UV Sterlizier in a 20gal.

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Hey all! Hope everyone had a Merry X-mas!

Well, now that the holidays are neary past us, I'm gonna take some initative (sp?) and try to get this 20gal wet asap! In turn, I am tryin to finish getting all of the equipment that I need to be ready!

Its been sugguested to me by a few that I may want to look into a UV sterlizier. My questions to you all are:

- Is there a tank size that is too small to use a UVS on? (IE: my sumpless 20gal)

- I've read that when buying your UVS, to go up one, if not 2 sizes from the reccommended one for your tank size. Is there any truth to this?

- I know they improve your water clarity which in turn helps your light penetrate to the bottom better. I also know that they kill both good and bad bacteria. So, how exactly can they harm your tank? Is it by killing pods and other natural food?

- Other than bad bacteria, what other baddies do these things kill?

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anyone have any light here? I'd like to go ahead and purchase this item if it looks like I'm giong to end up needing it...

[jojo22]

I personally do not like the idea of useing a UV light except to help battle problems. My thinking on this is that the light will kill everything that passes thru it. good or bad!

[dakar]

I'm going to have to take a somewhat nuetral stand here for a reef tank, we ran a rather large UV on our 180 reef for over 6 months (an ich scare with a tang that was too large to QT prompted it), running 350ish gph through the UV over a period of 6 months and there was no noticable change in anything, algae or otherwise, in short we saw no benefit nor loss (besides the extra power to run the UV lamp and pumps). Was it killing good bacteria as well as any parasites... who knows... We only stopped as the UV tube died and I didn't replace it.

For a fish only system, I could see where it possible *could* be a benefit.

Like so many other things in this hobby/obsession, there are advocates on both sides of the fence. Personally Ozone is my favorite for parasite control and increasing water clarity, but only on far larger systems than a 20g.