UV Sterilizers - Recommended?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
soulpatch;4455285; said:
Blood worms are a treat as are the other forms of live bait so no worries there.

Morning feeding is very light as the main meal is at night. The oscars plead for food with their eyes when I come downstairs. LOL.

Fish are still juvies so no need for 2 water changes a week. They are all of 3 inches long at most... I do one solid cleaning each week with gravel vacs and such. Water is then retreated for the amounts I add with appropriate chems depending on the PH level of my tap water that day...

Tank is a single 48" tube and is a fish tube. Std height for a 55 which off the top of my head is around 20" The 125 I am moving too will have 2 fixtures with a single bulb to stretch the length of the tank and to be honest I have not looked at them since I just got the tank to see what type of bulb they are. I am contemplating moving to LED anyway with the basic marineland LED lights. Not the stronger plant/live rock ones.

fish 2 oscars, 1 green terror, 2 Pimelodus blochii, and a common plec. No fish is over 3 inches.

l200 is not too common around me in any LFS Would have to be ordered in...
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Dosent sound too bad. :) Cut down on the pellets and live food.

Give them 8 hours of light a day (from your tubes).

As far as I understand, the L200 can be bourght online in the US? Correct me if im wrong. :)

All this plus a 2end waterchange a week should go a long way to fixing your algee problem. :)

Try it. If it dosent change anything then get the UV.

Give it a chance for a few months. May end up saving you some $. :)
 
I have not bothered to read the whole thread but you are talking of moving up to a 125gal, with 2 oscars, a terror, some catfish plus a common plec....maybe some others I would say that is a large bio load with feeding twice per day, it does not matter that they eat it all.....it comes down to coming out the other end.

I imagine that unless you are doing large water changes with zero nitrate water the the nitrate level could well be over 100ppm and I personally would say that the tank is pretty heavily stocked with big eating fish.

Nitrate and sunlight will equal a green tank, remove the food (nitrate) and the algae will not thrive as readily.
 
You have to note the type of catfish in your bioload assesment. They will remain small and not like your typical catfish that are bioload machines. Pictus are not much of a stress on the system.
 
T1KARMANN;4448629; said:
A UVS has a thin glass sleave that water pass over the tube no more than 5mm away from the light making sure of a very close contact with the light

A UVC is just s big bucket of water with a normal bulb placed in the middle normally on the top of a pond bucket

You may go out and buy a UVC and think it's doing a great job the same as a UVS and it will look the same in water clarity but it won't be killing parasites due to the UVC not having the close contact with the light like a UVS
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Can you please post up images of UVS & UVC? I checked my UV light tube & the label is UVC.. I'm more concerned of getting rid of parasites than water clarity..
 
soulpatch;4455614; said:
You have to note the type of catfish in your bioload assesment. They will remain small and not like your typical catfish that are bioload machines. Pictus are not much of a stress on the system.
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They still produce some bio load.... they breathe which produces ammonia and regardless, the pleco will be very messy and then we introduce the oscars and terrors which are just messy machines and ammonia factories....
 
The only strain on my system now and in the future is really the oscars. The green terror will be moderate but not too bad. The pleco will be moved out of the tank once he is no longer a juvie. The two pictus are already pretty much full grown at 4" (will get another 2-3 inches in captivity but they grow SLOW) and thier bioload is miniscule.

Since getting a poop vac which leaves the water in my tank the majority of the poop is removed every 2 days with 2 30% or so water changes a week as well.

It is stocked close to the limit and I will most likely push it slightly over with the into of 3 silver dollars.
 
soulpatch;4565466; said:
The only strain on my system now and in the future is really the oscars. The green terror will be moderate but not too bad. The pleco will be moved out of the tank once he is no longer a juvie. The two pictus are already pretty much full grown at 4" (will get another 2-3 inches in captivity but they grow SLOW) and thier bioload is miniscule.

Since getting a poop vac which leaves the water in my tank the majority of the poop is removed every 2 days with 2 30% or so water changes a week as well.

It is stocked close to the limit and I will most likely push it slightly over with the into of 3 silver dollars.
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Well, this debate could go on forever....

Green or blue algae on rocks is sunlight AND nutrient fuelled....I believe you have a large bio load and messy fish and you have the algae, I do not.
 
MOD go ahead and use one, you won't be regret in a long term. Run a powerhead through that uv light 24/7 and your water will always stay CRYSTAL, and clean parasite (of course you still have to do water change regularly and a strong enough power uv light. Good luck !!
 
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