I have a 50 Gal Tank, with a variety of community fish appx 20 fish total, i have 2 snails, and a pleco. the tank is filtered by Fluval 305.
When i first set the tank up it was great, water couldnt be clearer. over time, it would accumulate floating algae (ALOT),so much algae that you could not see any of the fish, or any of the ornaments, and i would be doing anywhere from 20% to 50% water changes every week or every other week because it would get so bad, and sometimes the water changes would have very little to no effect on slowing down the algae growth. i DID NOT want to try chemicals because i find alot of people say that it just stresses out the fish, and i didnt want to try chemical treatment also because i didnt like the idea of having it in the water. so i started doing some research on how to make the situation better. i saw alot of diffrent styles of UV sterilizers (more expensive in MOST cases) and the fact that you need to buy/or already have a power head for them was not helping the situation financially. i came across AA's product and read a dozen reviews or so, where 9 out of 10 were positive.
i really love the fact that it is self contained, has it's own pump, filter, and UV light.. the instructions lack quality images and is a bit cumbersome to follow at first, but when you sit down and actually just look at the image of the unit on the box, you can figure out how to put it together yourself. the reason i bought the (24W) unit is because i felt that i had maybe a worse case than usual algae problem because there is sunlight from 2 windows hitting the tank (by the way, i tried cutting the light out of the tank, did not work)
Setup took literally 10 min, from out of the box to running in the tank, and was NO HASSLE at all. the first 24 hrs or so, i didn't really see a difference. then at 48 hrs i started to see like a milky but clearer situation in the tank, at the end of the third day, things were looking good but not perfect yet, finally on ONLY the 4th day, i can see not only the fish and ornaments, but straight through to the back of the tank!. i feel that this product works Extremely Efficiently and is a must have for anyone with algae/bacteria problems. the money i used to buy this product was very well spent, and i don't think there is a better unit within the price range to beat this. i can expect that in the next few days or so the water WILL BE clearer than tap water (ive read in reviews that its actually clearer than bottled water), i am very much looking forward to this.
i would give this product 10 stars out of 5 , that is how much i love it. it works great, IS QUIET (cant hear it AT ALL), and is very easy to set up. Would recommend to Everyone with an aquarium
With no UV sterilizer installed I have insane algae issues with my turtle tank. Think Shamrock Shake. A full water change and this Green Killing Machine installed and there's no sign of algae developing 2 weeks in. It's in a 75 gallon tank. I like that it lives inside the tank, so there's no potential for leaking. The setup they have to power the UV lamp and the included powerhead from one AC adapter is pretty spiffy. I replaced a leaking 15W Pentair Lifeguard with this, and it's 24W vs the Pentair's 15W, for half the cost.
It's toy-like product name and low price had me a little dubious of its quality, but so far its living up to it's title.
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Keeping fish for the past 40 years and experimeting with U.V Sterilizers for the past seven my read on them is that tanks fitted with the right sized unit is a definite plus. What had put me off about UV systems was the need for pumps, tubing , plumbing and the overall hassle of installing them .
This unit includes the pump requires no hoses or tubing to run and nothing extra to buy you can literally take this out of the box, attach inside your tank or sump, plug it in and that's that.
Regarding the selling of UV in general there is far to much emphasis on green algae. Removing algae is little more than a side benefit. What UV does extremely well is remove disease causing pathogens and harmful bacteria from the water. Especially important in well stocked tanks. What U. V sterilizers do is pull in water which flows past an encased in clear quartz tube and is exposed to UV light, which kills up to 99% of harmful pathogens. So more important than GPH or anything else for that matter is the exposure time with which water passes by the UV bulb.
I think marketing this as a "Green Killing Machine" is probably a smart idea and would get the attention of hobbyists who otherwise could give a hoot about the other benefits of UV. However if your algae is due to things like too much full spectrum light, over feeding or poor water water parameters this is just a bandaid that will only at it's best disguise the real and significant problems facing your aquarium.
What is more, this unit a incedibly cumbersome three seperate components and a myraid of wires both inside and outside the tank make this a potentially dangerous product for fish as well as humans. Much like the spiral design of the Coral Life systems, the zig zag interior of this system employs this same kind of theory in design to add as much exposure time to the UV and in my book that trumps GPG ratings which are usually false to begin with. However, this isn't to say GPH isn't important of course it is and this is also the key area of this design that's lacking.
The MFG doesn't list the GPH because it's so terribly low. Using a Hach instrumentation flow meter which works on sound waves and runs about 3 grand this pump has a flow rate of 11.2 GHP which is unacceptable for any size tank even though the unit contains a whopping 24 watt UV lamp. In addition remember UV can't penetrate glass without being diluted hence, quartz fashioned into a true lens is used as housing. Because the unit is effective although extremly slow my best guess is fused glass is used. Fused glass is a combination of quartz and glass and is a fraction of the cost of pure quartz. To replace the cover of the included 24 watt bulb with pure quartz at a rock bottom price would cost you $65-$75
The enormous tangle of wires and having the control box outside on the wall or back of the tank is an accident waiting to happen not to mention, the suction cups used on the outside are weak and the unit falls off frequently. They call this "child proofing" -and it's nonsense. Any child is going to be more inclined to pull something off the tank that's just sitting there than figure out a way to get their hands into the aquarium.
Take a pass on this particular unit until they at least address it's many flaws.
** Never use a UV Sterilizer in a new or still cycling aquarium, these are for established aquariums only Plus you don't need to run UV 24/7 twelve hours a day or less is fine for most applications. It's a good idea to plug the unit into a dedicated power strip or use with a timer since these don't have an on/off switch**
** You can increase the efficiency of any UV Steelier, your filter and the overall health of your tank by adding a small water circulator. If you don't need a power head these are ideal. The keep the current in your tank even and eliminate cold and hot spots. The temperature will be uniform. The current keeps particulate matter waterborne making it easier for things like filters and UV systems to do a better job. Brown algae and green algae spores are poor swimmers, the current helps keep them from attaching to tank walls and sides and off any ornaments, dried corals, rocks and so on.
I recommend the ones by Aqueon they're silent, do a great job, install right out of the box and are a fraction of the cost of most others.
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My 120 gallon tank gets a good bit of natural light. I set it up in October and about 2 months later the water went from clear to slime green in a couple days. I couldn't see an inch into the tank. I did some research, but decided with the natural light that it would probably come back, so I got the green killing machine and hoped for the best. My water cleared up about a day after putting it in the tank and has stayed clear!
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Sure it clears the water. Help get rid of things like ich? Doubt it natural supplements like garlic have been the trick for me. Another reviewer mentioned the cables, yeah they are a little messy. The suction cups on the powerbox stink, they hold for about 3 hours on clean glass. The suction cups on the unit itself do not hold at all. I have this in my refugium and its not mounted because it wont stay mounted... Clean the sponge/prefilter often. It does clear up green water /excessive algae but i didnt have a problem with that anyway. A friend had turned me on to this as he had problem algae and this did great work in a matter of days. Water changes and good husbandry would do the same though... I wouldnt buy this again but i wouldnt discourage you from buying it since it is available at the major pet store chains and replacement parts/units are available and its cheap.
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Very disappointed that these suction cups somehow managed to leave rings on both the inside and outside of my acrylic fish tank! I tried everything to get it to come off, escalating from fingernail scratching to water to windex to Goo Gone (externally only, of course.) I tried a Magic Eraser, then a green kitchen scrubber which would up scratching up my tank even worse!
