I am throwing in the towel. (12/10/14)

How long does UV take to work? It's been in for 40 hours and I'm not sure it's improved too much.

 

Give it little more time, it all depends on tank size, how bad it is, and size of UV unit. You should see at least a difference in another day or so. On my freshwater experience (not that this is entirely comparable) it wasn't till the 4th day I was able to say "yes it is working" It took seven days to get clear but still a slight haze then 10 days crystal clear. I would say if it doesn't clear than you really eliminated any bacterial/bloom issue then it has too be chemical

 

what uv unit did you get?

 

Thanks.

I did take all the reactors offline. The only think online are my pumps and skimmer.

Right now, I am not doing any dosing and becaus enothing is growing, there is no need.

With the reactor being offline for a week (?) and no dosing, I think it should have cleared up by now.

My tank is bare bottom.

 

Thanks, I'll continue to keep an eye on it. I borrowed a unit intended for a 75 gallon aquarium from a friend. It was this:

http://www.petco.com/product/114522...=81302112013&gclid=CP_i5fqIicECFSkA7AodMyUACA

 

That is the one I used, the flow rate says 50 GPH but it is much lower than that. It should be slow anyway for th uv to work. Not sure how long your friend used it, these units work well for this purpose but not for long before bulb needs replacing. You can easily check by looking to see if the red light is still on on the transformer. If not, bulb needs to be replace. I would hate for you to be running a UV that isn't working and not knowing it.

 

The light is on. He ran it for a year, however.

 

I think that bulb is shot and won't help you much. I run a UV on my tank and after 9 months I know it is time to replace the bulb as I see a lot more algae on the glass. You will definitely see a difference with a new bulb.

 

Thanks Matt. Where should I get a new bulb from for the unit I have? Are they expensive?

 

You might get lucky with an LFS. I did. Or online vendors stock them. The bummer is that they are expensive. My 9w bulb ran me $30 or $40 at the LFS.