Will a UV sterilizer help reduce brown algae? I know it's phytoplankton rather than plant life just really wanted to know. Ever since I started feeding my polypterus sinking carnivore pellets i've started getting brown algae from the added phosphate and while i have no problem doing the extra scrubbing of the glass, it's really tedious to take my driftwood out and scrub it down with my weekly 50% WCs. If anybody knows if a UV sterilizer could help with this issue I would greatly appreciate it. Water Params 0 ammo 0 nitrite 15 nitrate, moderately planted, no green algae whatsoever. No plecos due to polypterus.
UV Sterilizer question
- Thread starter NCStateFisher
- Start date
UV sterilizers break chromosones, leaving them unrepairable, there fore killing the organism. a UVS will help reduce all algae, the key to it is retention time in the actual unit.
A UV will only kill anything that passes through it so if the algae is attached to the plants/glass then no it wont help.The uv's effectivness is determined by contact time with the organisam.
As a genral rule if you want it for pathogen control then you need a flow rate of not much more than 10 GPH per watt of UV for algae/green water 2o GPH per watt of UV would be OK.
As a genral rule if you want it for pathogen control then you need a flow rate of not much more than 10 GPH per watt of UV for algae/green water 2o GPH per watt of UV would be OK.
I have the same problem and I'm a bit iffy about using a uv because like above said. It only treats what passes through, but if you where to do a whole tank scrubbing then hook the uv up would that work? Since it's now free floating.
^^^ this was my next question, if i were to go ahead and take out the wood and scrub down all of the algae off of it and go ahead and scrub the whole tank down would it help to reduce future outbreaks?
and when you say 20 gallons per hour per watt of UV are you referring to the actual flow rate on the powerhead on the sterilizer? thanks
and when you say 20 gallons per hour per watt of UV are you referring to the actual flow rate on the powerhead on the sterilizer? thanks