Ultraviolent sterilizer up and runnin'....

[joe schmoe]

Custom Sealife 9w sterilizer and new Fluval. After a few hiccups with the Fluval, things are running smoothly now. FYI, I raised the sterilzer to prevent the one lenth of silicone hose from kinking over time. There were a few little issues with the hoses and fittings on both the sterilizer and the Fluval, but they were pretty easy to overcome with a little imgination. (PICS REMOVED)


(Some text so I don't throw off someone using the search)
ultraviolet ultra violet

[Dabbler II]

Joe you will love your new UV. By tomorrow you will notice a great differance in the clarity of the water (you will see the back of the tank:D ) I had the same problem as you on my 120, it will prob. take about 3 days and your tank will be lookin great:D

[joe schmoe]

A 50% water change and less than 2 days later...much clearer water.
(PICS REMOVED)

[bobalston]

Be sure to post and tell us the results after a few weeks.

Bob

[joe schmoe]

Anything in particular I should keep my eye on?? (pertaining to the addition of the UV sterilizer)

[Captain Hook]

Joe I couldn't tell by the first pic but that's a really good looking tank. Should be very nice when the water clears up.

[joe schmoe]

Thanks, but this is just the experimental stage. Once I figure out what I can grow (other than the dman Hornwort), I'll start arranging things. For now, I just planted things randomly....I think it looks like a mess :D

[125gJoe]

Is your UV Sterilizer on all the time, or on a timer?

[Dabbler II]

Originally posted by joe schmoe
Anything in particular I should keep my eye on?? (pertaining to the addition of the UV sterilizer)
Just remember to clean it out about every 2-4 months. I do mine every 6 months but mine is a little larger than yours ( I have a lifeguard 25 watt on a 120 gal tank) I let mine run 24/7 with no problems

[NJ Devils Fan]

I have an 18 watt double helix and I never cleaned it once. I had it hooked to a powerhead sinse february and a few weeks ago, I got a rena dilstar so I hooked the u.v. to it. Before I attached it though, I opened it and the hoses were perfectly clean. The reflector thing on the other hand had these little hard white dots all over it.

[joe schmoe]

Originally posted by 80gJoe
Is your UV Sterilizer on all the time, or on a timer?

24/7 for now. I don't want ANY green water for a while. I may back it down later...I've read some sketchy information that says sterilzers and plant tanks don't mix well.

[plantbrain]

I'd just use it right after the water change for about 24-30 hours.

This is the only time that you really need to run it or if you see any signs of GW appearing. GW does no harm to plants so it's not a nuisance really if you have a UV.

You'll get longer life out of the bulb, get better usage when you do use it, save electric. All good reasons to only use it once a week after the water change.

The reason is for algae control? Well after a shock, algae often release zoospores which swim out of the parent cell and land somewhere and start growing a new filament.
If you have klittle or remove all the parent cells, then do a water change after you pruned, then you really reduce the chances of these from starting a bloom.

A UV just tops it off but it's certainly not a needed item. There is some debatre as to whether Chelated iron is knocked out by the UV light and some other degradation products might be formed in the UV light which breaks chemical bonds.

But I really don't see much effect personally with one on all the time or once a week ect.


Regards,
Tom Barr

[superjohnny]

I had a tank that looked much like yours before I got my UV sterilizer. Now that my plants have grown in I rarely use it. It's nice to have if you ever get a bacteria or disease outbreak, but I think in 3-4 months you'll stop using it altogether.

[TKOS]

Wow, plantbrain. Thanks for that tip. I also do my pruning after a water change. Now I will reverse that order.

Oh and that title made me laugh but no one mentioned it yet. I would be scared of such a sterilizer. :eek:

[plantbrain]

Not to hijack the thread but when you pull up anything from the substrate, disturb your filter etc, this causes the O2 levels to go down, something way down depending on how much you do.

So removing all that muck, the water itself will raise the O2 level back up with tap water. It will also siphon out any left over algae and any spores also.

Regards,
Tom Barr

[ctyank]

The ultraviolet sterilizer is a great tool to attack greet water, but there is a downside. If the underlying cause of the algae outbreak is not addressed, other forms of algae will gain a foothold.

A few months back, I tried this route but failed to solve the source problem (in my case, too much light). In very short order, I had perfectly clear water and blue green algae covering everything. :sick: This was no fun at all.

As unsighly as green water can be, it is the least problematic of the algaes. So go fix that source problem! You don't want blue green... trust me.

[joe schmoe]

Just a little update. There are lots of fine particles floating in the water. I'm fairly new to Fluvals, and they aparently don't do a very good job with the really small stuff. I don't want to spend any more money on filters right now (the LFSs don't rent equipment), so I'm going to have to deal with it.

Nitrates are already up to about 7PPM, from 0PPM on the day the sterilizer was added. Keeping an eye out for algae of all forms, and I'm going to decrease the amount of food given.

[bobalston]

My Fluval 204 does a great job. Maybe yours is in need of a good cleaning. Als be careful how you put the sponges back in - to position properly to avoid bypass.

Bob

[NJ Devils Fan]

Try filter fluff, it does a good job at getting the small particles.

[750t]

Amen, filter floss is amazing stuff. Id be lost with out it.

[joe schmoe]

Less than one week after adding the sterilizer, and just about all of the plants are showing signs of good growth.

All Java ferns have lots of new sprouts. The ferns are all planted in the substrate and although that's not ideal, the only ones that aren't doing REALLY good are the ones I buried too much. Those are just doing OK. Most of the Crytocorynes are sending up new chutes and leaves....except for C. becketii. The becketii didn't react well to shipping...but it's starting one new leaf. Green Hygro is doing well. Since removing the green water, the Hygro isn't growing as much from the tops of the stems, but leaves are now growing everywhere else on the stems - I can see it becoming bushier over time. The Rotala indica was really sad for a long time after shipping, but now lots of little leaves are growing out of the tops of the stems. The rest of the plant looks sorry. One Wisteria disappeared within a day of arriving and being planted, the other is sad looking, but it showing some new sprouts as well. Strangely, the Hornwort that was just showing insane growth in the Green water, is now growing much slower.

I have trouble identifying most of the plants, so I'll just show pics. In case the point of the pics isn't obvious, I'm trying to show areas of new growth in the past week...

(pics removed)

[joe schmoe]

Great suggestion!

I went out and purchased some floss a couple of days ago and it's made a world of difference. While installing it, I found that I had stacked the Fluval containers in the wrong order. As I mentioned, I'm a fluval newbie.

They were stacked bottom to top.....gravel from an established tank/carbon/prefilter/prefilter.

Now they are stacked bottom to top.....prefilter/prefilter/floss/gravel

With the exception of the one running the sterilizer...it's stacked with carbon instead of gravel at the top level.

The results...looking lengthwise thru 5 feet of water:
http://webpages.charter.net/res0t2li/clear.jpg
http://webpages.charter.net/res0t2li/clear2.jpg

[NJ Devils Fan]

Nice, it's looking good.