Jebao UV
- Thread starter thanh510
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Coral reefer
Past President
Cheap. Avoid jebao.
Coral reefer
Past President
So does my poopBut it has 4 stars on Amazon!
Coral reefer
Past President
Aqua uv or pentair for nicer ones
Coralife or aquatop for cheaper
Coralife or aquatop for cheaper
Mike nailed it. Aqua UV or Pentair if you want a quality UV that will actually work.
Oakland Evan
Guest
I run 2 coralife Turbo-twist 12x's in a row, figure it increases exposure time. I definitely noticed a difference when I hooked them up to the new system.
My belief is that the Pentair set up properly will be FAR better. I only have anecdotal evidence of this, but I'd wager on it.
Coral reefer
Past President
And why do you think so? Not saying yes or no, but curious your thinking.
Oakland Evan
Guest
Ooh, Anecdotal evidence, my favorite kind. I would bet there is no way for a hobbyist to accurately measure the effectiveness.
No, but what a hobbyist can do is look at both anecdotal evidence, the build quality, and the company and science behind the equipment. What we do know about Pentair is they make UV sterilizers for the industrial market as well. Huge installations for community water supplies. They have decades of experience and science behind their products including their bulbs. Corallife in general makes mid-level hobbyist equipment. This isn't definitive, but as i said it's enough for me considering how important I think UV is.
Coral reefer
Past President
So what science goes into besides bulb quality and flow rate vs. bulb power and physical size?
I feel like UV is UV. And it just comes down to quality. It sounds like quality and customer services is why people choose them over the others.
I was researching a bit into cheap ones more and some of them were deteriorating.
Two Corallife seems like a good options for price. Although @svreef is right about complicating the plumbing a bit. In my current 250 it will be very tight with two but maybe not so much in the 650. It’s a lot to think about ha!
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I was researching a bit into cheap ones more and some of them were deteriorating.
Two Corallife seems like a good options for price. Although @svreef is right about complicating the plumbing a bit. In my current 250 it will be very tight with two but maybe not so much in the 650. It’s a lot to think about ha!
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I'm not certain to be honest with you, but my thinking on this is pretty simple. I am a huge believer in the benefits of a properly set-up UV sterilizer. There are places where I am willing to cut corners in a reef tank, but this isn't one. The hundred or two that I save by buying a cheap UV sterilizer is the same amount most of us have spent on a single frag from time-to-time. The investment into UV is worth it so I will hopefully lose less of those frags over time and it will pay for itself. The proof of that for me (as you know) was highlighted with that horrible bout of Cyano and hair Algae I had four months ago. That cost me far more than a UV sterilizers worth of frags and corals. A brand new one paid for itself with a total turn-around of the tank in three days and stability since then. For the same reason you wouldn't run a Jebao UV in order to save a buck I would rather get solid build quality from a company that specialized in just this.
Coral reefer
Past President
Fair enough. I think there is a large difference between jebao and basically everything else tho. I personally haven’t see a difference between the 36 watt coralife and any of the other 36-40 watt units.
I don’t like jebao (amongst other personal reasons) mainly cause I don’t believe the plastic they use is suitable for saltwater.
I would like to see some data on the different brands of bulbs though. Very curious if they’ve are basically all the same or not. Large variance in price for sure. Is a watt a watt? Do they last the same amount of time at the same output?
I don’t like jebao (amongst other personal reasons) mainly cause I don’t believe the plastic they use is suitable for saltwater.
I would like to see some data on the different brands of bulbs though. Very curious if they’ve are basically all the same or not. Large variance in price for sure. Is a watt a watt? Do they last the same amount of time at the same output?
sfsuphysics
Supporting Member
well one other difference between Coralife and Pentair units is the Coralife uses a PC type bulb for UV, where as the Pentair uses a T5 style bulb. Now does this make a difference? Eh... maybe?
But a $134 - 36W UV vs a $430 - 40W UV... might be hard to justify if there's $300 more value in one over the other if they both work.
But a $134 - 36W UV vs a $430 - 40W UV... might be hard to justify if there's $300 more value in one over the other if they both work.
You couldn't justify the cost difference if they both work, but te anecdotal evidence I have in my tank, and from what I've read about other peoples tanks, doesn't make me all warm and fuzzy that they both do work equally. It's something of a bad analogy because we are talking about multiple wavelengths with reef lighting,, but we do know that the research and build quality of a Chinese Black Box vs an Orphek aren't comparable. Do they both work? Sure -- but are they comparable? Of course not.
I will also say this about Coralife. You can look at the units, and it's pretty obvious they cannot give you enough exposure time to work on protozoa in a medium to large tank. I frankly am not sure that splitting exposure by using multiple units would be nearly as effective as one long exposure either.