UV-C Sterilizers

[elettrone]

Does anyone have any experience with these UV-C lamps in planted tanks with fishes?
How to use them, when to use them and how many hours per day?
I read some people suggest to use it only a hour or so per day other people leave it perma on...
Any collateral damage they might cause?

 

[ceg4048]

Hi,
These are fine in a planted tank but the flow requirements of UV sterilization is at odds with the flow requirements of a CO2 injected tank. UV sterilization requires a high dwell time, so this means low flow rate. A CO2 injected tank typically requires high flow rates, so if you do use a UV sterilizer, it should not be with the main high flow filter, otherwise it will simply be a waste of time. Use a separate low flow filter. UV lamps, if used correctly, are very good at eradicating green water algae as well as pathogens floating in the water column.

Cheers,

 

[Mortis]

But they allegedly affect micro ferts. Is this true or is it hogwash since our fluorescent lights emit UV anyways ?

 

[dean]

Why are you thinking of using one?

 

[NatureBoy]

Hi

I've been running one for the last 8 months or so, not seen any negatives in terms of micro ferts / plant growth. I use it to minimise pathogens that may get introduced with new fish / live foods etc. Haven't had an outbreak of any nasties - this could be down to many contributing factors of course, but the UV will keep numbers down to levels that I guess the fish can deal with.

It also destroys the tannins that leach out of wood so no black water (if crystal clear is what you want), will also nuke the metabolites that plants release so prevents a build up of phenols, etc that may have adverse effects (or not!) on other plants (allelopathy if you're a believer! )

In terms of set up and running one, I agree with the advice given by Ceg

Cheers

 

[elettrone]

Well to combine high flow rate with sterilization i recently bought a EHEIM Professionel 350 Elettronic and a Ruwal 20W UV-C sterilizer lamp which can sterilize 97-99% of the organisms in the water with a 1000 l/h water flow(if the flow is lower even better).
The filter powerhead is rated at 1500 l/h alone, with all the materials and pipes load is rated slightly below 1000 l/h which should be more than ok in my RIO 180, this setup looks pretty balanced overall or so i hope.
The reason why i decided to get an UV lamp(and also a better filter than the basic one) is that the water recently became SO foggy that plants started to suffer from low light emissions...
There was no particulate in the water so it must have been excess of bacteria.
Yesterday night i activated the whole thing now i'm waiting for results...hopefully.
I still have the old filter going, I'm not sure how long will it take for the new filter to mature in this situation.
This is the UV-C lamp, they produce it here in Italy so i was able to get it rather cheap if compared to DeBary lamps, they both have stand alone electronic circuitry to turn on the UV-C and the lamp shield is made by quartz as DeBary ones.
Looks like an awesome and affordable product.