Jeffrey's "Little Man" -ADA 60-P

for it to actually work properly, you need a highly efficient unit, most of those cheap ones sold for aquarium purposes wont do much. There was some very detailed research article about an average unit's effectiveness i read a while back.

It does help with green water, but i would say most planted tank dont use them. I guess if your main goal is to keep expensive prized fish, then an expensive unit might do some good.

jmhart said:
Actually, it's quite the opposite. The myth that UV sterilizers can be harmful is spread around, but there's no truth to it. It mostly stems from a lack of understanding on what they do and how they work.

UV Sterilizer can do no harm.

They are great for algae control and dealing with water-borne parasites. Green Water, Bacteria Bloom, Ich...no worries if you have a UV. I also wouldn't ever have any high end fish without one. It'd be a shame to lose some Altums or Stendker Discus to a parasite that could have been killed off by a UV.

It's not a necessity in FW, but it's a great convenience. If you have the opportunity to pick one up cheap, you'll really appreciate it.
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gagaliya said:
for it to actually work properly, you need a highly efficient unit, most of those cheap ones sold for aquarium purposes wont do much. There was some very detailed research article about an average unit's effectiveness i read a while back.
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I can't really comment on this too much. I've never seen nor heard about such an article. I'd be interested to examine it's claims and see under what circumstances they suggest UV is ineffective. Obviously too high of a flow rate or too weak of a bulb will render a UV useless, but I've never seen anything that suggests that your typical aquarium-marketed UV used within manufacturers guidelines won't do much.

If you come across it again, be sure to post a link.

I can only comment on my own experience. UV Sterilizers do knock out GW, that's pretty easy to witness, and in my experience they have a significant effect on water-borne pathogens. Our local club went in for a group buy on Cardinal Tetras. The entire shipment came in with ich. After getting my 25 fish, I slapped my UV on the tank and didn't lose a single one, while others in the club lost at least half.


gagaliya said:
It does help with green water, but i would say most planted tank dont use them. I guess if your main goal is to keep expensive prized fish, then an expensive unit might do some good.
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Absolutely. In your average FW aquarium, UVs are not necessary. They are a luxury on a planted tank since you don't have to worry about GW. They only really start to become important when you start purchasing high end fish. But that's the same reason to use one in SW tanks, except in SW, almost all of the fish are "high end" compared to FW fish. :)

The only downside of a UV is that it reduces flow...and that's only a downside if you didn't plan for it.

<===2217 on a 17g tank :dance:
 
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Little update:

Aromatica died...RIP. It just didn't survivie the cycling/high co2/soft water...a lot of things, it didn't make it.

I did a bit of rearranging. Move the Rotala 'green' over to where the aromatica was. Divided and pushed back the japonica, rearranged a few anubias, and planted the rest of the HC. The HC that was planted was filling in very nicely, but I decided to plant the rest to help out.

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Algae has set it. Not at all unexpected. I'm not doing a thing about it until it's cycled.

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Last reading ammonia was at 2 ppm, nitrite was at 0 ppm, and nitrate was under 5 ppm. I did a large water change today, and I'll be out of town for the holidays. If I had to guess, I'll be good to put fish in it next week.
 
roscoe70 said:
Drop checker and pearling indicate the CO2 is doing it's thing. Thanks for the update, stay safe during the holidays and Good Luck.
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Yeah, since I don't have any livestock in there yet I've got the co2 jacked up pretty high. I'll have to cut it down once the tank is cycled.
 
I know it and I still didn't follow it:

"Never adjust co2 unless you'll be around to see what happens"

I adjusted my co2, trying to get it to a good level for livestock, and wouldn't you know it, I turned it too far down....and then went out of town for 5 days. Man, ALGAE CITY!!!

It's the kind that's like a monstrous mix of diatoms and string, and covers the entire tank in days. No big worries, scooped out a bunch of it and kicked the co2 back up, stuff's already dying off.

Meanwhile, I tested NH3, hovering around the 2ppm level still.

And the wait continues.
 
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