UV Sterilizer for 8ft setup

MarineMike

Feeder Fish
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Jan 31, 2014
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With UV systems the saying you get what you pay for holds true. Personally, I wouldn't waste my money buying anything other than one from aqua ultraviolet. They are known for their quality and their long life bulbs which can last 14-16 months instead of only 6 months for most other brands. You didn't mention what the intended purpose of the UV system for your tank will be. The wattage needed to act as a sterilizer will be more than that needed to simply clarify the water. If you use the search function there are many threads on UV systems with recommendations from members that use them.
 

fuzzlebug

Candiru
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Feb 3, 2014
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With UV systems the saying you get what you pay for holds true. Personally, I wouldn't waste my money buying anything other than one from aqua ultraviolet. They are known for their quality and their long life bulbs which can last 14-16 months instead of only 6 months for most other brands. You didn't mention what the intended purpose of the UV system for your tank will be. The wattage needed to act as a sterilizer will be more than that needed to simply clarify the water. If you use the search function there are many threads on UV systems with recommendations from members that use them.
+1
Most uvs could be retrofitted to work in line on your fx6. As for wattage, on s tank this big around 40+ for good clarification, 90+ for low level sterillisation. There are alot of factors though. Flow speed, dwell time, distance the water is to the bulb. Tbh your not going to find an amazing sterilliser on amazon or ebay, and you certainly arent going to get a good one for cheap.

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Pomatomus

Piranha
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Jul 7, 2009
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Aquas are okay. Personally I favor Coralife Turbotwists. I like them because I've never been shocked by one. Bulb life is typically around 1 year, ran continuously. Just get one rated for your tank volume or larger. As for flow speed, you can either buy an appropriate pump or plumb into your fx6 return pipe. Idk what the flow rate through your fx6's is because I don't know how tall your tank is, but you can always split the line with a couple of T's. Then a ball valve can be used to regulate the flow through the UV vs. bypassing it.
 

pacu mom

Goliath Tigerfish
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Jun 8, 2006
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If you are going to hook a UV sterilizer inline with an FX-6, you need to select a UV sterilizer whose recommended flow rate matches the flow rate of the FX-6. The UV sterilizer will probably be around 40W to match the flow rate of the FX-6.
 

Rayne

Jack Dempsey
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Sep 9, 2010
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Aquas are okay. Personally I favor Coralife Turbotwists.
To say Aqua Ultraviolet are "okay" and to insinuate that a Turbotwist is better is just plain wrong. Aqua Ultraviolet UV's are far, far superior to a Turbotwist, which have horrible ballasts. The flow through design of the Aqua UV has much a longer contact time and has a much narrower gap between the wall of the sterilizer and the bulb, both of which makes it more efficient. Sure the Aqua is going to cost more, but like the other poster said you get what you pay for.
 

Mr. Allgood

Jack Dempsey
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Feb 16, 2012
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To say Aqua Ultraviolet are "okay" and to insinuate that a Turbotwist is better is just plain wrong. Aqua Ultraviolet UV's are far, far superior to a Turbotwist, which have horrible ballasts. The flow through design of the Aqua UV has much a longer contact time and has a much narrower gap between the wall of the sterilizer and the bulb, both of which makes it more efficient. Sure the Aqua is going to cost more, but like the other poster said you get what you pay for.
+1! You silly goose
 

DB junkie

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JasonsPlecosCichlids

Goliath Tigerfish
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jasonsplecoscichlids.com
This makes my second one that I bought off of EBAY and both worked excellent. The first one I sold with the the 500 but not sure what he did with it so I got a second but even higher wattage. I had the 2 reef and 2 plant lights on my 265 with the puffer. After about 4 days the water turned green, by the 7th day is was dark green. I added this UV to the tank and in 3 days the tank was clear and after 5 it was crystal clear. If I would have done a huge water change It would have been clearer that same day. I have been running this for several months now, no green algae. I have it hooked up to a Jebo canister filter jammed packed with media to slow the flow, the Jebo I think is rated for 50 GPH or maybe a little higher, but its pretty low to begin with, I've used SunSun as well in the past.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/55W-Koi-Fis...55-Watts-/120881422899?_trksid=p2054897.l4275
 

DB junkie

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IF you just want to kill algae (clarify) then pretty much any light will work.....

IF you are actually trying to sterilize then you'll find that there's A LOT more to it then just wattages...... The only way you'll actually be able to know or calculate is with the help of someone who knows UV. As someone who has had numbers crunched with different UVs I can assure you that you get what you pay for and the only cheap way to outfit a tank with UV is if it only clarifies, cause level 2 sterilization takes money.
 
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