Fishkeeping - Which UV?

I am no expert, but here's what I did on my 55g planted discus tank. I
decided that aquarium UV sterilizers were way too expensive and rigged up my
own system using a powerhead and a pond UV sterilizer. The powerhead pushes
the water through, goes through the UV, and the outflow goes into my
aquaclear. That way I get the benefits of the UV and the aquaclear, minus
the noise. Worked great on my 55 gal and still ok on my 72 gal, but any
larger tank and I think I'd get a bigger powerhead.
P.S., install your UV before, not after your scheduled water changes, since
you'll need to do lots of w/c's once you first get it going. My tank looked
like an octopus had released purple ink in there - I couldn't even see the
fish! I had no idea there were so many algae spores in the water! Hope
this helps :-)

Dee
"Seweryn" wrote in message
...
Hello all!

I am looking for a bit of advice from you helpful people about what type
of
UV steriliser I should buy. Right now I am considering several brands:

Rainbow Lifegard 25watt

Custom Sealife Double Helix
or
Emperor Aquatics 18 watt SMART UV steriliser

I want to lean towards the Rainbow because I can get the spare parts the
easiest, and I can connect it inline without a pump, but I am concerned
that
the design of the housing will cause the water to pass mostly under the
bulb.
Thus, wht CS double helix is good for more exposure time, but I am not
sure
of it's super-duper polymer sheath instead of the quartz, as well as
having
to have a pump connected to it.
The emperor looks solid, but more expensive, and I would have to wait
longer
to get it shipped.

Any suggestions or observations about my concerns of each unit??
Thanks!

PS- Going to use it on a 50 Gallon, but want a more powerful one so I can
use it when I get a bigger freshwater tank.

-Seweryn