To UV or Not to UV that is the question....

[njtiger24 aquariums]

During yesterday's meeting there was talk about using UV filters. Now personally I have never ran a UV filter but have thought about it. I have read some pros and some cons on running UV filters.

If you have ran/run a UV filter:

1. Do you run it all the time or set schedule?
2. Why did you run a UV filter?
3. Are you still running it now?
4. Did you have any algae breakout or fish/coral sickness while running?
5. How is your tank running?

If you do not run a UV filter:

1. Why not?
2. Have you thought about it?
3. Deal with any algae breakout or fish/coral sickness?
4. How is your tank running?

I will start it off.

I have never ran a UV filter

1. Not sold on if they truly beneficial to a tank so I not willing to spend the money (we all know this hobby is costly)
2. Yes I have thought about it
3. Some small algae outbreak but nothing too bad. No fish/coral sickness
4. Tank is running well with no major issues

 

[Trio91]

I think @Sunny has one on his unit

Those things have always been up for debate. For me, they have always been foreign territory.

 

[Mark_C]

Timing is interesting. Last night I pulled out an old UV to put in the nano and it doesnt fit, so I'm heading out today to buy a biocube unit.

So, I have a Green Machine I was running on a previous tank. While running on that tank I never had any concerns with algae. The water was crystal. I stopped using it as I seeded the tank with pods for a mandarin and soon after I had some diatome concerns.

As I understand it, the UV will kill any and all free floating organisms in the tank, including pods, phyto, algae, bacteria, etc...
In a tank as large as Sunny's the pod population survives just due to the overall space he has. Im assuming his UV keeps things in check.

With a transfer of rocks from my larger setup I have a bit of hair algae in the nano, I have some free floating particles that can be seen, I have a ton of SPS which prefers clean water, and none of my liestock survives on pods. I'm going to give the UV a run.
I can drop back a report in a couple of weeks.

 

[njtiger24 aquariums]

Timing is interesting. Last night I pulled out an old UV to put in the nano and it doesnt fit, so I'm heading out today to buy a biocube unit.

So, I have a Green Machine I was running on a previous tank. While running on that tank I never had any concerns with algae. The water was crystal. I stopped using it as I seeded the tank with pods for a mandarin and soon after I had some diatome concerns.

As I understand it, the UV will kill any and all free floating organisms in the tank, including pods, phyto, algae, bacteria, etc...
In a tank as large as Sunny's the pod population survives just due to the ovearll space he has. Im assuming his UV keeps things in check.

With a transfer of rocks from my larger setup I have a bit of hair algae in the nano, I have some free floating particles that can be seen, I have a ton of SPS which prefers clean water, and none of my liestock survives on pods. I'm going to give the UV a run.
I can deop back a report in a couple of weeks.

Nice information @Mark_C . By any chance what size/model is your current UV filter (the one that doesn't fit on your current nano)?

 

[njtiger24 aquariums]

So I have been running @Mark_C UV filter (thanks again man) plus new GFO for about a week now. I just looked and my green algae is basically gone.