UV Sterilizers for Reef Tanks! What to Choose, Install, and Use!

What's going on reefers? Blaine here. In today's video, we're going to be talking all about UV sterilizers and how you can use them in your reef tank at home. We're going to team up with Greg later, talk about all the different kinds we have here at TSA and the different ways you can plum them into your system, and then we're going to get with the farm, talk about all the different ways we utilize them here at TopShelf Aquatics. Let's dive in. [Music] In this video, we're diving into one of the most debated pieces of reef equipment, the UV sterilizer. Some reefers swear by it, while others run their tanks without one. But there's no denying the impact UV can have when used correctly in a saltwater aquarium. At its core, UV sterilization is simple. Water passes through a chamber where it's exposed to ultraviolet light. That UV energy damages the DNA of free floating microorganisms, algae, bacteria, prozzoa, preventing them from reproducing and spreading in your system. Unlike a mechanical filter, UV doesn't remove anything physically. Instead, it sterilizes the water as it flows through, leaving those organisms harmless and unable to multiply. When you hear reefers talk about UV, what they're really talking about is UVC. Ultraviolet light comes in three main bands: UVA, UVB, and UVC. But only UVC has the germicidal properties strong enough to actually damage DNA and stop microorganisms from reproducing. UVC wavelengths typically around 254 nanome are what make a sterilizer effective against algae, bacteria, and parasites. That's why true aquarium sterilizers are built with UVC bulbs, not just any type of UV light. Without that specific spectrum, you're basically just running a fancy light inside a tube. It's also important to understand the difference between standard UV and high output UV. A standard UV sterilizer uses a lower wattage bulb that's effective for basic water clarification, knocking down free floating algae and improving water quality. These units are great for hobbyists who want cleaner, crisper water, but aren't necessarily looking to aggressively target parasites or bacteria. High output UV, on the other hand, steps things up. These bulbs are designed to deliver much stronger UV energy, meaning they can sterilize water more efficiently in a single pass. With the right dwell time and flow rate, a high output unit can actively reduce parasite loads like ick or velvet by hitting those organisms hard enough to prevent reproduction. Because of this, high output UV is often the go-to choice for larger reef systems, fish heavy tanks, or situations where disease management is a top priority. In short, think of standard UV as water clarification, while high output UV crosses into true sterilization territory. Powerful enough to make a real impact on the health and stability of your aquarium. So, what does this mean for your reef tank? First, it's one of the most effective ways to keep water crystal clear by knocking back this free floating algae. It also helps to limit the spread of diseases like ick or velvet by targeting these parasites during their free swimming stage. Beyond that though, UV can reduce bacterial blooms and even improve overall water quality, making your reef tank look sharper and run more stable. But UV is not the cure all and it does come with limitations. It only affects what passes through the unit. So a fish already infected with it won't magically be cured. Success depends heavily on the strength of the bulb, the contact time inside the chamber, and the flow rate. Run it too fast, you only get clarification. Slow it down and you reach true sterilization levels. And like anything in reefing, maintenance matters. Bulbs need replacing and quartz sleeves need to be cleaned to keep up that high performance. Where UV shines is in systems with heavy bolads, larger reef tanks, and quarantine setups for new arrivals. It's an extra layer of defense against disease and clarity issues. Many reefers also rely on it during problem cycles like bacterial blooms or persistent green water to help bring back balance quicker and more efficiently. That said, UV isn't always necessary. In smaller nano tanks, it can be overkill. And in ultra low nutrient systems, it may even reduce the plankton that corals and filter feeders rely on. Some hobbyists prefer to run their reefs as natural as possible without any extra sterilization. At the end of the day, UV sterilizers aren't a magic bullet, but they're powerful tools when matched to the right system and maintained properly. They can give you clearer water, reduce the spread of disease, and help your reef thrive under more stable conditions. If you're thinking about adding UV to your aquarium, take a look at the options available. Match the unit to the tank size and flow rate and decide whether it fits your reefing goals. At TopShelf Aquatics, we use them in a variety of systems, and they've proven their value time and time again. All right, now we've broken down UV sterilizers, what they do for our systems. Let's get with Greg and let's start talking about some of the different ones we carry, and the bundles we also have on our website. All right, now that we've talked about kind of the overview of UV sterilizers in reef tanks, just tanks in general, I've now teamed up with Greg here in the retail location. We've got some of the UVs we carry, but I'm going to let Greg take it away. Greg, let's talk about some of the different styles of UVs and UVs that we currently have in stock here at TopShelf. Yeah, of course. So, sitting here in front of us is a great representation of pretty much every style of UV that we carry. Um, other than little all-in-one uh UVs, we just don't have any because they're really hard to stand up and sit with us here. Um, those are really easy. They just pop right in the back of your all-in- ones normally where a filter sock would go. Um, then you have what's called an ADV or a hang- on. Very simple in how it works. It literally just hangs on to the tank. Um, this is common, especially in people that don't have sumps or maybe has a hang on the back or a canister filter that you can kind of just plum it straight through on. Just kind of an easy addition for anyone to add that doesn't want to really plum in a UV or go through and get a larger UV. Maybe we're not plumbing it, but like this new one here that I'm excited about from Ice Cap. This is a whole new style of UV for us. So, it literally just sits in your tank like a reactor. It has a pump built into the bottom and it just pops right in. So, it's a great addition for anyone that doesn't want to maybe hard plum or soft plum a UV, but really needs the benefits that they might come with. And then the other style represented by our CJ over here, uh, this is the smallest version that we have, but it is a plumbed in UV. Um, and that can go either soft plum like I mentioned or hard plumbed. The CJs here are really designed for that soft plumbing. Um, but the larger ones like what you can kind of see behind us here, the Aqua UVs, those guys can be hard plumbed. And really any of the UVs that we're talking about except for this drop in can be hard plumbed, but it's really up to you and kind of what your system works best with. Now, I know we have the Aqua UVs, Greg. We have a bunch of different sizes, though. Let's talk through the sizes that we carry. Yeah, of course. So, there's going to be three common sizes, and we actually do carry a fourth. But the common ones are going to be the 15, the 25, and the 57 watt. Now, most reefers, long as you're under about 150 gallons, are going to be looking at the 15 or the 25. And anything bigger than that, you're going to be looking at the 57. Actually, you know what? I misspoke. There's a fifth size that we almost never sell. Um, so there's the 40 watt, which it's it's really hard to see, especially out here today, cuz it is over 36 in. So, it takes up a little bit of space. Uh, again, it's that size because of contact time. You want the most contact you can with the bulb. And then there's the 114 watt. Now, that is for systems that are like 400 gallons plus, maybe even larger than that. We've done them all the way up to about 6 to 800 gallons. And all that is is 257 watts glued together. But it works really well. What it does for sure. And I think something too that a lot of retailers don't really do is create bundles, right? Something to make things a little bit easier for people. I know sometimes people come into the store, they're looking for a UV sterilizer, but then immediately the next question, right, is like, what pump do I use? How do I get this thing really running and getting water flowing through it? So, we've gone ahead and taken another step further, right, and created these bundles. Now, what are some of the bundles we have here at TSA as well? Yeah, of course. So, we have three main bundles. Now, one of them comes prepackaged. It's this drop in UV. It's good to go straight out of the box. But then the two that we really are talking about, so one is with the CJ line. We have the 7 watt, the 9 watt, and the 13 watt. All those are paired with an appropriate CJ pump, normally a 1.5 or 2.0. And then they come with mounting clips and tubing in the box. So, theirs are pretty easy. You can upgrade to a pro kit. Now, that's the same with both the CJs or the Aqua Ultraviolets that I'm about to mention here. But the Pro Kit then adds a DC pump. So, we're using the AI Axis pumps just because they're small form factor, they're still DC controllable, and you know, they are app controllable, so you can really fine-tune the amount of water going through the pump, but those are then paired with either a 20 or 40 access pump. I really like the idea of creating the bundles for people, trying to make it a little bit more simple. Now that we've talked about some of the UV, you know, clarifiers we carry here at TopShelf Aquatics, how do you set it up? Right? I think that's an issue a lot of people run into is how do I actually plummet out? How do I get it running? And I know we've talked about it a little bit earlier on in the video, the flow rate going through them, too. I think that's one of the big reasons, right, why we kind of pushed the pro bundle because you have that ability to kind of range your DC pump to exactly what you're looking for. But let's kind of just do a broad kind of concept of how do you really get these plumbed out in your tank? Yeah, of course. It's a super common question for us, especially online. We're constantly hearing, well, you know, the UV itself says it's rated for 2,000 gallons per hour. And a lot of these UVs are, especially in a freshwater or pond setup, you can really push some gallonage through them, especially in like the 2-in models. You you can get a lot of water through there. Now, the problem is in salt water, you need a high contact time. So, here in our farms, we still use actually 3-in and 2in outlet UVs, and we're only running about 4 to 600 gallons per hour in them. We want a super high contact time. And that goes for all the bundles we've created here. On the smaller UVs, we're looking for anywhere between 2 and 400 gall hour. On the larger UVs, we're looking maybe 4 to 600 gallons per hour. And we really want a slow contact time. Now, there's benefits, there's downfalls. It's a whole debate out there online of what gallonage you want, but from our real world practices, we've just found that two to like 600 gallon per hour is the perfect goldilock zone. It's long enough to kill protozoa, but it also can take out things like ick, but it still handles things like a bacterial bloom or anything in your water column that you're just trying to get rid of, but you're not overpolishing it and then letting it sit in there too long and killing off everything. Definitely. I think that is the issue, right? is people either really like UVs or they don't like UVs, right? People like to run them either way. Well, Greg, I want to say thank you for jumping on talking a little bit about the different products we carry here at TSA. Now, before we end up wrapping up, I do want to head over to the farm and we're going to talk a little bit about how we utilize UVs here at TopShelf Aquatics. All right, we've made our way over to the farm. We're here with Corey, one of the farm managers here at TopShelf. We just talked with Greg. We talked a little bit about some of the UV sterilizers we carry here at TSA. Now, Corey, I wanted to ask you, how are we using them here in the farm facility? So, every one of our culture systems has them plumbed in. However, we don't really use them on every system all the time. Um, we have them all placed on the systems to have the option to have it, which I recommend for anybody in a home aquarium. Um, even if you don't plan on using it constantly, it's a great thing to have plumbed in and ready to go in case we have certain algae problems, if you have any outbreaks of fish disease. So we're using them over here in the farm. I know we also too have them on the fish wall. Is that correct? Over there in the retail store. Correct. Just to help counteract any of those pre-swiming protozoneans. Um they can affect some of the fish. U but we also do have them on some of the coral systems over there as well. Um even though they may not be on at all times. Like I said, I we like having the option to use them. can be really effective in helping reduce the spread of certain algae, especially ones like deburia that actually do put out um spores, if you would. Um it'll also maybe cut down on some of the biopsis that reproduce via fragmentation as well. Anything that passes through that sterilizer, if the flow and wattage is correct, um is basically killed off. Well, I know you got a lot to do, Cory. I just wanted to step in over here real quick, check in with the farm. I know you guys are usually curious about how we're using these products that we're talking about in the videos. If you guys have hung out all the way till the end though, I want to say thank you so much. Be sure to like, subscribe, and hit the bell notification so you don't miss out on any future uploads. [Music]