I am occasionally having problems with parasites as my tsn only eats live. Considering a vortex diatom XL for occasionally cleaning tank and a jebo 36 watt sterilizer. The jebo comes with a pump and seems the simplest and cheapest. Does anyone have experience with this UV sterilizer or jebo in general? Also the jebo is listed to sterilize 180 gallons and i have a 210, is this okay. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
questions about diatom filters and uv sterilizers
- Thread starter loganh83
- Start date
With UV you want the flow or GPH to be low so it allows enough time for the UV to penetrate and kill all the bad things in your water.
how low is low? What is a decent gph speed? Also is jebo a good brand? Does anyone have and use a diatom filter? thanks
Either a diatom filter or a uv sterilizer will remove parasites. IMO, the diatom filters are messy and cumbesome, so I would use a uv unit. You will need at least 18 watts for your tank. Jebo is a Chinese brand and is generally regarded as shoddy. However, their uv unit, which has no moving parts, may be adequate. I am not personally familiar with the Jebo uv sterilizer. Most uv sterilzers have a quartz tube that covers the uv bulb and this will accumulate a debris film over time and must be routinely cleaned. I have a "Double Helix", which has a helical polymeric tube wrapped around the uv bulb which does not accumulate debris. Unfortunately, the Double Helix is no longer manufactured...although, you can occasionally find one in a LFS or perhaps on ebay. You will be pumping at approx. 300-400 gph.
The only problem I see is that your parasite problem is from feeders that have the parasites in them and then your fish eats the feeder and parasites in which gives him the parasite. And the uv light only kills what passes thru it. So unless you train your feeders to swim thru the uv light then this does you no good. The best way to get rid of parasites is a quarantine and meds. So you should just set-up a quarantine tank to treat the feeder before they are fed. And then maybe put a uv sterilizer on the feeder tank incase the meds don't kill the parasites all together.
i have a 10 gallon feeder tank in which i keep black salties but have not considered meds before feeding. Is there a "cure all" med that is quick and effective and inexpensive?
hybridtheoryd16;2041370; said:
This is a thoughtful, logical assumption, but I don't think it works this way. External parasites (such as Ich) carried by the feeders will be digested by the fish as will most internal parasites, such as flukes. If I'm not mistaken, intestinal parasites are transmitted in an encysted form (which allows them to pass through the stomach) from fecal matter which is ingested by uninfected fish. Therefore, measures such as a uv sterilizer should, theoretically, be the best line of defense against parasitic infection from both free-swimming and encysted organisms. But let's hear from the people who know more about this than I do.
Thanks for the input. I haven't done much research on parasites being digested. Although ich has been an issue my most current infestation is anchor worm. FYI i ordered dimilin from seacoralsstore.com and paid extra for 3 day shipping. After 4 days I contacted the company and was informed that is was about to be shipped and i can expect in 3-4 more days. Apparently they are unaware fish medication is used for fish illness and probably needed very quickly by the customer. Beware of sea corals store online shady business practices!