Got a UV Sterilizer: Turbo-Twist 9X
January 9th, 2007
Thanks to some extra Christmas money, I decided to go ahead and get a U.V. Sterilizer for my 75G tank. I’ve been having a rash of green water, and a case of “something’s not right” situations in this tank for the past year, so I guess you could consider this my last resort.
After doing a fair amount of research on the web, I decided to go with Corallife’s Turbo-Twist Sterilizer. 
It seems to be a pretty popular product, and the price was right on Amazon.com. Setting the unit up was very easy using the instructions provided. Basically, you start by just unscrewing the one end to install the bulb. After that, you twist the middle section until the two barbs face in the direction that you need to connect to your filter. Finally, splice the output line of your filter, and connect either end of the line to the input and output barbs of the sterilizer. You’re done, once you plug it in.
I was a little bit worried about the sterilizer affecting the flow-rate of my filter, but so far that hasn’t proven to be a problem. And that’s having a CO2 diffuser and in-line heater running on the filter with it. Of course, that why I bought an over-sized filter, Eheim 2028, for my 75G in the first place.
Twelve hours after hooking up the U.V. sterilizer, my tank appeared fairly cloudy, with a white, milky hue. I presume that consistuted a mass bacteria/bad thing die off after being zapped by the U.V. rays. By the second day, the water cleared, and it’s looked clearer than I can remember in recent history. I’m not entirely sure whether I’ll leave it running 24/7, or will turn it off to save the bulb-life a little bit, but I’m glad to know that I have a last resort available to rectify any extra difficult problems with my water column.
October 6th, 2007 at 1:02 am
I’m thinking of putting a Turbo Twist on my 50 gallon planted tank. I have an Eheim 2026 and a 2215. Do you think either of them could handle the sterilizer? My local fish guy said it would put too much of a strain on my filter. Now that it’s been a few months have you had any problems or notice a difference in the filtration?
October 7th, 2007 at 9:46 am
Hi Beverley,
I have a in-line CO2 reactor, a turbo-twist, and an in-line heater running through my Eheim 2028. Of those three, the in-line CO2 reactor is the one that takes away the most flow, but that’s because I go from 5/8″ tubing up to 2″ PVC and back down. Does the Turbo-twist reduce some flow, probably. Is it noticable? I don’t know if you’ll notice a huge difference. As long as you’re used to cleaning your filter at regular intervals, you’re probably okay. You probably have more flow/filtration than you need anyways with those two filters on a 50 gallon tank, so even if it does take it down a notch, you should be okay.