Got a UV Sterilizer: Turbo-Twist 9X

January 9th, 2007

Coral-life Turbo Twist

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. Turbo-Twist 9W BoxIt 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.




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CO2 Out, Algae In

September 19th, 2006

Green spot algaeIt’s amazing how fast things can turn south. We had to leave town for a few days due to a family emergency, and of course, this is the time it always happens — the CO2 tank ran out. Now mind you, it could be a coincidense, Cladaphora - SOS pad algae!but really it’s just a crewl joke, that not one, but two, CO2 tanks ran out this past weekend. So, while my aquariums are not unsalvagable, they most definitely now range from algae scapes, to minor eye sores on the glass.

Here, is my gallery of shame. On the top left: green spot algae on the glass, with perhaps some late stages of green dust algae. To the right, a nice mat of cladaphora. Note, there’s not a good cure for this algae. Finally, below, notice the free flowing pad of staghorn algae.

Staghorn algae mat

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