# UV Sterilizer as Power Filter replacement?



## Alex123 (Jul 3, 2008)

Folks, I've been looking over the past threads on this website after seeing some of my cheapie fishes I bought recently died, I got to thinking about uv sterilizer. Diane mentioned that Submarine UV Sterilizer and so I did some googling.
Max Flow Dimension Max Size Price
5 Watt 132 gph 9" x 3" x 2-1/2" 40 gal $65
7 Watt 132 gph 10" x 3" x 2-1/2" 70 gal $80

Now AquaClear 20 filter at 100 gph 5-20 Gallon $23
30 filter at 150 gph 10-30 Gallon $30

Looks to me like the Max Flow rate for 5w and 7w is close to the aquaclear 30 filter for up to 30 gallon.
El-natural aquarium setup want to minimize water movements. I would imagine the max flow rate should work up-to 75 gallon. Now, couldn't this UV sterilizer serve the dual purpose of keeping the water clean and act as a power filter? One thing is that I might not want to run sterilizer 24/7 but instead 1 week out of the month so may still need a filter the other 3 weeks. I'm thinking the 7 Watt one should work with my 20 gallons all the way to my future 75 gallons setup. Thoughts?


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## fshfanatic (Aug 7, 2008)

a UV in no way will act as a power filter.


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## hallidave (Aug 20, 2006)

I've been doing exactly what you're suggesting with great results. It provides gentle water movement and has actually improved the colour of the water which was slightly yellow because of the type of soil that I used. You do have to be careful to rinse the filter sponge often (once a week or so) because it is the only filtration in the tank.

I'm using a 9W, 44 gph sterilizer in a small 12 gallon tank. I put it on the same timer as my lights, so that it only runs 12 hours a day. That should extend the bulb life and make it cheaper to operate.

http://www.aa-aquarium.com/showroom4.php?id=156&level=1

Cheers,

Dave


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## Alex123 (Jul 3, 2008)

Dave looks like an interesting product. You may get away with it running 12 hrs/day for a 12 gallon but I don't think a 75 gallon should go without some current for 12 hrs. Maybe I can have two timers. One for a small internal filter and the other for the lights and sterilizer. That way during the day it kills algae etc and at night just let the other filter move the water a little bit. I don't think this is sold here in the states though. At 44 gph it seems a little low for use in larger aquarium.


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## bpimm (Jun 12, 2006)

Alex if you go with the Submarine UV Sterilizer the light is switched separately from the pump, so you can run the pump 24/7 and switch the light with a timer. I have one and like it.

I also has a lot bigger sponge for filtration than the other one linked above.


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## mommyeireanne (Oct 24, 2007)

You could run just the pump and not the UV if you want. I run both all the time for 4+ months after new fish, and because I know I had MB in the tank at one time. I have to say though, I've had two of the 5W Submariners and both had the same problem: water leaking into the quarts sleeve where the bulb is. This one hasn't burned out the bulb yet and I doubt I'd t be given another exchange, so I just deal with it. I think when it's been long enough I may remove the light part all together and run it as you say, pump only until the UV is needed again for new fish. I really like how UV has given me good results with LFS fish, though.


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

I've been using the 7 watt Submariner in my 45 gal for several months now. Last week I purchased 2 more Submariners for the other two tanks (a 50 gal and 55 gal). I decided that the fish that survived the MB outbreak in 2004/2005 are probably chronic carriers of the disease. A few have died since then. Why push my luck? I love my fish and the Submariners are cheap and will truly protect them from constant re-infection. It will also block disease transmission to uninfected fish.

The Submariner works fine for water movement in the tank. And because NPTs don't really need biological filtration, it doesn't matter how efficient the filter is for biological filtration.

Mommyeireanne, I too have got a few drops of water in the quartz sleeve, but I don't see how that would hurt the UV light and its sterilizing effect.

Now folks, here's some hard science that you all need to know, especially if you don't want to run the UV filters 24/7. UV light kills bacteria (and the cysts of many pathogenic protozoa) by messing up their DNA (specifically, creating thymine dimeres in the DNA). However, bacteria can repair the damaged DNA. One major repair mechanism that bacteria use to repair DNA damage requires light.

Bottom line: your UV sterilizing filter will kill more bacteria and protozoa if you run it at night.

Also, I would add that water movement is going to help fish more at night. That's because at night the plants aren't photosynthesizing and producing oxygen.

Running UV sterilizing filters at night keeps the water oxygenated when oxygen is needed most and is more effective in killing potential pathogens.


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## mommyeireanne (Oct 24, 2007)

I don't think it works as well when the quartz sleeve is fogged. My first Submariner blew 2 bulbs before I exchanged it. This one has also developed the tell-tale silver hot spot on the bulb tube. It is 5 months old & I dry it out once a month when I trim. I can see it's lit. If the bulbs weren't burning out, I wouldn't care about running it all the time. Maybe I'll try night UV. I have seen the benefit of UV in my tank.  I'll always have one. I don't know if another brand would have better seals; a risk with any water appliance.


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## Alex123 (Jul 3, 2008)

Thanks Diane. Good to know. It's opposite of what I thought but night it is. Now for those who have the Submariner, the UV light has a separate power outlet to the pump? That means I need to use two timers one for the aquarium lights and one for the UV light since they are running opposite time of the day.


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## mommyeireanne (Oct 24, 2007)

Alex,
yes, cord and plug for the pump, another cord with it's own plug for the UV. The pump cord has no on/off switch. The UV cord has an on/off switch.


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## bpimm (Jun 12, 2006)

I have not had a problem with water leakage in mine. you might try a little Vaseline on the O rings when you put it back together.


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

bpimm said:


> I have not had a problem with water leakage in mine. you might try a little Vaseline on the O rings when you put it back together.


Thanks for the tip. I hadn't thought of that, but it makes perfect sense. One should never underestimate an O-ring!


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## mommyeireanne (Oct 24, 2007)

I will do that. I feel stupid, I've done that on my very old mag light, but never thought to do this on the submariner. I have been looking for a new O ring.  Thank you.


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## Alex123 (Jul 3, 2008)

I got one more question for you guys. My biggest tank is 20gallon right now but I am planning to get something bigger. So I want to be able to use the sterilizer in small and my future large tank. Looking at the submariner brand they have the 5 and 7 watt but both are rated at 132 gph??? What the healll?
It the same amount of water flow rate in and out why bother with 7 watt? The 5 watt should be effective within it's spec so seems to me the extra 2 watt is useless unless the gph can go higher for the 7 watt. 

5 Watt 132 gph 9" x 3" x 2-1/2" 40 gal $65
7 Watt 132 gph 10" x 3" x 2-1/2" 70 gal $80


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## El Exorcisto (Aug 10, 2006)

Just curious, why do you feel the need for a UV sterilizer, do you have frequent green water outbreaks? When my 55 gets cloudy or green, I do a water change. After the water change I hit it with my Vortex (diatom filter) and have a crystal tank again. Now that I have stopped dosing my water column, I have no need for the frequency of water changes I used to.


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## Alex123 (Jul 3, 2008)

Because Diane use it in her tank. If she use it I use it . Actually, I bought some community fishes from petco and one sunset platy were acting a little funny from the time I bought it. It didn't act healthy or look healthy. I knew something was wrong with it even at the store but there were only 2 left and on sale so I said what the heck and got it thinking the tail shape is not a sign of problem or constant swimming against the bubbly current at the store. Anyhow, it died after a week and then strangely the healthy looking one also died the next day. I don't think the black mollys or the gold barbs could have killed them. So anyhow, I started to get worried the other fish might get the disease. I was looking for a water circulator in place of the power filter also and that's when I got the idea of using sterilizer for dual purpose of prevention of disease spreading and circulate the water. Also I read that you can contract diseases from handling the aquarium water. Search this forum and you'll see even more reasons.


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Alex123 said:


> I got one more question for you guys. My biggest tank is 20gallon right now but I am planning to get something bigger. So I want to be able to use the sterilizer in small and my future large tank. Looking at the submariner brand they have the 5 and 7 watt but both are rated at 132 gph??? What the healll?
> It the same amount of water flow rate in and out why bother with 7 watt? The 5 watt should be effective within it's spec so seems to me the extra 2 watt is useless unless the gph can go higher for the 7 watt.
> 
> 5 Watt 132 gph 9" x 3" x 2-1/2" 40 gal $65
> 7 Watt 132 gph 10" x 3" x 2-1/2" 70 gal $80


The water flow-rate for my 7 watt doesn't seem that fast in my 50 gal. Since you are considering a larger tank than the 20 gal, the 7 watt doesn't seem unreasonable to me. You can count on one thing, the more UV light, the more kill of potential pathogens, green water algae, etc.


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## Alex123 (Jul 3, 2008)

Thanks Diana. I agree the higher wattage the more potent. The thing I question is that if the 5 watt kills 99% of the water that goes through the sterilizer at it's max rate and the 7 watt also have the same max rate than it would not be much different at al. But after a little more reading, it seems that the submariner have variable rate you can control so that I am guessing at lower flow rate it would be 99% but as the flow rate increase the potency decreases and that would justify the 7 watt usage because it will be more effective at higher flow rate.


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Alex123 said:


> Thanks Diana. I agree the higher wattage the more potent. The thing I question is that if the 5 watt kills 99% of the water that goes through the sterilizer at it's max rate and the 7 watt also have the same max rate than it would not be much different at al. But after a little more reading, it seems that the submariner have variable rate you can control so that I am guessing at lower flow rate it would be 99% but as the flow rate increase the potency decreases and that would justify the 7 watt usage because it will be more effective at higher flow rate.


Sounds reasonable.


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