Uv Sterilizer

[Gooner]

I would like to put a UV sterilizer on a discus setup as a precautionary measure. As I have two external filters would I need to put one on each filter or would the most powerful one be sufficient? The one I had in mind is this one E-Bay link.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Gooner.

 

[JoshuaA]

I have a UV steriliser built into one of my filters, I normally just measure how many times my filter turns my tank over and then only put the UV on for about 10x turn over of the tank. It's now progressed to the point I always leave it on because I get a bit lazy.

In my mind the theory is that most of the bacteria free in the water will have *fingers crossed* passed through the filter within the time the tank has been turned over 10 times. Unfortunately I doubt that is the case, possibly the bacteria just hangs around in the filter media but then if it ever breaks off it will no doubt get murdered in the outlet pipe.

So to answer your question, I would say just put it in the most powerful one there is no point wasting twice as much energy.

 

[Gooner]

Right, sort of understand!!! So, the UV does not need to be on 24/7?

 

[JoshuaA]

Right, sort of understand!!! So, the UV does not need to be on 24/7?

Well its up to you, over all if you think about it the UV won't be 100% efficient unless it lights up everything including the entire contents of your tank because it can only kill things that past through the tube it is in. Anyway I normally only put it on for a few hours a day but now I have it on 24/7 because I can't be bothered turning it off. I can't put a timer switch on because it is built into the filter on the same plug the filter is on.

However I have noticed that my water does seem to be crystal clear since I've been leaving it on at all time, I haven't noticed any benefits of doing it other than though. It has been on 24/7 for the last 2 months now but it doesn't seem to stop algae that's for sure!

Short answer - it doesn't need to be on 24/7, but if you do the only thing it will harm is your electricity bill. (AFAIK UV is probably going to be the same amount of energy that your filter uses).

 

[OldMan47]

What is the nature of what you are contemplating Gooner?