UV against White SPot

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Hey Guys and Gals

As some of you know I use CalCVita against whitespot (and everythign else).
My Powder blue and Long nose Butterfly have/had White Spot.
Seems the CalCVita helps in the spread and cure, but it comes back now and then.
It doesn't seem to affect any of my other fish though..

Anyways. I wnated to find out what eveyone's experience is with using UV against White Spot?
Does it really help?
What other effects can it have on my system?
 
Hi, UV will help against white spot, but it is not the ultimate solution. Something is stressing your fish. To ultimately get rid of the white spot, you will have to find out what causes the stress.

The negative thing about a UV light is that it also kills quite a lot of beneficial stuff in your tank. If I understand the principal of a UV light, it is to sterilize the water in killing of any/most living organisms in the water.

Because of the way UV works, I don't think it will kill the white spot in the "cyst" stage of the cycle.

So in short yes a UV might be beneficial, especially in fish only systems. In reef systems, there is so many hungry mouths, white spot should not have a fair chance.

The other nice alternative and biological way is a pair of Lysmata cleaner shrimps.

Hope this helps
 
Hi Lappiesreef

UV is definitely the way to go it is very affective at killing all white spot in the water column but will not cure the fish of white spot it will help the fish in the long run by killing most waterborne parasites
thus stopping further infection.

Uv also kills algae in the water column keeping the water clear

The only downside of UV is it doesn't [FONT=&quot]differentiate[/FONT] between good and bad life in the water .

I know a few reefers who had huge white spot outbreaks after a UV filter failed so that tells me that they are effective i run Uv on my existing setup and no white spot for the last 10 months
 
Thanks Cyber.

I have three shrimps.

Well the white spot is never alot and comes and go...

Can't see what is stessing them though... and it's only the two..
 
Thanks Sub...
Yeah I added two units to my display. One in ech leg of the L shape.

I'm bargening on the size of my sump to to rectivy the good guys getitng zapped in the DT.
 
I run a UV filter on my little 600 cube(Not the 1m SPS) 24/7. One of the main reasons why i hooked it up is because my baby emporor picked up white spots. He is now healthy and feeding well.
 
+- R1 000 for a unit with a 55w tube. The unit is +- 4ft long. When you buy an UV unit for your reef, try to get one with a quartz sleeve. They prolong the bulb life. The bulbs costs +- R300 for the 55w. You normally get the units in 8w, 15w(I think) 30w and 55w
 
thanx guys, tell me is this apperatus essential for a marine tank?

No, but it is a very nice to have, especially for a FOWLR tank
 
So do you guys think one should run your UV 24/7 or only on a 8 hour cycle? Or maybe only when introducing new fish? I am worried about it killing the good bacteria.
 
i ran my uv for 8 hours for 1 and a half year, didn't effect any of my corals or fish

the last 2 months my uv was on for 24/7, wanted to see any changes, and all stayed the same?
 
So do you guys think one should run your UV 24/7 or only on a 8 hour cycle? Or maybe only when introducing new fish? I am worried about it killing the good bacteria.
On my old 6ft i use to only switch it on a day before i know im going to buy fish. Then let it run for about a week and monitor the fish. But before that i use to run it 24/7.
 
Hi lappiesreef uv is good and bad,i agree with cyber it kills good and bad bacteria,you see white spot is a swimming pathogen only what pass through the uv will be killed but the rest that attaches it self to live rock and some corals will not die,if you drop your salinity to 1010 and turn your heat to 27deg it helps to kill off as well how much nobody knows, feed well and use some garlic by kent marine to mix with your food,pls drop your salinity very,very slowly dont rush,i know it is hard to keep powder blues from getting white spot i have tried 3 times with no sucess and the water passing through your uv do it slowly lets say 500lt pump the slower the better i will leave it on 24/7 for the first 2 weeks,you can also use marine trace by seachem and stabality by seachem once a week it will help to build there amunne system.
GOOD LUCK
 
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