UV for Loach tank

[Mad Duff]

After the recent problems I have had with my 7ft that has seen me loose all 19 of my Clown loach I am fitting a UV to the tank, I was wondering what UV's are used by people on here.

I was looking at the Turbo Twist but they seem to be only available in the US so while looking arount the internet I came across the "Deltec Professional Complete 20w UV Unit" the fact that the 2ow produced by this unit is supposed to be the equivalent to 40w froma conventional unit seems good, does anyone already use this make

Write up:
http://www.charterhouse-aquatics.co.uk/ ... -1626.html

Any feedback at all welcome

[mikev]

AA Aquarium "Green Killing Machine" here. 9w on 65g, 24w on 125g,.. one day I'll get more. I have TurboTwist too, for emergency backup, but no longer use it, AA is better.

hth & sorry for the clowns.

Incidentally, UV will not totally cure ich, but it will make curing ich even with junk off-the-shelf meds trivial.

[Emma Turner]

Hi MD,

We use the TMC Vecton 30 http://www.qualitymarineusa.com/product ... id=0795150 but I believe this has now been superceded by the Vecton V2 range: http://www.tmc-ltd.co.uk/aquarium/v2ecton-uv.asp

We have ours plumbed in on the return pipework from one of our Eheim externals.

Emma

[LoachOrgy]

Sorry to hear duff. I may invest in one of these myself. Thanks for the pointers. I hope you make it through tough times!

[Jim Powers]

I have the Turbo Twist and a Current USA, but prefer the Turbo Twist.

[Mad Duff]

Mike - is the AA Aquarium "Green Killing Machine" internal and something on the lines of this http://www.gardensite.co.uk/Internal_Aq ... er_24W.htm

[mikev]

Mad,

It looks very much like my 24w, should be the same. Good price too, I paid a bit less, but I had to really search.

I prefer AA because it is integrated and more compact, w/o all the extra tubing that TurboTwist implies. Seems reliable, I had 9w for more than a year, no problems with the powerhead pump. There is one thing that is not convenient: you need to clean the protective sponge once a week or two, but this does not take too long.

My 9W is this: http://www.aa-aquarium.com/NewProduct2. ... d=&level=3

PS. BTW, it does clear green water too. I got it after two weeks of keeping my 65g in the dark failed to solve the problem, it cleared the water in three days. It was very helpful with drug-resistant ich one time.

[Mad Duff]

Cheers Mike, that certainly gives me a couple of more options.

Either internal UV creating yet more flow or external UV plumbed into external canister

[mikev]

Yeap. TurboTwist attaches to canister nicely.

I thought about this and rejected it for this reason: simply running UV on all tanks does very little good, but occasionally there are emergencies when I need to quickly have a UV on another tank. I can move an internal system instantly, I cannot do it with a canister-attached external, if the other tank does not have an appropriate filter.

Being able to do this saved my Sewellia's once, when their tank got exposed to a real dangerous bug, way more serious than ich.

Also, if you are bent on protection, there are also Ozon-based sterilizers. These are more powerful than UVs.

[Jim Powers]

I have been curious about the in tank all-in-one UV's myself.It seems to eliminate the effort of matching a pump to the UV or plumbing it into a filter system.
So, mikev, you are happy with the operation of yours then?

[mikev]

This is a difficult question, Jim.

That for me Internal works better than External, no question.

That it is a good idea to have a UV system on hand, also no question.

That it is worth running all the time, I'm not so confident.

UV does little or nothing against serious diseases and creates additional expenses and dangers to the fish.

Ich is easily treatable in most cases, and comparing to some things I've seen it is just a minor nuisance.

To clarify: what happened to MD was not Ich per se, but advanced Ich which was not immediately detected and treated since he was not around. Lots of things may happen when you are not around....a better investment may be a webcam.

[Mad Duff]

I think I have narrowed it down to 3 uv's

Aquamedic Helix Max 36W
http://www.1st4aquatics.com/index.asp?f ... uctid=2989

Vecton 30w UV
http://www.1st4aquatics.com/index.asp?f ... ductid=522

Deltec Professional Complete 20w UV Unit
http://www.charterhouse-aquatics.co.uk/ ... -1626.html

I do like the Vecton 30 which is what Emma uses but the fact that it is nearly 3ft long makes space an issue. So it looks likely that I may well go with either the Deltec or Aquamedic helix, the deltec makes an issue of the fact that it is UVc rather than just UV does anyone know if this makes a big difference

I will probably also get one of the smaller internal ones as well which could be used on any of my other tanks if needed.

[helen nightingale]

i got the vecton brand. it was very tight to fit it in the cabinet, only the one i got has casing around it. i hadnt seen on the insrtuctions it says it has to be mounted horizonally. other than that, i am happy.

[Batch]

Hey ya'll,
i have a rather cheap 9W UV sterilizer attached to the output of a
Rena XP3 for my 55 gal loach tank, which I leave on 24/7... Anyway

UV does little or nothing against serious diseases and creates additional expenses and dangers to the fish.

what are the dangers you mention? What harm is there from using these things?

Batch

[mikev]

what are the dangers you mention? What harm is there from using these things?

Batch

Any time you add extra machinery to the tank, you create extra risks. With UV, one specific danger is uncycling the tank. I had two serious episodes like this, in both UV fully eliminated the nitrite processing bacteria. In one case, I had to fully empty and wash the tank before I could restart the cycle.
Stuff like this usually happens when you medicate, but the problem is that you most want the UV around when you have a disease.

I had three ich episodes this summer (all with new fish, all in qtanks). In the last case, the fish had very advanced ich, comparable with the recent photos posted. I did not use the spare UV because of the extra dangers and glad I did not: Ich was fully eliminated in three days, no losses.

Now, in comparison, here is the case when i did use the UV: I was cleaning a qtank with myxo when I noticed that an airline came off in the Sewellia tank...asked my wife to connect it (I could not do it--takes long time to disinfect the hands), and suddenly the cover of the tank and food that was on it dropped right into the tank....not thinking, I removed the food, then I realized that I probably doomed most of the fish in the tank... so the UV was installed right away and no disease/deaths resulted.