UV Quastion

Titobattilocchi · 09/13/2013, 07:43 PM

I'm thinking of getting a 40 watt UV Starilizer for my tank to. It will be going on a 120 gallon. I was wondering if I ran a sock or some type of good filter where the pump is if it will prevent copapods from being sucked in or are they to small that a filter won't work. I tried to quarantine I used copper and it covered up the ick on the fish so when I added him to my DT three weeks later he Brock out with ich and I want to keep it in check with out bracking down my tank.

jamesbaur13 · 09/13/2013, 08:18 PM

I've never had UV on my tank... I can only regurgitate what I've read.

It's effectiveness with dealing with ich is limited because of ichs life-cycle. It only spends a small fraction of it's life-cycle in the free swimming state (a couple hrs). It spends around 3 days on your fish. It then spends up to 10 weeks attached to a surface (usually rocks or sand).

Mind you, it is only possible to kill them in the free swimming state if you have a correctly sized unit running at the proper flow rate for killing protozoans. Based off what I've read 40watts should do the trick provided the UV system you picked out is accurately rated.

People will sometimes couple UV with removing all sand (going bare bottom) and increasing flow rate... it seems to help by giving ich less areas to reproduce.

I too was in the same boat as yourself and was contemplating purchasing a UV sterilizer. I ultimately veered away from that idea and decided to treat my fish via a more conventional means (if you go to the fish disease treatments on this forum and look up fallow period as well as read the other ich stickies it'll bring you up to speed if you're not already).

09/13/2013, 07:43 PM	#1
Titobattilocchi Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: Eureka, CA Posts: 131	UV Quastion I'm thinking of getting a 40 watt UV Starilizer for my tank to. It will be going on a 120 gallon. I was wondering if I ran a sock or some type of good filter where the pump is if it will prevent copapods from being sucked in or are they to small that a filter won't work. I tried to quarantine I used copper and it covered up the ick on the fish so when I added him to my DT three weeks later he Brock out with ich and I want to keep it in check with out bracking down my tank.

09/13/2013, 08:18 PM	#2
jamesbaur13 Apsiring Alhcohlolic Join Date: Jun 2011 Posts: 772	I've never had UV on my tank... I can only regurgitate what I've read. It's effectiveness with dealing with ich is limited because of ichs life-cycle. It only spends a small fraction of it's life-cycle in the free swimming state (a couple hrs). It spends around 3 days on your fish. It then spends up to 10 weeks attached to a surface (usually rocks or sand). Mind you, it is only possible to kill them in the free swimming state if you have a correctly sized unit running at the proper flow rate for killing protozoans. Based off what I've read 40watts should do the trick provided the UV system you picked out is accurately rated. People will sometimes couple UV with removing all sand (going bare bottom) and increasing flow rate... it seems to help by giving ich less areas to reproduce. I too was in the same boat as yourself and was contemplating purchasing a UV sterilizer. I ultimately veered away from that idea and decided to treat my fish via a more conventional means (if you go to the fish disease treatments on this forum and look up fallow period as well as read the other ich stickies it'll bring you up to speed if you're not already). __________________ 120G AGA Dual Overflow, 40G B Sump, SRO-2000int, 2 Eheim 200w Heater, Eheim 1262 Return, BRS C & GFO React., BR-1000ss Biopellet React., Tunze 5017 ATO, 2 MP-40wes, DIY 76LED (36RB,24NW,6B,6CW,4Moon) Last edited by jamesbaur13; 09/13/2013 at 08:29 PM.