UV Sterilizer for my 115 gallon?

[Victor]

the questions that i have right now are..
1. do i actually need one for my tank? how important is it? (i have an arowana, syndontis cat, and 3 parrots)

2. which one is good?

3. how much am i looking at?

4. how many watts is neccessary? I looked around and i've seen 8 watts, 9 watts, and 40.

I know that UV sterilizers do more than just kill unwanted things, but they also clarify my water right?

 

[Kasakato]

1: No
2: Dont know
3: $50-$100 ay mt LFS
4: 9w
5: Yes and no

You dont really need one. What kind of problem are you having?

 

[JSchmidt]

A UV won't really do much for water clarity unless you're having an outbreak of green water. If you have stuff in your water, you'd be better off spending $$ on a micron filter like a HOT Magnum. Unless you're having an algae outbreak or know that you have some pathogen that exists primarily in a free-floating stage, a UV unit won't do anything for you.

HTH,
Jim