UV Sterilizer - Worth it?

IDK, my pods are quick and seem to stay pretty close to the rocks! I'm guessing it only gets the little guys! its not pumping enough water to get any of the big ones unless they swim directly in front! that's why i bought the smaller one though, just to help clear out some bad bacteria!

 

Well pods are hanging out on something most of the time, not floating around in the water column.

And I never said anything about ich, I got mine to counter a bacteria bloom and its working great. And isn't ich free floating?

 

Ich is only free floating during part of its life cycle.

 

yeah ich spends almost its whole life either in the fish or the substrate, hardly anytime in the column!

 

check out my thread i wrote and stole most of the info from corailline!lol
http://www.3reef.com/forums/diseases/ich-101-noob-noob-128391.html

 

The thing about UV sterilizer and ICH is that like stated many times before, ICH needs to be exposed longer to the UV light then I would guess most people are doing. It will kill free floating parasites, but only the parasites that pass through the sterilizer. Not all the water will pass through, that is why a sterilizer will only stop outbreaks lol. Well, at least that is what I have gotten from the research I have done.

 

Right, so only the free floating stage would die if a UV sterilizer indeed can fully kill ich. I've heard conflicting viewpoints on their effectiveness when it comes to ich, so believe who you want.

But back to the OP's question, they are definitely effective depending on what you're trying to fight.

As an example, the first picture is pre-UV, the second is after about 36 hours or less of running. Really glad I got it, finally getting my bacteria bloom cleared up.

 

Wow, that is a huge difference. I have noticed that my cyano has been in check lately after adding my UV Sterilizer.

 

I see where it may not help stop a ICH outbreak, but my opinion is, it helps kill disease organisms in the tank that the fish then don't have to fend off which in turn helps them be ready for an ich attack! Anything to keep the fishy's healthy! iMO it does more good than harm!

 

I tried all kinds of things to get rid of it and nothing was working. Once this bloom is gone I will just box it up and just use it when I need it. It's so big and such an eyesore in my tank that doesn't have a sump.

Definitely happy, especially because it was a cheap UV. I can only imagine how the higher price point UVs perform.