UV Light ?

[Snuffy]

Hello All

If you add Bio-Spira to your tank to help build a good colony of bacteria up, should you shut off your UV light and if so how long should you keep it off?

Thanks
Eric

[Cosmo]

I'd guess yes Eric, since the UV will kill what passes through it. Not sure how long either, but you want it off long enough for the colonies to get up and running in the filters.

not much help .. sorry

Jim

[Timbo]

I'd leave the UV off until the tank is fully cycled (the time can vary for cycling from tank to tank)
- you can turn it back on when your nitrites drop off to zero

[pcsb23]

I'd leave the UV off until the tank is fully cycled (the time can vary for cycling from tank to tank)
- you can turn it back on when your nitrites drop off to zero
Agreed.

[Graham]

Nitrifiers are sessile and look to settle where ever they can and as quick as they can, once they've started to colonize a media, as in the walls, substrate of the tank, bio-media, etc., the UV will have no affect on them...

...the UV should be shut down for at least 24 hours after adding any bacterial product to give them time to settle out..... this applies to some meds for that matter.

....Running the UV for normal cycling, without adding additives won't slow the ''cycle'' down.

G

[Cosmo]

Ok, I'm in a more talkative mood now :p

Your primary concern is the cycling of the filters, not the UV killing off any biro spira that's in the water column. If you put fish into the tank without first cycling the filter, you should consider the biro spira as "seeding" the filters only, it's still going to take time for the colonies to grow in sufficient numbers to handle the bio load.

That being said, my guess would be that a day or two would be sufficient to leave the UV off, but, you're looking at two weeks minimum of daily WCs on the scale of 30 to 50% to keep the water quality high. Biro Spira might be the next best thing after... whatever ;) but it's not a magic bullet that you put in at the beginning and everything is wonderful.

Your tank will still need to cycle, and WCs are the best means available to prevent spikes that will kill the fish until it does. You should check the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels consistently until you're regularly receiving results of 0/0/<5 respectively.

Jim

[Snuffy]

Thank You all so much for the answers they are a big help.