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Re: DIY UV Sterilizer



> From: Dwight <boukmn at mindspring_com>
> The obvious dangers of diddling with UV should have been
> explained by your wholesaler.

Yep. I wouldn't consider making another one.

> It's a neat idea and many of us (myself included) have
> considered building one.

I bought a Startronics 15w UV long ago, and then made a new bulb housing so
I could plumb in a second unit easier. The savings in cost versus buying a
second unit made it a bad choice, even then. I later replaced them with a
30w Startronics Omnizap (36" bulb, 3" diameter housing) The published UV
contact times required to be useful for more than killing algae made the
larger unit more practical.

Given that, I'll add that the sterilizer is in my attic (probably 8 years
now) and not on a tank. While it was very useful when I was keeping rare,
overpriced, disease prone goldfish, it was a totally unnecessary expense in
keeping a planted tank. I was going through $40 UV bulbs every 3 months just
to keep fungus off fish and eliminate free floating algae.

Others will add that UV is even detrimental to a plant tank (they are
probably right). At the time, I was only keeping fast growing stem plants to
keep up with the goldfish hitting the salad bar:) Everything grew fine, but
I was doing daily Dupla drops, and only running UV at night.

Jon Wilson
http://www.knology.net/~jwilson/plants.htm