Gamma vs Turbo Twist vs Lifegard UV Sterilizer

I have a turbo twist 18 Watt and hate it.

I have replaced the ballast 3 times.
It is blown out now and doesnt work
I never changed the original bulb in it.

I wouldn't buy another one.

I bought my first "Green Killing Machine" 24W Jan09 and was so impressed with the performance that I bought one every time I added a tank, I own 5 now and only had 1 bulb blow after almost a year. They work so well 4 of my tanks are across or adjacent to outside windows and I use daylight mostly to light them and have no algae problems. They work so well I placed them all on timers only using them 12 hours a day.

A great UV sterilizer comes complete with its own performance matched pump and at only $59 a great value. But then this is almost common knowledge as I have posted this about 6 times.

Oh with respect to your question, I wouldn't choose any of those myself as I m sold on the performance, dependability and value of the GKM.

i bought a diy one quite some time ago figuring if i really like the job it does i could make another one and so on. well i must admit i really like it but have been too lazy to track down parts to make another one. i find the one down side is it doesn't have it's own pump. that was fine for me since i have it plumbed in line after my canister to keep particulates out. one thing i really like is since it's made with pvc and the couplers are 2" i can use pvc hangers to mount it and easily remove it for maintenance. i too have found it very efficient and run it opposite my lights on my day/night timer. that's 12 hours on and 12 off. i've gotta admit i've dropped this thing several times and it's never been worse for wear due to the pvc construction... which i'm pleased with. i'm pretty sure that's one thing that's not common among uv sterilizers. the one thing i did do was put a new 3 prong plug on it so i can utilize the ground wire but that may just be me being anal. another thing is there is no need for an indicator light or window. if the light is on the pvc glows green ever so gently so you'll know if the bulb goes bad. the one thing i would recommend is getting some replacement o rings for it since they seem to be hard to find in my area.

anyway, here's the sterilizer... http://americanaquariumproducts.com/15WattUVSterilizer.html
here's the hangers that can mount it on or in your cabinet... http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&q=pvc+hangers&cid=2021989502782494744&sa=image#p
and for disconnecting without making a mess i recommend marineland replacement couplers since they'll not only disconnect it but you can also close the valves and keep the water from spilling... http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produ...ubref=AA&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=0117826000000

EDIT: another good thing is i see a lot of unanswered questions about diy uvc when i do a search. this is the answer as far as i'm concerned. so as far as someone with a lot of tanks that's into diy projects this is a nice one imho. you can make a nice, sturdy, reliable uvc filter for cheap and fairly easily.

I have one of the small 6 watt green killing machines from Petsmart too.
I have been using it for about a month on a QT tank with no problems.
and it was only $40

I really dont like the way it is wired. But so far it works pretty good, and the price was good.

The Zigman said:

I have one of the small 6 watt green killing machines from Petsmart too.
I have been using it for about a month on a QT tank with no problems.
and it was only $40

I really dont like the way it is wired. But so far it works pretty good, and the price was good.

Click to expand...

Yeah the wiring is a little much but the whole point was to keep the AC 110 out of the tank and only have DC low voltage submerged. Also the converter box has a diode indicator that lets you know the bulb working when lit and off when it needs changing, further removing the guesswork.

Well I guess it just depends on what flow rate your comparing it to. This is not a filter truing over water for polishing and algae doesn't grow so fast that even at 50 GPH a 250 gallon tank like mine, gets water turn over every 5 hours or 5 time every day.

Consider for a moment that although you can have a rate of flow too fast past the burning UV rays that pathogens and spores are not affected. how ever once you are at the optimal rate of flow which is slow unless you have a very long bulb, going even slower only does a better job of killing like setting a brad toaster longer it does a better job.

My 244 has had a 24W GKM in it since October and its doing a great job at 50-70 GPH.

Incidentally FYI, all of the electronics the transformer, connection box, and power head are all identical it only the 9W or 24W bulbs that are different so if you ever decide to scale up to a 24W bulb or scale down to a 9W bulb it works fine. In fact your better off buying the 9W setup and an extra 24W bulb for the same price as a 24W setup.

So far I've noticed that my Chinese in-lines (9w, 18w & 36w) are doing an acceptable job on the algae. I still have one of each to connect but I'm waiting for a new microscope so that I can get a look at what my water looks like before and after. One of the 18w is on a 75g. and I got lazy and tried to just plumb it into the normal return line of a Fluval 405. The 225 gph is way higher than should be for UV, saw no discernible positive effects, so now I'm splitting the return to reduce the flow but w/o the scope all I can do is collect anecdotal bits...water looks good, algae gone, etc. I want to know that I've killed some microbes before I say how well they work. They are built about the same as the others, pretty basic helix water flow, a quartz bulb protecting sleeve and O-rings and gaskets. My larger ones are CE certified and have grounded plugs but not the 9w. None of mine came with a pump and although they all recommend 145 gph they don't mention whether that's for algae control or microbial, I'm guessing algae.

For what it's worth, I see a lot of used TT's for sale, some Lifeguards, but have never seen a used Gamma or GKM for sale and everyone that comments on the GKM has good things to say about them.

Here's one of the 18w Chinese jobs I got on Ebay for $27 delivered. It's identical to some I've seen on aquaria sites for $120-$150.

http://cgi.ebay.com/UV-POND-Light-S...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item19b880e487