lilly1958 Posted October 10, 2013 Report Share Posted October 10, 2013 Is it essential to have a UV light for a marine tank & what are the benefits of them. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquidg Posted October 11, 2013 Report Share Posted October 11, 2013 (edited) Is it essential to have a UV light for a marine tank & what are the benefits of them.Cheers Do you mean as a steriliser or over your aquarium or do you mean an actinic light? All resistance lighting has UVR content to varying degrees; leds have near none, unless you get the commercial grade leds. Some say it’s good to have ultra violet diodes in the mix of leds, but I don’t have them at all and some others I know that have them, don’t get my results and others with them get the same and or better results, in those cases it’s all about the water quality. UV sterilisers, if you mean them, are a semi useful toy, though they do give your water a little better clarity if used before a skimmer. Actinc lighting are very common with all reef aquarium lighting any way. Corals do not need UVR, but I do think is possible that some fish species may need the UVR to adjust vitamins as we do with the suns rays through our skin making vitamin D and then you see them with skin cancers caused from the sun. So far I see no need for ultra violet radiation over a reef aquarium and photosynthesis is a result of excitation from the lightings colours, so photosynthetic life doesn’t need it either. The colour ultra violet as with leds, that may be helpful! Edited October 11, 2013 by liquidg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lilly1958 Posted October 11, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 11, 2013 Thanks liquidg, I was in a fish shop yesterday & was told that I needed a UV sterilizer for my tank to keep the fish healthy. Looking at the cost of most of them they are not going to keep my bank account very healthy. As I told you before my tank has a 3 section sump built into the back of it. Total volume for tank & sump 155 litres First section holds, black bioballs, protein skimmer & the pump for the chiller. Second section is the refugium & the last section holds the outlet pump. If I do buy a small UV sterilizer where would be the best place to put it? Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquidg Posted October 11, 2013 Report Share Posted October 11, 2013 Thanks liquidg, I was in a fish shop yesterday & was told that I needed a UV sterilizer for my tank to keep the fish healthy. Looking at the cost of most of them they are not going to keep my bank account very healthy. As I told you before my tank has a 3 section sump built into the back of it. Total volume for tank & sump 155 litres First section holds, black bioballs, protein skimmer & the pump for the chiller. Second section is the refugium & the last section holds the outlet pump. If I do buy a small UV sterilizer where would be the best place to put it? Cheers Personally I think they are a waste of money, but from the two I have used in the past, one commercial grade and the other a small one, its best to put it before the skimmer. They were designed to sterilize life that works their way past the UV radiation, so that what ever it was is now incapable of reproducing. The main reason for these was to reduce parasitic protist numbers, which are white spot and velvet, for this they are near useless! They multiply quicker, if tank conditions are suited to them reproducing quickly, then they can move past the UV to sterilise them. They sterilise all planktonic life that pass the light and that for corals, is not a great thing! So if you put one on and if you have the money and why not, then some life is killed out right or disabled so if they pass through the skimmers bubbles directly after the UV ,then they are expelled before they can become part of the nitrogen cycle and add phos and nitrate to your waters. Those bodies and expelled liquids from their bodies can drop the clarity as well so there is another reason to put it before the skimmer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
