Uv Sterilizers

[Tobigara]

Apparently uv sterilizers do some pretty impressive thing.
Does anyone have any recomendations as to brand name or type? I'd like to get one that i can move around as needed so i don't want to cut the hoses on my canister.

thanks in advance

 

[Lateral Line]

UV steriliser sellers say they do some pretty amazing things.

Whilst true that in certain marine systems a UV can be a really useful thing, in most freshwater setups that are not running on centralised filtration, they are of very limited value. In such a setup, what they have the ability to do is treat the symptoms of problems without changing the cause, as such, they can be counter productive.

Why do you think you need one?

 

[Tobigara]

i've read that a uv sterilizer helps delicate fish stay healthy by killing the pathogens in the water. i don't have an algae problem at all.. i have 2 blue jd's and they are delicate until they reach maturity IME. i keep my water pretty well for a beginner but if a uv sterilizer will help keep them alive and healthier then i'm deffinitely willing to look into buying one. i only want one as a back up incase water changes and meds don't so the trick

 

[T1KARMANN]

they are great i would run a tank without one

why would you want to move it around they need to be on a tank 24/7 to get the benfits as far as i know algue and parasites DONT sleep

the best unit on the market in the UK is the vectron

 

[Tobigara]

i was thinking that i don't want to rely on one if i did get one. i see your point T1. i'm still not sure about getting one tho

 

[T1KARMANN]

well i have had them on my tank for close to 15yrs

i have not had white spot in my tank since

they kill the white spot and other parasites in the free swimming stage

i have had 2 tigers come into my tank with white spot after the spots fell of to multiply they never came back

i have always had fish that fight alot and they have never got any parasites or infection

its hard to tell if they are good for algue as my tank doesnt get much sun light but i do have 3 x light tubes on my tank for 10 hours per day and their is no algue in my tank

they dont take much looking after just change the bulb every 6months to 1yr depending on what bulb you have

and change the hose conections every 2yrs

 

[Tobigara]

i think you just sold me on getting one. what brand would you get? Corallife?

 

[T1KARMANN]

diffrent brand hear in the UK the most popular are the vectron as most shops sell parts for them

their is a new type of internal UV but i dont know to much about it

 

[Lateral Line]

Your money of course. I have never had one on any of my tanks, and also never have disease, pathogen or algæ problems. One of my friends has one on his garden pond to keep his water clear, although I have other friends that do not and also have clear pools...

 

[T1KARMANN]

a pond UV is a diffrent thing totally

pond = UVC
tank = UVS

diffrent thing a pond UV is no good for a tank

 

[andywg]

I have seen first hand just how quickly a Vecton UV unit will cull down a whitespot infection in tanks (both FW and marine).

A UV unit cannot be relied upon solely to completely erradicate whitespot as it does not treat all the water at once, however it does very swiftly bring the outbreak under control.

 

[raptorrex]

to start i will say i am a fan of UV units like this. i do however have reservations on using them full time on a Freshwater tank.
these are theoretical arguments, i only use one once recently, to sort and algae problem, and it was stunning in its effect!

would the fact that they kill pathogens swimming free in the water not, potentially, increase your fishes susceptibility to infection. reducing the fishes own immune system? indeed if you have algae eaters like plecos of inverts, you would be reducing the amount of "free" food they were getting. also, after a thread discussion with Bignose, there is the fact that UV units can react with some meds, we were discussing TeaTree oil, but much the same would be true of any oil based product.

this is the one i borrowed: http/www.rocketaquatics.co.uk/bfish-inte...lons-p-222.html

i am not suggestion you buy it from here, it was just the first link i found. being a complete unit, pump and light, it lends itself to being put in and out of the tank when needed.

 

[MELVIN ASHLEY]

hi guys iv had a vecton 15watt uv for years dont forget you must get the 1 thats right for your filter what ever water it pump out volume to mach the uv if you do get ic just put your temp up in the high and it will go cant stand high temp hope this helps

 

[Tobigara]

to start i will say i am a fan of UV units like this. i do however have reservations on using them full time on a Freshwater tank.
these are theoretical arguments, i only use one once recently, to sort and algae problem, and it was stunning in its effect!

would the fact that they kill pathogens swimming free in the water not, potentially, increase your fishes susceptibility to infection. reducing the fishes own immune system? indeed if you have algae eaters like plecos of inverts, you would be reducing the amount of "free" food they were getting. also, after a thread discussion with Bignose, there is the fact that UV units can react with some meds, we were discussing TeaTree oil, but much the same would be true of any oil based product.

this is the one i borrowed: [URL="http/www.rocketaquatics.co.uk/bfish-inte...lons-p-222.html"]http/www.rocketaquatics.co.uk/bfish-inte...lons-p-222.html[/URL]

i am not suggestion you buy it from here, it was just the first link i found. being a complete unit, pump and light, it lends itself to being put in and out of the tank when needed.

what do you mean when you say they react with oil based products? does that include pimafix and melafix?

 

[raptorrex]

to start i will say i am a fan of UV units like this. i do however have reservations on using them full time on a Freshwater tank.
these are theoretical arguments, i only use one once recently, to sort and algae problem, and it was stunning in its effect!

would the fact that they kill pathogens swimming free in the water not, potentially, increase your fishes susceptibility to infection. reducing the fishes own immune system? indeed if you have algae eaters like plecos of inverts, you would be reducing the amount of "free" food they were getting. also, after a thread discussion with Bignose, there is the fact that UV units can react with some meds, we were discussing TeaTree oil, but much the same would be true of any oil based product.

this is the one i borrowed: <a href="http/www.rocketaquatics.co.uk/bfish-inte...lons-p-222.html" target="_blank">http/www.rocketaquatics.co.uk/bfish-inte...lons-p-222.html</a>

i am not suggestion you buy it from here, it was just the first link i found. being a complete unit, pump and light, it lends itself to being put in and out of the tank when needed.

what do you mean when you say they react with oil based products? does that include pimafix and melafix?

yep it would seem so!

bignose

No, actually I think that a UV sterilizer would indeed render melafix and most other medicines ineffective and maybe even create some very undesirable by-products. The chemistry of UV can be very tricky, but some of the things it can do is energize bonds so that something else in the water will bond to the medicinal chemical. Or, UV can help break bonds, cutting the medicinal molecule in half or smaller parts. UV is high energy, so it will dramatically increase/change the reactivity of molecules that go through it. Lots of medicines are deactivated by sunlight, for example, well, the UV lamp is basically a mini-sun right there. It is not just a staining the bulb issue, but a rearrangement of the molecules issue. And, rearrangement could result in just the medicine being less effective, to non-effective, or possibly creating some very dangerous compounds in the water. It is just something I wouldn't do,

bognose

yvez, tea tree oil is a large organic chemical. UV light is great at reacting with those carbon-carbon and carbon-oxygen bonds -- plenty of those in any oil. It is just something I wouldn't risk.

Also, what isn't a 'chemical'? What you are trying to distinguish with your terminology there is very unclear.

Also, sticking you arm in the water has nothing to do with how a chemical reacts with UV. Stick your arm in a UV steralize for a while and see how it reacts. Or, safer yet, stick your arm in a tanner. The chemicals on your skin do indeed react to UV light -- either by tanning or burning. But, that is not directly comparable since on the one hand (literally) you have body tissues and on the other you have an isolated molecule.

UV lights are used an awfully lot in polymer chemistry. I have used UV lamps in the lab before for exactly this purpose. UV lamps are used exactly because they energize the bonds of the chemicals and make them more reactive. For studies of polymers, that is good so that you can get the monomers to be more reactive and join together. But, for fishkeeping use, we do NOT want energized molecules in the tank, because they will find something to bond to. And that newly formed compound could be dangerous. I am not talking about instant death or anything, I am not trying to use scare tactics. But, it is some byproduct that isn't useful and possible harmful in the tank, and i think that most of us want to keep out tanks are natural and as chemical-free as possible.

taken from this thread: http/www.fishforums.net/content/forum/19...-Uv-Sterilizer/