uv sterilizer

[Mikeb86]

Was thinking of putting a uv sterilizer lamp in the rear #1 chamber of my corallife biocube. Are the lamps that have no casing effective? Does anyone here do that. It would be for removing different types of algae from the water column. 

[mcarroll]

Not a bad tool to have on hand....especially if your tank is brand new and you're adding fish.  It can help with disease as well as keeping algae from spreading as much/as fast.

[seabass]

However, it is totally optional (like it's optional to run a protein skimmer).  UV sterilizers aren't uncommon; but more people don't use them than those that do.

 

I'm not 100% sure about the units without a casing.  The UV light can be harmful to your eyes, as well as certain other plastics.  Although I'd imagine that most equipment used in marine tanks can handle UV light (as reef lights often produce some UV).

[Butchy21]

I ran a small UV sterilizer in the back compartment of my waterbox 35.2 AIO for about 6 months.  I wanted to run a small GFO reactor but it was out of stock everywhere for almost a year... settled on the UV sterilizer to try and help with the rapid growth of nuisance algae.  Never really saw any improvement and I switched it out for the mini reactor once I was able to get my hands on one.

 

 

[blizzardscout2]

UV can be really beneficial for water clarity. I’m unaware of case less units but I’m sure if water clarity is your main goal it would suffice. However the concern of wear on plastic parts should be taken under advisement. I would say in a tank your size I would recommend just doing frequent water changes. UV sterilizers can be useful for other reasons if the flow rate is matched to particular unit being used to kill other pathogens. A hang on unit such as aqua uv is a good one but again, the juice may not be worth the squeeze. 
 

That said if you have ever seen a reef utilizing a properly sized UV sterilizer you would know why some people can’t be without one as they have the clearest water column you have ever seen.