UV steralizers

are UV steralizers important?

 

Not necessary. Most people who use them, have fish that are very prone to sickness. A UV helps kill harmful bacteria. Unfortunately, it also kills good bacteria. I have heard of people running them only when they have an outbreak.

 

At the flow rates and wattages that most hobby level UV sterilizers are set up and running, they are generally useless for anything other than to say "I have a UV sterilizer". And I have two of them.

Killing Parasites. In order to kill a parasite, the parasite has to go through the UV sterilizer. By nature, parasites stay on the host. So how can it kill a parasite on your fish if your fish doesn't go through the sterilizer? And if there are enough free floating in your system to make it into the sump, how many actually stay in the display and never make it to the sump?

Phosphate bonds. Running a UV light before your skimmer. Very slow flowrate, dumped straight into the skimmer. The UV light will break the bonds of phosphate making it easier for the skimmer to get out. It can also potentially break the bonds of some of the more complex protein chains so that the skimmer can potentially get out protiens that it wouldn't have gotten out otherwise. The key to using it for Phosphates is a VERY slow flow. Obviously, it works best with a recirc style skimmer so that you are feeding the skimmer. If you need more flow into the skimmer than what a single unit can provide, add more UV lights, DONT speed up the flow.