UV Sterilizer in freshwater?

[moganman]

Only running a wet dry on my tank right now. Water is turned over ten times an hour. Im hearing that wet/dry and canisters is the right way to go, but I really dont want another filter. Will UV sterilizer help with diseases and debris? If it's a good addition, where should I put it? Next to the return pump in the sump?

[jwh0818]

Uv sterilizers kill aglae. They dont filter anything

[moganman]

Yeah I know that. Wet/dry are good biological filters while canisters are good mechanically, but instead of me buying another canister filter to add to the tank with my wet/dry, Im wondering if a UV sterilizer will help with the nitrate levels?

[eklikewhoa]

If anything it will allow an increase. As much as algae is a nusciance it still absorbs nitrates.

[Darbex]

Only thing UV is good for is killing organisms. Depending on the flow rate through it, it can kill Ich and other tough parasites.

[Totenkampf]

uv is not going to help filtration or reduce nitrates, not is additional mechanical/biological filtration. biomedia converts ammonia and nitrites to nitrates which is the final step in the converison, it cant do any more. to reduce nitrates you need to increase water changes, clean mechanical filtration more often (because gunk in the filter is still leaching pollution off into the water column), and/or add plants. if you dont want a planted aquarium then you can use the techniques that the germans use in paludariums.

[Totenkampf]

(continued) you can put the roots from bog plants, like pothos or arrowhead, into the water and they will rapidly use nitrates as food, duckweed will to but will turn into a plague unless weeded out often or unless u have cichlids that will eat it.

[Sea-agg09]

A UV will raise your nitrate levels as the dying algae and micro-organisms will be breaking down rather than using up nutrients. With that said, they are good to control troublesome algae, and they are moderately effective at controlling the outbreak of some infections, depending on the flow rate of course. A bag of carbon in the wet/dry will help reduce the nitrate levels though. If you are looking at spending some coin, look into a media reactor, and fill it with carbon. Shouldn't cost more than $100, and will allow you to react whatever you need.

[moganman]

Thanks guys. Im gonna stick to my wet dry and continue my water changes twice a week.

[Bombser1]

That is what I have and I 2 change water except I do it once a week

[rmalford]

I ran a uv for a while and then sold it. I think BeefyG has a media reactor for a great price.

[mikeb144]

I have read this post and I see where it is understood that W/Dry is taking care of the bio load for the tankl. If you are happy with the way your tanks looks running that system, then stay with it. However if you are looking for clarity then I would suggest some type of mechanical filtration be added. Depending on tank size and bio load. If the bio load is heavy something liks FX5. There are many reasons for running more than one filter per tank. For instance if you have W/Dry and FX5 and it is time to clean one the onther can carry the tank load while the other filter catches up Just my opinion

[rmalford]

Are you looking for water clarity? Personally, I noticed a vast difference when I moved my fx5 over to my 125g that already had a small wet/dry and 2260 running.

[eklikewhoa]

Wet/dry coupled with a 2262 and my water was crystal clear!

[Totenkampf]

i am actually thinking of adding a fluidized bed filter downstream of my 2028 and converting the eheim to all mechanical filtration, i would think that would boost the clarity and bioload capacity quite a bit but i will have to experiment to see how much the co2 reactor slows the flowrate of the ehiem. i'm not sure if its 277gph can push all three.