UV Sterilizer

I just wanted to say that I'm so glad I invested in a UV sterilizer for my reef tank!!

I had a micro-algae bloom in the water column that would NOT go away no matter what I did...I lowered the temp, cut back on the light to just about 7 hours a day, cut back on feeding to lessen the available nutrients, and ended up doing a 50% water change...NOTHING worked! Then to top it off I had a secondary bacterial bloom in the water column! It got to where I couldn't see the fish or the rocks or inverts.

I ordered my UV sterilizer last week and got it in Friday (installed the sucker right away!) and today it's so clear you can't even tell there's water in the tank! AWESOME! And here I thought those things were just hype!

Wondering where my Feather Duster went. He popped his top a few weeks ago, and left his tube. Since I can now see the inhabitants again, I began looking for him and so far I've seen neither bristle nor feather of him. That really makes me sad. :(

How do they work?

We got one for our outdoor Koi pond this summer because we were having the same problems with floating algae so bad we couldn't see the fish. We installed it in the spring and I never had any floating algae since then. They are great and well worth the investment. The UV rays kill the algae.

WildWiley, they are a type of filter that pulls water into it and exposes the water to UV rays then pumps the water back out... The UV rays will kill any single celled critter by altering it's DNA and/or RNA.

Like Whisper says, they are absolutely worth the investment!!! I ordered mine through Foster and Smith. Mine is the 9watt Submariner for my 55g reef tank. The little sucker works like a charm!!

UV sterilzer do not kill everything. You can't pass the water slow enough to kill everything.

No it doesn't kill everything, but it damages the DNA/RNA so anything that survives either dies or is incapable of reproducing itself. The water is constantly circulated through the UV sterilizer, thus re-exposing those critters to the UV that managed to make it through and survive previously.