Poll: UV Sterilizer on reef - Yes or No? (1 Viewer)

[mattb]

I think there are better things to spend your $$$ on, like Troy said, corals..... If you're using for fish disease treatment, that's cool. Seems like overkill though if you're using for algae control, as you're not treating the root cause. I am going to be running light ozone though so that may be a bit hypocritical of me

 

[Redwinger]

Having run both in the past. I would rather run UV over ozone. As ryan stated after a while the ozone seemed to slow the skimmer way down. I also noticed to visible difference in anything whether I was running ozone or was not.

 

[morty]

In Sprung's Reef Aquarium vol 3, he mentions that levels of dissolved organic nitrogen and carbon are several times higher in a tank than in nature, and that UV can help break down these molecules. Also, bacterial levels in the water can be many times higher, so UV can reduce them and lower the overall level of DOC (but probably not as well as carbon).

Bottom line is that in addition to helping control algae and pathogens, UV can also reduce DOC.

 

[mattb]

DOC is better removed by using ozone and/or carbon.... I'd check the quote as far as more bacteria in aquaria than on the reefs.

 

[morty]

Sprung cites Harker 2001, in saying that bacteria levels can be several times higher in some aqauria than on a natural reef -- he goes on to say that using UV may prolong the useful life of carbon (p254)

 

[thepollock]

how good are the uv for getting rid of sickness. i want one but $$$ is the thing that is holding me back.

 

[wkjames]

Do you really want ozone in your house?

Currently my system is well over 400 gallons and I've ran the tank with one and without. Personally I didn't see that big of a difference with it either way. I've witnessed much better success using a cheap ozone unit injected into my skimmer than anything the UV ever did. As far as fish diseases go etc, once they hit that ozone in the skimmer they are gonna get knocked out anyway. My hippo and brown tang had ich, ozone added and boom no more tomites/larvae/whatever the hell they are! in the water column. 2 days later no more ich on the fish. Since running the Spazz Volcano I skim my tank super wet and have my bubbles in the skimmer just breaking up at the top of the neck. I think having a huge skimmer has made all the world for me in keeping tank organic loads down so nusiance algae has a much harder time taking hold. Frequent water changes (40-50 gallons twice a month), quality (liquid drained) food, and letting coralline take hold everywhere with proper calcium and carbonate addition and the algae doesn't have much of a chance anyway. I'm not saying UV doesn't maybe help some things but there are cheaper ways to skin a cat than justify the cost for the sized unit you would be talking on your setup....again just my 2 cents....spend that $300-$400 bucks on a cool coral you frag me a piece of:rotflmao:

In my continuing research on the subject, I now see that Anthony Calfo also recommends ozone over UV for most home systems.

i used one of them enaly units. generated too much ozone and shut down foam production in my skimmer : (

the ozone would completely melt the nylon tee's in days and that was without the air drier.

prolly work great in a ozone reactor or a really big skimmer. even in a big skimmer id watch how it effected the skimmer performance.

good thing is they are super cheap so if you don't like it there is no big loss : )

for the most part ozone and UV really are for different things . the most common use for ozone is for water clarity and UV is for sterilizing and algae control.

keep in mind that ozone will only sterilize the water in a reactor . you could put enough ozone into your skimmer that it would also sterilize but it will be at the expense of your skimmers production . if you use sterilizing levels of ozone in skimmer it will change the electrical charge of all the waste to same charge which causes them to repel each other rather than clump together. It is much harder for the skimmer to remove these smaller particles. It will also break the carbon chains on the bubbles which will cause them to prematurely burst.

is a skimmer the only way to run ozone? what about a second skimmer for ozone so that the first would be unaffected? Then maybe if you didn't want to run ozone all the time you could double skim. (excuse me if that's a rediculous suggestion, still a newbie)

I think there are better things to spend your $$$ on, like Troy said, corals..... If you're using for fish disease treatment, that's cool. Seems like overkill though if you're using for algae control, as you're not treating the root cause. I am going to be running light ozone though so that may be a bit hypocritical of me

Having run both in the past. I would rather run UV over ozone. As ryan stated after a while the ozone seemed to slow the skimmer way down. I also noticed to visible difference in anything whether I was running ozone or was not.

DOC is better removed by using ozone and/or carbon.... I'd check the quote as far as more bacteria in aquaria than on the reefs.

Ozone in the atmosphereis good... Ozone in your house is poison. Ozone = Smog.

Read this, especially the second to the last paragraph: http://www.cal-iaq.org/o3_fact.htm


If you are really interested in checking more into this, here is a Google search that lays this out: http://www.google.com/search?source...6-18,GGLR:en&q=ozone+generators+health+hazard

I love aquariums, but as a healthcare professional, there is NO WAY ON EARTH I would ever put one of these POISON MACHINES in my house. I don't care how good it may or may not be for my tank. My health and the health of all of those I welcome into my home is too important.

 

[sea monkey]

Home ozone unit : )

 

[wkjames]

Home ozone unit : )

Read the links. It is unbelievable that these are still for sale. Read the links.

 

[sea monkey]

i read somewhere that the ionic breeze makes up for like 80% of sharper images sales, if they lost that thing it would be curtains for them.