UV on Reef Tanks

[miken]

What are everyones thoughts on putting a UV on reef tank?

[ryanrichter]

Good question. I recently put a 8 watt UV on my 110 reef. Just a couple of days ago, so no real difference yet. At the meeting at Gator's house, I noticed one on his and asked about it. Someone said to keep the wattage fairly low so you dont kill off everything. So Im trying it.

[miken]

I was under the assumption that UVs were not a good idea for a reef tank, but I'm not sure where I read or heard that. The only bad thing I could see about a UV would be having it plumbed in behind a refugium or something like that were it could kill some good critters being pumped in. I'm just curious what the general concensus is. Does anyone here have a UV on a reef?

[GeorgeH]

The only guy that I know that has one has tons of problems with the tank and keeping it clean. The tank has more issues than I care to write about enev though he is "experienced" (15 years). My understanding is that it kills off everything, even the beneficial stuff. I would think that it would not be a good thing since I set up my tank and never had a problem that he has had.

[miken]

But what's the beneficial stuff? Nitrifying bacteria is not free swimming so it would not effect Ammonia or Nitrites. It would kill live foods like DTs but you could switch it off for a few hours after feeding.

[ryanrichter]

Im thinking about putting mine on a timer to go on and off with the lights of the fuge. That way it will only be on 8 hrs or so. Hopefully trying to kill osme of the stuff that causes algae to grow.

[brewercm]

I had one at one point and took it off. My pod population was really knocked down after running it. Not sure if that was the culprit or not but figured since then they've come back very strong. Just my opinion though.

[Isis]

We just had a discussion on this... see this thread... http://www.maast.org/index.php?name=...pic&t=4765