Uv sterilizer?

So a local guy is selling a brand new 18w coralife turbo twist sterilizer dirt cheap, are there pros and cons for using one on a reef?

 

I would not run one on a reef personally. These are meant to flow water too fast to kill Ich, and so while they will certainly help with algae blooms, they will likely not help with the parasites you want to kill, but will also negatively affect your pod population. Plus they generate a lot of heat, so you will need to plan to cool the tank accordingly. I run a 36W on my 46BF QT. With it on and a fan blowing on my HOB 'fuge, it runs about 7 degrees warmer than ambient temp. Before, it would maintain ambient temp no problem. Now I need to keep my AC on at 73° :/

 

Thanks! I wasn't sure if it was even worth it! Sounds like a waste of money

 

Lots of debate on this one. Lots of people say that it kills good stuff and doesn't do really anything for the bad stuff besides steralize the bacteria.

18w is a huge uv steralizer physically. My coralife 9w is big.

I am going to hook mine up this week, intake will be in the skimmer section of the sump as far away as it can be from the fuge. If it doesn't work out for the best I will take it out.

 

Yeah I just looked it up and it's rated for 250gallons, way way overkill

 

For the records, I would actually recommend running one on a FOWLR, or QT/HT. Just not a reef tank.

 

FWIW, I used to run one, but removed it. It now resides in one of our our equipment boxes now...even has a brand new tube. To be honest, it didn't do anything that good husbandry and a QT can't do.

The thing with UV units is the critter you're trying to eradicate must reside in the water column, and you need sufficient UV power and dwell time to kill said critter (most pathogens are demersal, which means they won't be affected).

That being said, where they DO seem to make a difference is in fry tanks (esp. SH fry) where protozoans seem to be the cause a lot of losses.

 

Just remember that things like skimmers and such are usually double over rated anyways.

I use this exact skimmer on my current 125 reef.

Lots of debate about the actual pros and cons

IF, I buy another one, there are much larger, higher wattage ones on Ebay, etc.

 

I wasn't sure if the same applied to sterilizers as applied to skimmers, double recommended, however, with all these mixed reviews im not sure if it is even worth it to put a UV on my tank, might as well save the money for other things, like frags!

 

I used one and I feel it saved my black tang from ick. Flow rate is important and you have to watch what you are doing but realistically there are no drawbacks. I mean its even hard to kill a pod with these. If its cheap, it gives you an entire new layer of protection from things you don't want to deal with. I'd be running mine 24/7 if not for the bulb being burnt out. I will get it replaced and on my QT system once I get that up again.