see it, If you have the time to look after your tank properly, you should never need UV.

well said. all uv's do is mask problems . stress is 1 of the biggest disease triggers in fish , a uv can kill the pathogens in the water , but can do nothing to make fish feel secure and happy . instead of investing a fair chunk of cash in a pointless product , invest a little time in a decent maintainence regime and a well set up tank.

 

[markandhisfish]

again, i agree with you Karin. I have seen/read about some battles with green water and the 'only' thing that has worked is the UV. So they do have their uses, i just feel they don't need to be used in a freshwater aquarium. I have also read a lot of people getting problems when using them long term, and as soon as the bulb starts going, problems arise.

i read a fantastic article on algae last night , and there was a bit on green water / algae blooms . the problem was cured by adding mass amounts of floating plants. along with this the tank was dosed with easylife FFM. the water cleared naturally in 10 days

 

[Vin Swords]

i like my things perfact as possible. I have over stocked, over lighted tank that need no cleaning..never done it since it was setup almost a year ago.. I only clean the glass when visiters coming or get-togethers. All down to 2 x 25w UVs... One time I forget switch them back after I was cleaning the dedicated filter... Week later my tank was like festival toilet. I switched the uv back.. Tank is back to normal in days..



Get a UV unit.. U will love it.. U can eventually forget about all the flaming cleaning. And it fairly cheap to replace the bulbs every 6 months.