U.V. Water treatment

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Shaun

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Mar 16, 2003
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Berwick-upon-Tweed area of Northumberland (UK)
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Hi
I have recently obtained a u/v sterilisation unit that only needs a new lamp (I am assured). As I have not used one in the past I asked a few basic questions and all seems fine but the last comment has been bugging me the lad said "once you start using it you must carry on using it ". My intention was to use it with a power filter to clean my tanks periodically (both tanks have filtration but just to give an occasional polish); possibly when doing water changes just to zap the tank water and kill any possible contamination. My question is once used on a tank do you have to leave attached or can I use it on different tanks (avoiding cross contamination by cleaning filter and unit) safely. I have not yet populated my tanks yet as I want to avoid any calamities with being to impatient. Hope some body can help .
 
I don't have a U.V. filter but I know many who do and I don't know why you'd have a problem cross-pollinating as long you clean it well.
 
UV filters do not clean your water. They sterilize it by killing all the things living in the water--both the good, beneficial bacteria and micro-organisms and the bad. Those dead bodies remain in the water column until the are either removed via mechanical filtration or rot away. Unless you have serious problems with parasites, there is no reason to run a UV on an aquarium, and many reasons to avoid them. All those micro-organisms--ones you don't even see--help keep the water clean and happy. They eat the diatoms and unicellular algaes, and compete with algaes for the nutrients in your water column. If you kill them off, you'll see lots of algaes (including green water) once you remove the UV (that kills the free floating algaes as well).

Instead of rotating it around on your tanks, I would use it just for a quarantine/hospital tank, and never in your main tanks. Think of it like a medication--you don't use it all the time, just when needed.
 
I agree totally with OrionGirl. UV does little to help a healthy tank. I have used it successfuly to eliminate a stubborn marine ich (crytpocaryon) problem, though. It's also good if you are running multiple tanks from the same filtration system, to keep disease from spreading.
Moving the unit around won't do much good. If you are trying to get rid of microorganisms, the unit has to be there on a continuous basis to keep killing them. Think about how it works, water goes in, the organisms are killed, and the sterilized water is mixed back in with the germ-filled water. If there is something bad in there, it will take many passes to kill significant numbers of them, and they will come right back if you stop.
It probably won't harm your nitrifying bacteria, those are mostly forming a biofilm on surfaces in your tank. Oriongirl already pointed out, though, that there are lots of other suspended organisms that don't need to be killed.
My advice is to put it aside unless you have a parasite problem. A healthy aquarium is not even close to sterile, and killing the beneficial bacteria and microalgae will do little good and may be harmful in the long run.
 
You don't have to run it all the time. Just turn it off. It makes your water crystal clear. I had a really bad green-water algae problem before I got it, but now my water is completely clear.

I haven't seen the negative affects from killing the "good bacteria." Can you point me to a book or something that talks about this in detail as I've seen no ill affects at all from using it?
 
It's not the good bacteria (ie, nitrification bacteria) so much as the good micro fauna (ie, copopods, amoeba, the little critters kveeti took pics of). All of those critters work together to consume the organics within a tank. Wiping them out leaves those nutrients available for other, less desirable organisms, like free floating algaes and free floating bacteria. It may be that these micro fauna are more important in a planted tank, but I think they are useful in any system.
 
It is a matter of personal preference. It is my preference to use them on my larger tanks. I feel the reward of killing the bad guys, parasitic assaults is worth the risk of killing the good guys. However, that being said, I wouldn't run one anything less than 24/7. By sterilizing your water, it is almost impossible for it not to be clearer, particularly if algae or bacterial blooms rear their ugly heads on occasion. If you use one, I advocate using it 24/7. I have a fairly heavily planted tank with no problems. The biggest drawback is the cost, however if that isn't the issue then I don't see a legitimate issue at least on my tanks.
 
After hearing "pros and cons" of using a UV Sterilizer, over a year or so.. I will never give up my UV Sterilizer. I think cycling the use of it is good, but also have heard 24/7 is good too. So, maybe it's a preference thing as mentioned.

Seems like it falls on the lines of a Diatom Filter. Some say they have no use for one, and others' couldn't do without it.
 
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