UV Sterilizer?

[Keith]

Anyone use one? What are they for? Good investment or no?

 

[Nancy]

Most ceph keepers don't use UV filters. You could skip that piece of equipment.

Nancy

 

[Keith]

cool. ive never had the need for one, so ive never looked into them.

 

[shipposhack]

They are to kill parasites/pathagens in an aquarium. They are really good if you want to have sensitive fish, such as tangs. They will also help take care of algae blooms.

 

[Jean]

There are issues with inverts though. A local Paua (abalone)/rock lobster farm used them, with banjo filters so the larvae wouldn't be irradiated but they had real problems with mutations (mainly in the abalone) and increased moult death syndrome in the lobsters. All sorts of things were tested to no avail (including replacing all the brood stock) only when the UV filters were removed did the problem clear up. I have no idea what the mechanism is that caused these problems given that the larvae never went through the filters, but certainly it seemed to be an issue. They have had no problems since the filters were taken off.

J

 

[Keith]

wow. well thats definately a good arguement.

 

[shipposhack]

Jean, would it be possible that the radiation was leaking into the water as it passed through? That seems like it would be the only way to cause problems. I have never heard of problems with adding one to any aquarium, maybe just skip out if you are planing on raising planktonic larvae.

 

[Jean]

Jean, would it be possible that the radiation was leaking into the water as it passed through? That seems like it would be the only way to cause problems. I have never heard of problems with adding one to any aquarium, maybe just skip out if you are planing on raising planktonic larvae.

that's always a possibility, we couldn't detect any leaks but I don't imagine it would take much. The lobsters were not planktonic larvae, they were a mix of newly settled juveniles, sub adults and adults!

There's quite a bit of research going on down here on the effect of UV on various larval forms (due to worries about the ozone hole!) and some seem sensitive to very low levels of UV, while others have substantial UV protectants

J

 

[monty]

Light leaks into the main aquarium could be an issue, but I'd be more concerned about the UV causing a chemical change in something small enough that it gets circulated through the UV section.

 

[marinebio_guy]

U.V. light will alter some chemicals and create harmful forms of some such as superoxide and others. Although, these should be in very small amounts but might be enough to harm a larvae (most animals have molecular defenses against radicals and other "bad" chemicals. The other thing is if the U.V. outlet is close to the water outlet on the tank the light can be reflected along the pipes and enter the main tank.