Just need a recommendation - UV for 125

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biguebs

biguebs

Dovii
MFK Member
Mar 5, 2011
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Fort Wayne, IN
Two of my 125s are near a window and I’m battling algae. I am having trouble finding a direct answer in older threads - i see a chart here and there but I’m just looking for a product recommendation (Green killing machine with x watts, Sun UV with x watts, etc).

Details for setups:

125 #1- one 11” male Midas and a pleco

125 #2 - one 7” Oscar, one 5” chocolate cichlid, one 5” JD

Both have 2 AC110’s, 1 AC70, and two powerheads to keep things moving. I prefer HOB over canister for ease of use/maintenance, so i use the powerheads to sweep the bottom. Water tested weekly before 40-50% change, all as it should be.

Anyone running one in a 125 they can recommend?
 
Are you battling green water or surface algae??
 
Chefken said:
Are you battling green water or surface algae??
Click to expand...
Surface algae - green glass. My interpretation of what I’ve read is that I will still need to do some scrubbing (which has become a daily thing anyway at this point) but the UV will get the stuff out of the water gradually until gone. Am I off?
 
A UV will only get the free floating algae.
You will still get surface algae, Until you do something to stop it.
Addressing nutrient and light levels.
Lowering nitrate with water changes and Waste removal. Cut back on feeding will help.
limiting light by reducing the period or dimming the light or both.
 
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BIG-G said:
A UV will only get the free floating algae.
You will still get surface algae, Until you do something to stop it.
Addressing nutrient and light levels.
Lowering nitrate with water changes and Waste removal. Cut back on feeding will help.
limiting light by reducing the period or dimming the light or both.
Click to expand...
Alright so you’re hitting the main point of my confusion here. I have seen in other posts that UV will only get the free floating algae. I was extrapolating that if I scrubbed the algae off glass it will either become free floating itself or stay on the brush i used to scrub it off... thus slowly but surely removing it permanently.
This is why I made the post here, because this is the basic thing I’m wondering. I am feeding once per day and i can’t control the sunlight hitting the tanks. We are approaching peak daylight savings so will only get worse lol.
 
biguebs said:
Alright so you’re hitting the main point of my confusion here. I have seen in other posts that UV will only get the free floating algae. I was extrapolating that if I scrubbed the algae off glass it will either become free floating itself or stay on the brush i used to scrub it off... thus slowly but surely removing it permanently.
This is why I made the post here, because this is the basic thing I’m wondering. I am feeding once per day and i can’t control the sunlight hitting the tanks. We are approaching peak daylight savings so will only get worse lol.
Click to expand...
Once the algae is scraped off some may be destroyed by UV but most will be removed by the mechanical filter.
Some will survive.
The original problem is the algae growth on the surface. That is being caused by excess nutrients and light.
Unless you deal with that a UV is a waste of time.
 
I hope this doesn’t sound like I’m being a smart***.
Algae is like a plant and it doesn’t matter if you scrape it off.
It will grow back because there is no way to remove it completely out of the water without making an environment that is unacceptable to aquatic life at all.
 
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BIG-G said:
I hope this doesn’t sound like I’m being a smart***.
Algae is like a plant and it doesn’t matter if you scrape it off.
It will grow back because there is no way to remove it completely out of the water without making an environment that is unacceptable to aquatic life at all.
Click to expand...
Nope, actually this is clearing it up for me. Appreciate the input. Sounds like the main problem as far as I can tell - the sunlight - isn’t going to change. I may grab an economical UV to see if it will slow it down when paired with daily scrubbing for a time... so maybe I’m not having to scrub the glass daily after a week or so lol.

A little algae doesn’t bother me and is normal as far as I’m concerned but I’m trying to slow this down some.
 
Fastest, easiest Way would be reduce the sunlight.
Maybe if you have lights on the tank you could reduce those. just a thought
 
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