Has this ever happened to you? You perform routine maintenance on your aquarium, yet you still have an unexpected and unexplained loss to your fish population. Or a sudden algae bloom makes your tank look awful. Perhaps you need a backup system for your aquarium filter. A UV sterilizer might be the right choice for you.
UV or ultraviolet sterilizers manage water quality by exposing microorganisms such as bacteria, algae, and parasites to the UV light. The sterilizer only affects the water as it is being pumped through its cylinder and doesn’t have any adverse effects on your fish inhabitants.
There are two different UV sterilizer styles, in-line or hang-on mounting. These, just as they sound, either reside directly in the aquarium’s filtration system or are mounted directly to the back of the aquarium. While there is no right or wrong choice, the type chosen is usually based on ease of installation.
In-line sterilizers are placed after the mechanical filtration as the last device water passes through before it returns to the aquarium. Hang-on sterilizers are used independently and water is fed through the sterilizer through a submerged powerhead.
These are still relatively easy to install, are low maintenance, and are affordable. UV sterilizers thus have few downsides yet provide many benefits to backing up and supporting your aquarium filter.
In fact we include a UV sterilizer with all fresh and saltwater fish aquarium installations. Units are now readily available that have their own pump and are a self contained, submersible unit one can drop into a filter sump or the aquarium itself!
