what size do you use for a 10g, because im thinking of turning my 10g into a hatchery for african cichlids and plan to fill it with egg tumblers. i plan to use it to cut down algae and disease so they dont mess with the tumbling eggs and wrigglers.
Usefulness of UV Sterilizer
- Thread starter Chrisk-K
- Start date
I haven't tried any of these yet, but I just ordered some after searching out the cheapest wattage I could find for the bucks.
http://cgi.ebay.com/36W-UV-Steriliz...trkparmsZalgo=RCSI&its=I&itu=UCI&otn=10&ps=63
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemVersion&item=380183747649&view=all&tid=145027111025
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemVersion&item=110464773958&view=all&tid=469764401001
I started out at a local fluorescent lighting specialty shop that makes their own fixtures but then realized that all everybody does now is assemble or re-sell Red Chinese components, so I figured I might as well give the cheapo imports a whirl. I mean, my Nikon's imported, and probably made there too. Besides, forced labor camp comrades need to buy their kids shoes too.
I had a big one on one of my ponds for early season algae control that I appropriated for indoor use and even though it was running at way too high a volume for pathogen control it turned "clean" water into invisible water. I also just ordered a microscope so that I can verify the effects of my tuning attempts. I figure the same people that tell me I can filter a 75g. tank with a qt. sized HOB are probably the same optimistic marketing and ad people that determined the capacity for the sterilizers. While shopping around I quickly realized that there is no consensus among the manufacturers.
So, just to be safe I figure to oversize my U.V. unit and under drive the circulation. A lot of these were rated at about 145 gph, so after allowing for head pressure etc. I have an assortment of mag drive pumps and a couple of flow meters so I can dial the flow down to about 2/3 of what they claim. Might even go half.
Maybe I'm just slow but it seems to me that if you run the entire contents of a 75g. tank through an 18-24w. sterilizer every hour for 8-12 hrs. everything in that water should be dealt with, so why run it again the very next day? The bulbs require replacing every 6 mths. to a year, so why burn 'em out any quicker than you have to. Maybe you can get away with a real thorough zap job every 3-4 days? That's another excuse for buying the scope.
As for "tuned" systems. Again, there's a lot of optimistic marketing coming out of the manufacturers but no real consensus. If the system has a self contained pump that's tuned to a specific flow matched to the exposure to a given wattage bulb, what happens when you install that unit in a tall tank vs. a long tank. There's more pressure at the bottom of the deeper tank of the same volume, so the unit would flow slower right? Also, the box gives the same flow/effectiveness rate for fresh and salt water. Salt water is a heck of a lot denser, higher specific gravity and all of that, so how is it that the U.V. light waves aren't effected at all by this differential. Salt water's got, well...salt in it, so light can't possibly travel the same through the two differing mediums.
Call me a cynic, but I've had serious trust issues ever since the President told us that he was going to get us out of a war by first getting us deeper into it...I just can't remember which war or President that was...Obama, Bush, Nixon, Johnson, Kennedy,...well you get the point.
If these things end up working half as good as I'm hoping I think I want to try cleaning my water the way they want to clean our meat...with radiation. Hey! It could work! A little lead shielding, a little cooling tower, and look at all of the money we could save on heaters! Imagine the look of iridescent scales with a little added radium glow... :screwy:
http://cgi.ebay.com/36W-UV-Steriliz...trkparmsZalgo=RCSI&its=I&itu=UCI&otn=10&ps=63
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemVersion&item=380183747649&view=all&tid=145027111025
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemVersion&item=110464773958&view=all&tid=469764401001
I started out at a local fluorescent lighting specialty shop that makes their own fixtures but then realized that all everybody does now is assemble or re-sell Red Chinese components, so I figured I might as well give the cheapo imports a whirl. I mean, my Nikon's imported, and probably made there too. Besides, forced labor camp comrades need to buy their kids shoes too.
I had a big one on one of my ponds for early season algae control that I appropriated for indoor use and even though it was running at way too high a volume for pathogen control it turned "clean" water into invisible water. I also just ordered a microscope so that I can verify the effects of my tuning attempts. I figure the same people that tell me I can filter a 75g. tank with a qt. sized HOB are probably the same optimistic marketing and ad people that determined the capacity for the sterilizers. While shopping around I quickly realized that there is no consensus among the manufacturers.
So, just to be safe I figure to oversize my U.V. unit and under drive the circulation. A lot of these were rated at about 145 gph, so after allowing for head pressure etc. I have an assortment of mag drive pumps and a couple of flow meters so I can dial the flow down to about 2/3 of what they claim. Might even go half.
Maybe I'm just slow but it seems to me that if you run the entire contents of a 75g. tank through an 18-24w. sterilizer every hour for 8-12 hrs. everything in that water should be dealt with, so why run it again the very next day? The bulbs require replacing every 6 mths. to a year, so why burn 'em out any quicker than you have to. Maybe you can get away with a real thorough zap job every 3-4 days? That's another excuse for buying the scope.
As for "tuned" systems. Again, there's a lot of optimistic marketing coming out of the manufacturers but no real consensus. If the system has a self contained pump that's tuned to a specific flow matched to the exposure to a given wattage bulb, what happens when you install that unit in a tall tank vs. a long tank. There's more pressure at the bottom of the deeper tank of the same volume, so the unit would flow slower right? Also, the box gives the same flow/effectiveness rate for fresh and salt water. Salt water is a heck of a lot denser, higher specific gravity and all of that, so how is it that the U.V. light waves aren't effected at all by this differential. Salt water's got, well...salt in it, so light can't possibly travel the same through the two differing mediums.
Call me a cynic, but I've had serious trust issues ever since the President told us that he was going to get us out of a war by first getting us deeper into it...I just can't remember which war or President that was...Obama, Bush, Nixon, Johnson, Kennedy,...well you get the point.
If these things end up working half as good as I'm hoping I think I want to try cleaning my water the way they want to clean our meat...with radiation. Hey! It could work! A little lead shielding, a little cooling tower, and look at all of the money we could save on heaters! Imagine the look of iridescent scales with a little added radium glow... :screwy:
I'd like to see pics also. How big is it? I don't like the idea of it being an internal system using up valuable swimming space. I have an 8 watt Pentair Aquatics Rainbow Lifegard canister type uv system but have yet to use it.
I should have mine in a few days and I'll psot some scaled pics when they get here. I also ordered an in tank 9w. that I believe is about the size of the Pentair, but to be honest I never really looked at the sizes of any of them. Great point, especially since I had planned on moving the submersible around in some of my smaller tanks...Duh...what if it don't fit?
Did you order the green killing machine? Either way it looks like it could easily be modded to be used externally if need be. It looks like it only has one squared inlet hole that could probably be sealed with plexi glass and silicone. A hose adapter could then be attached to it.
Nah, but it looks pretty close. They probably all come out of the same communist forced labor camps. Just recvd. a pile of the external units and they go together pretty easily. Hooked one up on a planted 72 that's been an algae pain and I'm not sure what's working better, the (6) new mollies or the 18w. U.V.
CWO4GUNNER
USN/USCG 1974-2004 Weps
All the GKM is are a two part unit. The bulb housing that has crisscross passages that pass along a very large U-shape folded bulb which is about 24" long. Then there is the detachable power head which has a low 70 GPH matched to the bulb for performance. So there is no guess work as the formula for Bulb/water moment has already been worked out at a great price I might add considering its a complete matched system. This is why the performance reviews are always good and consistent. No custom guesswork.
I got a 9w Green Killing Machine. Since I got it, I have never seen an iota of algae in my 40 g tank. The tank water is so clear than fish appear to swim in liquid air. I'm sold!
I plan to buy a Gamma 15W or a Lifegard 15W and a small pump, though (I'll use the GKM as a backup) because (1) the GKM's just too ugly, (2) I could use a higher GPH to accelerate the cleansing process, and (3) I'd like to place the UV sterilizer outside the tank. With a 15w UV bulb, I can have 250 GPH to kill diatoms and 100 GHP to kill parasites.
Not everyone needs a UV sterilizer, but if you have $$, it's a great investment.
