uv

does anyone use a uv unit in there reef tank and is it work getting one. all my fish always get ick and i loose alot of them. i have a 125 reef.

 

anyone?

 

I used to use one when I had my 45 gal but I dont now. I was told that if you have a reef tank you shouldnt have one running. It kills some of the "good" bacteria that corals need or something like that. hope this helps, Luna

 

uv kills all bacteria good and bad, set up a quarintine tank with copper and no live rock with a completely seperate system, do not mix the water with the reef, to introduce the fish when you buy them, after that put them in the reef tank. i dont use uv on my reef

 

Hey!

Yes, and no!. You can't kill the bacteria, only reduce their numbers.

Yes, and no once again! Quarantine is always required. BUT: Only do so, if You know that your fish/invert can stand treatment with copper-derived salts. This kind of treatment can't be applied to many members of Amphiprion and Premnas families (aka clown fish).

Moreover, UV can be beneficial. However, only in the case when you have some fancy algae/bacterial outbreak and you can't stop it using any other technique. Moreover, prolonged UV irradiation may cause development of really nasty resistant bacteria in your tank.

 

One of the best things you can do to decrease the chance of an outbreak of ich is to keep temperatures as close to constant as possible. Another reason for the ich problem is stress and insufficient feeding of nutrient rich foods in my opinion. Tangs for example will almost always develop ich when they become stressed over a prolonged period of time.
It is best to find the underlying reason for the continuous outbreak of ich and work on ways to alleviate it. Also are you constantly adding fish to your tank? It is like playing a game of russian roulette...You never know if the fish at the local pet shop are infected or not, then adding them to your tank could pose a big problem.
Another variable is the acclimation process and floating the fish in the shipping bag for 15-30 minutes or so to ensure that the temperature of your shipping water and that of your tank are gradually one in the same.
Best of luck!
Hope this helps!

 

Keep an eye on water params and increase frequency/amount of water changes...you prbly need some very aggressive skimming with what you already have in tank. ---- Any kind of eel is going to stress out smaller fish - or maybe that is where they are disappearing to.

Ick and fish loss is tank's way of saying enough is enough for while till everything stabilizes.

Wait 5-6 months before trying to add anything else.

:-/