UV Sterilizer Use...

[theteflondon]

I bought my Coralife turbo twist today... I know these things aren't supposed to be used all the time I am wondering if I connected a timer to it and say made it come on 2 to 3 or 4 hours be day would that be okay? Or even 1 to 2 hours per day? Would that benefit me or is there a better method to using them?

[theteflondon]

You would find that the bulbs wouldn't last very long that way.

Why wouldn't you use it all the time. It can only affect what flows by it so if a pathogen is producing faster that what the time on is or the dwell time is then it'll be useless to you.

G

I was told that if uv sterilizers are always left on then it could harm the fish in the tank especially discus. Is this not true?

[theteflondon]

Hi That would be a neat trick since they can't swim by it

This goes for all fish not just discus...the notion is that if the UV is strong enough that it will kill off any and all bacteria, both pathogentic and non-pathogentic in the water column. This would allow a fish's immune system to get lazy and not develop immunities to any of these pathogens.

In theory this probably could happen but in the practical world, not likely. I don't think anyone keeps a tank or the fish room that sterile

Graham

ok so based on that, it is okay health wise to leave it on all the time and also better for the life of the bulb to leave it on all the time?
Do you have the same sterilizer? How often would you say you change the bulb?

[srusso]

As I understand running a UV all the time can make problems by removing huge amounts of good and bad bacteria/minerals. Has anyone else known this to be the case?

[GrillMaster]

Why do you think you need a UV in the first place? Just to stimulate my undying curiosity. The only thing a UV is good for is to rid a tank of green water. Will it kill good bacteria? IME it doesn't. Bacteria congregates in the filters so they never see the UV. Does it kill pathogens an all the bad parasites in the water? I honestly dont think it does. IMO a UV doesn't need to be in a discus tank period with the amount of water changes we perform.

[Daniella]

what about the redox? I read that UV help with this a lot.

Of course UV's may destroy bacteria, both good and bad but the ones that we use would never sterilize the water.

Some elements are affected by UV rays...the plant people can verify this...but since fish derive very few minerals directly from the water I doubt this would be a probelm for them. To the best of my knowledge, Calcium, Chlorides and Sodium are not affected at all

[rbarn]

IMO a UV doesn't need to be in a discus tank period with the amount of water changes we perform.

Thats the key there.
Discus guys do about 5 times as many water changes as rest of fish world

If you have one, run it all the time. I dont think they "hurt" anything.

[KDodds]

what about the redox? I read that UV help with this a lot.

I think you're confusin UV sterilizers with ozonizers.

[fish4fun]

I have a huge UV sterilzer running on my 200 gal discus set up.
Al I find is that water is more clear then compared to similar tanks that I dont have UV on.

No ill effects on any fish I have ever kept in the tank with the UV

[Armandi_Fishcarer]

I personally wouldn't use it unless I have a prob with algea or low w/c's. I've only tried it once & seen tremendous affects, water wise. Discus wise, it made them slugish & didn't go for their food as much for some reason. I was told this was because of the flow, as it should be pumped out slow, although Im no expert on UV, maybe it was just faulty. I stopped the sterilizer & Boom the fish kicked in gear after my evening w/c. I still think they gotta be good, although thats my experience with Discus vs UV.

Regards
Ahmed

[Darrell Ward]

Unless you've got green water problems in a pond, then a UV is a total waste of money. I don't care what marketing babble the "experts" tell you about how it kills disease blah, blah, blah. If the thing was powerful enough to kill things in the tank I didn't want, then it would also be powerful enough to kill stuff I wanted in the tank. Save your money, and buy more fish.