This might be one of those ideas that sounds cool but is in fact terrible for fish. Let me know what you think.
I have several 11 watt submersible uv sterilizers. Primary use was not intended to be internal to any tanks but I wanted to know if this idea would be harmful to fish if it were actually in a tank.
The water would flow through the PVC. The curve at the end is to slow gph from this powerhead and also to direct current to surface for agitation. Assume the GPH would be appropriate for the wattage, I'm more interested in whether the UV exposure through the PVC would harm the fish. The flow would be continuous but the light would be on a timer. I'd take some measure to ensure the fish could not enter the PVC of course.
For sake of discussion the immediate use-case is in a 40 gallon breeder that is heavily planted dirted freshwater and a few 3-4 inch fish, not overstocked and doing fine (nothing is "broke") but want to keep the system evolving. I could easily modify this like maybe using thicker PVC if it's too thin. I think the light looks badass but so do a lot of things deadly. Have not tested how hot the lights get but thought is to only run a few hours a day on a timer.
PVC would be stuck to glass with suction cups. I figure it'd be easy to pop off and clean or replace bulb this way.
I did not picture the UV bulb. It's inside the PVC and makes it glow green when turned on. Powerhead would point to the PVC but not direct entire current through the channel. I want the water to move slower over the UV.
I have several 11 watt submersible uv sterilizers. Primary use was not intended to be internal to any tanks but I wanted to know if this idea would be harmful to fish if it were actually in a tank.
The water would flow through the PVC. The curve at the end is to slow gph from this powerhead and also to direct current to surface for agitation. Assume the GPH would be appropriate for the wattage, I'm more interested in whether the UV exposure through the PVC would harm the fish. The flow would be continuous but the light would be on a timer. I'd take some measure to ensure the fish could not enter the PVC of course.
For sake of discussion the immediate use-case is in a 40 gallon breeder that is heavily planted dirted freshwater and a few 3-4 inch fish, not overstocked and doing fine (nothing is "broke") but want to keep the system evolving. I could easily modify this like maybe using thicker PVC if it's too thin. I think the light looks badass but so do a lot of things deadly. Have not tested how hot the lights get but thought is to only run a few hours a day on a timer.
PVC would be stuck to glass with suction cups. I figure it'd be easy to pop off and clean or replace bulb this way.
I did not picture the UV bulb. It's inside the PVC and makes it glow green when turned on. Powerhead would point to the PVC but not direct entire current through the channel. I want the water to move slower over the UV.
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