Will this help my problem?

I was trying to find out if a uv sterilizer is worth putting on a reef tank?I have a 18 watt I bought when I had my 65 gallon fowlr tank.I was told at my lfs it was something that I needed but got conflicting info when I changed the tank to a reef tank.It has just been sitting in my garage for the last 2 years after using it for about 1-2 months.I forgot to mention I'm currentlly fight a cyno outbrake brought on by overfeeding and top off ro water testing at 65 ppm for I don't know how long.
So whats everyones thoughts.
Daniel

 

I won't use one on a reef since they inactivate the good along with the bad. You want some of those organisms since they are a part of the natural food chain.
In a fish only system I swear by them though, they do good there since you are not trying to grow pods and lower life creatures.

 

And this was the biggest disagreement against them on a reef tank.Will the uv kill off all the pods and other micro organisms in the tank?

 

It will kill anything that's living that will go through it pods included.

 

UV does not kill anything by itself. What it does is alter the cellular structure of anything exposed to the UV light so it becomes sterile and cannot multiply, in effect wiping it out eventually. Once the lower life forms are gone everything which preys upon them suffers and eventually it leads up the food chain.
We have used UV in the wastewater industry for dozens of years and it is very effective at waht it was designed for.

 

I guess I won't be reinstalling it on my reef than.Thanks everyone.