Opened up my UV sterilizer yesterday to take a closer look at how the quartz sleeve was doing; needed to see how clear it was. I've been growing more algae (GHA and diatoms mostly) than expected. Especially since I was making good progress with my tank's ugly phase since adding a 25W sterilizer 3 months ago early Feb 2019.
To my surprise, the UV was rendered useless by a thick hardened white crust that had formed on the quartz sleeve. So soon? The sleeve was brand new, crystal clear three months ago.
I realized the mistake I had made almost immediately. Wanting to share this in case anyone is inadvertently making similar same mistake.
What I thought was a smart thing to do: "Apex: Turn off the UV when the main return pump is off -- so not to add unecessary heat to the sump" was a mistake. For several months (up until March), I had Apex routines turning off my main pump twice a day prior to when my feeder activated; goal: keep food in the display and not in the sump.
Because of space limits, I have my sterilizer installed upside-down. It drains when the pump is turned off. Ideally, I'd have it set up so it couldn't drain. But I don't.
When the feed auto-routine ran 2x/day, the main pump would turn off -> the UV sterilizer pump would turn off -> water drained out of the UV chamber -> the hot lamp evaporated residual water -> calcium deposits formed a crust on the glass sleeve of the UV -> blocking UV light when the sterilizer turned back on to the point of total ineffectiveness.
To my surprise, the UV was rendered useless by a thick hardened white crust that had formed on the quartz sleeve. So soon? The sleeve was brand new, crystal clear three months ago.
I realized the mistake I had made almost immediately. Wanting to share this in case anyone is inadvertently making similar same mistake.
What I thought was a smart thing to do: "Apex: Turn off the UV when the main return pump is off -- so not to add unecessary heat to the sump" was a mistake. For several months (up until March), I had Apex routines turning off my main pump twice a day prior to when my feeder activated; goal: keep food in the display and not in the sump.
Because of space limits, I have my sterilizer installed upside-down. It drains when the pump is turned off. Ideally, I'd have it set up so it couldn't drain. But I don't.
When the feed auto-routine ran 2x/day, the main pump would turn off -> the UV sterilizer pump would turn off -> water drained out of the UV chamber -> the hot lamp evaporated residual water -> calcium deposits formed a crust on the glass sleeve of the UV -> blocking UV light when the sterilizer turned back on to the point of total ineffectiveness.
Last edited: