What All Does UV lighting Kill?

[Noober]

I was wondering if uv lighting killed coraline algae spores, and if it kills green hair algae and brown diatom algae? What about cynobacteria?
I was considering bleaching all my rock because there is a buncha unsightly stuff growing on it that isnt easily scraped off. I will just miss all my coraline. How long will my coraline on my glass live if i scrape a bunch of it off and keep it in a jar of saltwater. I was thinking I could blend it up in a small blender and then release it into my newly filled and newly aquascaped tank, and once it settles then turn on my sump and filters.
All my sand will stay submerged so it should remain bio active. I was thinking of buying some garf grunge to add to the sand, along with some indo pacific saltwater farms live sand activator, comes with liquid denitrifier along with, some kinda mud product, some sand activator, and pods. Heres the link to that: http://www.ipsf.com/livesand.html
How long do you think it should take to cycle the system so that I can add my fish and corals back into it? Should I wait for the coraline algae to start growing? And with this UV/canister filter I'm installing, will the coraline algae have a much better chance at surviving and spreading before any other algae blooms and takes over the surface of the aquarium. I was wondering because I can put my cleanup crew back in there to take care of it, i dont really have hair or diatom or cyno problems now, but I didnt know if it would bloom afterwords. I also wonder if I'll have to wipe off my glass everyday? Thanks a lot!:whew:

[Noober]

1 more question, Does UV lighting kill bacteria, diseases, fungus, and pests like ich, bryopsis, and other troublesome things. thanks

[corkyGramma]

:hypnotyized:WoW, that was a tall order! UV Sterilizers kill only free floating microbes when they are sucked into its chamber. Yes they do kill bacteria, fungi, viruses, paracites, and algea but only if its free floating its not like a cure all, for example fish with ick.
As for your live rock please don't bleech it :what_smile:. I've had really good luck with queen conches cleaning up live rock and sand beds, they even eat the nasty cyanobac. Perhaps you should consider getting a protien skimmer or check how much you are feeding fish/corals.

[Noober]

Thanks for the post :)

I've got a skimmer, and I've got a fighting conch, dont know if thats as good as one of the queens, btw, arn't they supposed to get huge? haha. Anyway I want to get rid of all the particles in my water with the canister filter, and the uv, I want to give my coraline a head start before this other wierd algae can take hold, none of my cleanup crew will eat it and I've got a pretty wide variety in there. Here's a pic of the stuff i'm talking about, I cant scrub it off with a brush or thats what I'd do.
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/102_1317.jpg
Its the dark green spots and patches on all thoes rocks, man that stuff drives me crazy, I'm color blind so i thought it was red coraline at first but its kinda fuzzy and it might as well be stuck to thoes rocks with superglue. Strange cause it grew like coraline and right along with the pink and red coraline, but they wont grow in the same spot. Is there any possiblity this is some dark green calcerous (spelling lol) algae

[corkyGramma]

Yeah I thought you might have a protien skimmer- you are positive its in tip top shape? Assuming that it is bubbling correctly and dark enough then, there has got to be something else feeding that nasty microalgae. Like the wrong light spectrum, old bulb, or phosphates in the water. What do you think?
I have a rabbit fish that loves gobbling microalgae from the liverock and powerheads (leaves it clean) but I think we should figure out what's causing it to overcome your coraline. That way you don't have to tear down your tank and start over.

[Noober]

well that outbreak was the cause of me getting the skimmer, and i just went for a cheapie because i needed something fast and make shift until income tax came around. Sure enough It hasnt been growing anymore since, which was about 3 months ago, it just stays as is. so hopefully my tank has reached some sort of equalibrium. When income tax gets here i'm thinking of getting a deltec protien skimmer and calcium reactor, and if i can afford it, a cheap kalk stirrer to help control my ph, i'm tired of dosing. hehe thanks alot everyone!

[ErikH]

You should have Ace make you a dual chambered one. The second chamber brings the PH back up by filtering the water through more media. I LOVE mine!

UV sterilization kills just about any free floating thing that flows through it. They are making some very inexpensive ones to use in third world countries to help sterilize water so it's drinkable.

[Noober]

He makes kalk reactors? Sweet, well if he had the time and the interest that would be awsome, i might pm him in the future about it, thanks for the input! ;)

[electropleb]

I have a quick question, (new guy here) I'm setting up a 125 gal and I'm wondering what filter to use, wet/dry or a Canister Filter? I have a 40 gal tank and had no problems at all, even had a lot of the purple stuff, (which I was told was a good thing)

any idea or tips for me, thanks

[Noober]

a lot of people here seem to just use sumps with refugiums, it might be good to have a little bit of something to keep the debris outta the water though. Take it from the more expierenced guys though, im still getting my boots wet......@ almost 8 months

[corkyGramma]

yeah, dosing's a @%^*#!

[aggman]

a lot of people here seem to just use sumps with refugiums, it might be good to have a little bit of something to keep the debris outta the water though. Take it from the more expierenced guys though, im still getting my boots wet......@ almost 8 months

actually you can keep large particles out of the water without using the canister you mentioned. we just use filter socks at the overflow entering the sump/fuge. these socks catch all large particles. they only require light maintainance-simply changing out as they fill up.

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d112/mr_everybody/fishies/casump2.jpghttp://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d112/mr_everybody/fishies/casump1.jpg

~alex

[Noober]

thx for the input aggman, btw very nice and neat tank you got there! :)

[aggman]

thx for the input aggman, btw very nice and neat tank you got there! :)

actually it is from a friend's tank in ottawa. mine is still being set up. :)

~alex