UVC STERILIZATION/IRRADIATION; UV Sterilizer for Aquarium, Pond

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Carlrs

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Oct 18, 2019, 2:46:24 PM10/18/19

to Aquarium disease treatment

FROM:

https://aquarium-digest.com/2009/10/26/uv-sterilization/

EXCERPT:

Part of the reason for aid in fish immunity, is that UV Sterilization is that the UVC irradiation which is contained in the unit will break down oxidizers in the water column that would otherwise lower a fish’ immunity (Redox Balance), this aspect is often missed as many persons use only focus on the germicidal/algacidal properties of UV Sterilizers.

This not only has been proven in controlled tests by gurus in aquarium research such as Carl Strohmeyer, it is easy to demonstrate by adding an oxidizer such as Potassium Permanganate that colors the water and running a level one UV sterilizer against a control aquarium with none (all parameters, bio load, etc. otherwise equal) and noting the considerable speed the Potassium Permanganate is cleared from the aquarium utilizing the UV Sterilizer.

The photo to the above/right demonstrates this.
Credit: Aquarium & Pond UV Sterilization | How to use a UVC Sterilizer

Unfortunately many aquarium/pond forums also focus only on the aspect of irradiation of disease (which can be hit or miss depending upon installation and UV quality), but miss the aid UV Sterilizer provide in improving Redox balance.
Many of my friends in the professional aquarium & pond maintenance business have cited many times that a new customer would call them out for help complaining the UV Sterilizer they purchased elsewhere was useless, but after investigating these professionals would find that the UV was of poor quality and/or incorrectly installed.

This has been especially common of late with the influx of low quality UVs such as the Green Killing Machine, Submariner, Jebo, AquaTop, and many others which is what you get for under $50 on eBay or Amazon, as well as some of the many low end online retailers.

The unfortunate aspect of purchasing these low end UV Sterilizer is that these are not really sterilizers at all, rather just clarifiers.

So what often happens is a person purchases one of the cheap UV units, then sees no improvement in fish health, then goes onto some aquarium forum, Facebook, Youtube, Yahoo Answers, etc. and reports that the device was useless.
The problem is the devise they purchased was useless for true level one UV Sterilization, but the process and the concept is not.
This very common problem is analogous to purchasing a thin plastic tarp to cover ones swimming pool and then when a child still falls in, stating pool covers are junk, when in fact a pool cover designed for protecting children from the pool should have been used and would have worked!!