# Whats a good UV sterilizer?



## chiahead (Dec 18, 2004)

Just curious as to which brand UV sterilizers u guys have used and which you recomend. Its for an 80 gallon I have. The filter I have has 5/8" hoses already if that helps at all.


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## eddtango (Mar 18, 2005)

*Uv*

I've tried Coralife's turbotwist UV sterilizer and it worked fine.


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## gnatster (Mar 6, 2004)

I've been using the Aqua Ultraviolet brand for going on 10 years now and have always been happy with units. Easy to maintain and the novel approach of having a manual wiper for the sleeve surrounding the bulb increases it's value to me.


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

I have the coralife 9watt version on my 75 gallon and am happy with it. Although, that manual wiper sure would come in handy.


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## chiahead (Dec 18, 2004)

some UV units vary quite a bit in the size department. The coral life ones are small compared to aqua brand, and also the emperor. With the turbo twist at 9w, is it enough to really affect green water? When doing some research a while back I read that there is a minimum wattage depending on the size of the tank and the flow rate thru the sterilizer. I remember they recommended 20w for and 80 gallon. The turbo twist states that the 9w one will work for my 80gal just fine. I realize that contact time has alot to do with the effectiveness or a UV unit, ie meaning a slower water flow increases kill time for the light. I was going to try a plumb it into my Eheim canister to avoid hooking up another power head, plus I also read that running the filter water thru the unit will lengthen the time between having to wipe the sleeve and clean the unit. Thanks guys for all the advice.


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

It cleared up my 75 gallon tank quite nicely. I'd imagine the extra 5 gallons in your tannk won't make much of a difference.


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## magicmagni (Aug 19, 2004)

Keep in mind that the higher wattages can handle higher flow rates which is nice when you're putting it on the outflow of a filter. For example a 9watt turbotwist needs 121gph or less to kill Algae, 55gph or less to kill parasites. The 18watt turbotwist needs 240gph or less to kill algae, 110gph or less for parsites.

This is based on the folowing documentation:
http://www.esuweb.com/productinstruct/pdf/096316770706.pdf 9watt

http://www.esuweb.com/productinstruct/pdf/096316770713.pdf 18watt

Base the size of the sterilizer not on the tank, but on what you want to kill and what the flow rate of your filter is, but in general you can never go wrong with the higher wattage models over the lower wattage models.


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