I was wondering if my sterilizer would deystroy phytoplanktin and if it does how long of an alternating cycle with uv on and off would I need to ensure my shroomies get enough to eat? I have a FOWLR 72gal 1 anenome and one small rock with about 8 mushrooms on it in addition to my fish and 30# LR
will a uv sterilizer destroy phytoplanktin?
- Thread starter IronChef
- Start date
There is absolutely NO good reason to run a UV sterilizer on anything other than a hospital tank. If you quarantine your fish, there is no reason to worry about parasites or anything else that one might run a UV unit to kill. I just had a tank moving distaster and all my fish sat in buckets for 2 days, the temps dropped into the 60's. No ich, why? Because all the fish were quarantined initialy. There is no parasites present in the system - so why on earth would I ever run a UV sterilizer and kill of all the benificial organisms? For the life of me I can't understand this line of thought.
Organisms do not spontaneously generate in a system! If you do not introduce them, they will not be present, peroid. Practice proper quarantine procedure, and get rid of the UV sterilizer, it's a waste of money and only harms your system.
Regards
Jim
Organisms do not spontaneously generate in a system! If you do not introduce them, they will not be present, peroid. Practice proper quarantine procedure, and get rid of the UV sterilizer, it's a waste of money and only harms your system.
Regards
Jim
Uh....Jim, That's a little harsh on the fella!
Back to your question, maybe, depending on the UV configuration. If the UV is installed correctly, meaing the flow through rate is slow enough to meet the wattage of the UV, Yes, most (if not all) phyto plus a number of other organism will be killed. However, many, many, many people pushes water too fast through the UV sterilizer, render the UV useless. The latter is simply a waste of money in both the equipment and electricity.
Back to your question, maybe, depending on the UV configuration. If the UV is installed correctly, meaing the flow through rate is slow enough to meet the wattage of the UV, Yes, most (if not all) phyto plus a number of other organism will be killed. However, many, many, many people pushes water too fast through the UV sterilizer, render the UV useless. The latter is simply a waste of money in both the equipment and electricity.
All Reef lighting creates UV light and therefore is all Reef lighting bad for reefs.... No obviously not.
Many people swear by the UV Sterilizer and have run them 7/24 for years and their reef tank looks Great. Others swear that UV is bad and should never be used.
To say that your corals wont get any Phytoplankton or will not get enough to eat if you run a UV sterilizer would be a Sophisticated Wild Ass Guess at best. Your reef inhabitants also "eat" if you will.....of all things UV Light, Marine snow, Fish feces, some actually eat small fish.
Personally I run mine prior to and for some time after adding fish. I agree that killing all the organisms all the time through the use of UV sterilization seems like overkill. ( Hah hah overkill..... Hell if I don't laugh at my stupid puns then no one will )
Many people swear by the UV Sterilizer and have run them 7/24 for years and their reef tank looks Great. Others swear that UV is bad and should never be used.
To say that your corals wont get any Phytoplankton or will not get enough to eat if you run a UV sterilizer would be a Sophisticated Wild Ass Guess at best. Your reef inhabitants also "eat" if you will.....of all things UV Light, Marine snow, Fish feces, some actually eat small fish.
Personally I run mine prior to and for some time after adding fish. I agree that killing all the organisms all the time through the use of UV sterilization seems like overkill. ( Hah hah overkill..... Hell if I don't laugh at my stupid puns then no one will )
UV sterilization can keep a tank with a high concentration of Phyto from having it turn into a greenwater tank.
According to A.Calfos propgation book, He reccommends a UV on a phytoreactor that drips into a system...therefore, I would deduce that UV would not kill ALL phyto but keep the balance in check for adding to a system.
Personally, I dont run UV, nor will I run one, but as mentioned, our bulbs do put out UV, and unless you have a UV sheild that screens it all out, your tank is still being exposed....with probably no ill effects.
HTH
j
According to A.Calfos propgation book, He reccommends a UV on a phytoreactor that drips into a system...therefore, I would deduce that UV would not kill ALL phyto but keep the balance in check for adding to a system.
Personally, I dont run UV, nor will I run one, but as mentioned, our bulbs do put out UV, and unless you have a UV sheild that screens it all out, your tank is still being exposed....with probably no ill effects.
HTH
j
Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but even the sun gives off some UV, and not all of it is reflected off the water surface, so low amounts such as are in our aquarium lights are not a problem. However, large amounts kill, just as they kill humans eventually (skin cancer anyone?), but we last a little longer because we have a few more cells than the tiny creatures.
<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr> Personally, I dont run UV, nor will I run one, but as mentioned, our bulbs do put out UV, and unless you have a UV sheild that screens it all out, your tank is still being exposed....with probably no ill effects.
<hr></blockquote>
This business about our lights giving off UV, and the sun giving off UV has been taken out of context and has led some to some to erroneous conclusions.
The idea behind a UV filter is that the intensity is much higher than is put out by our bulbs, and it is all concentrated on a limited flow of water in a limited area. As you all probably know, the intensity of radiation coming from a point source such as a bulb is inversely proportional to the cube of the distance from the source. Our bulbs are shielded and give off less radiation than a UV filter and more importantly, they are quite far from the water, and therefore much less of the UV is able to kill off organisms (good and bad) from bulbs than in a UV sterilizer.
A properly sized and set up UV sterilizer WILL kill phyto. and other beneficial organisms. IMO, if it is effective for cryptocaryon it will be effective against other beneficial organisms.
I would leave it for your quarentine/hospital tank.
Ernie
<hr></blockquote>
This business about our lights giving off UV, and the sun giving off UV has been taken out of context and has led some to some to erroneous conclusions.
The idea behind a UV filter is that the intensity is much higher than is put out by our bulbs, and it is all concentrated on a limited flow of water in a limited area. As you all probably know, the intensity of radiation coming from a point source such as a bulb is inversely proportional to the cube of the distance from the source. Our bulbs are shielded and give off less radiation than a UV filter and more importantly, they are quite far from the water, and therefore much less of the UV is able to kill off organisms (good and bad) from bulbs than in a UV sterilizer.
A properly sized and set up UV sterilizer WILL kill phyto. and other beneficial organisms. IMO, if it is effective for cryptocaryon it will be effective against other beneficial organisms.
I would leave it for your quarentine/hospital tank.
Ernie
Thanks for the wealth of info and the diversity of opinions in this matter. BTW I feed my anenome pieces of fish and shrimp which it gladly pulls from the skewer. I was curious as to whether the shroomis would eat the phyto or not and if they did eat it did it have to be alive to be consumed.
Sponsor Reefs
We're a FREE website, and we exist because of hobbyists like YOU who help us run this community.
Click here to sponsor $10:
