Contact time is everything with a UV thats why a lot of people will run them off a T or canister with less flow. Turbo twist is also a kinda unique way to increase contact time utilizing lower watt bulbs.
the case for overfiltration
- Thread starter brich999
- Start date
Be careful with UV, there's only one way to know if they're actually doing anything -run the proposed system on a program to calculate kill rate. There's only one guy on this board with this capability, cause he engineers them.
I bought an 18 watt turbo twist for a 150 gallon, had the numbers run and it was barely enough to clarify let alone sterilize. The guy that ran the numbers calls them "terrible twists" cause they are so far off on sizing.
Flow rate isn't as important as you think, just like with bio if you speed up the flow rate it happens more often, so you get less dosage more often instead of more dosage less often.....
Most people that run UVs off a loop do it with a canister filter instead of just a pump, so that no crap gets into the UV and they typically have the slower flow rates most want for the UV.
Yeah, I hear that there are a lot of "bad" UV filters.. but its hard to know what is propaganda or not. The good ones are pretty expensive... and they're rated for the end of life of the bulb instead of the beginning of the bulb. (aquaultraviolet) That seems like a big difference that they would do that.
personally, that's what I would look for.
personally, that's what I would look for.
Im going to do some more digging and see if I can justify the expense of the unit + bulb changes + electrical usage.
I've been fine with out one for years but this 90g is my first (what I would consider) monster build, and I wanna do everything right and if a UV sterilzer helps to allow me that little extra luxury to be late or miss a weekly water change every so often then I think its justifiable.
I've been fine with out one for years but this 90g is my first (what I would consider) monster build, and I wanna do everything right and if a UV sterilzer helps to allow me that little extra luxury to be late or miss a weekly water change every so often then I think its justifiable.
Man, if you can't miss an occasional water change then you have some issues!
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I agree. I have a pretty heavily stocked 120. I have 2 AC110's and a Marineland C-360 canister on it. Not that over filtered IMO. If I miss my water change one week it won't be the end of the world. My nitrates will be higher than I care for them to be, but not to the point of doing harm.
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My tap water is less than desirable. It is much easier for me to stay on top of water changes and nitrate levels than to try to get them back down.
Fun story. I lived In a small town with a municipal well with terrible overchlorinated tap water. Tested my tank water and hardness/nitrates were off the charts (literally) on my test strips. Finally determined it was the tap water and began mixing my tap water with RO water. I didnt have an RO unit so this meant 5gal water cooler jugs refilled at the grocery store for 20 cents a gallon. Btw you should have seen the water quality notices the city sent out periodically.
I moved about 4 miles away, the water is much better. Its piped over from lake michigan. I used to test it religiously. And didnt have many problems at the new house. Now ive grown complacent and I just do large water changes every sunday and dont test parameters much. I need to buy a new liquid test kit.
Fun story. I lived In a small town with a municipal well with terrible overchlorinated tap water. Tested my tank water and hardness/nitrates were off the charts (literally) on my test strips. Finally determined it was the tap water and began mixing my tap water with RO water. I didnt have an RO unit so this meant 5gal water cooler jugs refilled at the grocery store for 20 cents a gallon. Btw you should have seen the water quality notices the city sent out periodically.
I moved about 4 miles away, the water is much better. Its piped over from lake michigan. I used to test it religiously. And didnt have many problems at the new house. Now ive grown complacent and I just do large water changes every sunday and dont test parameters much. I need to buy a new liquid test kit.
