CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

Two factors started the first problem:
1) a broken thermometer
2) a loss of consistant water temp during a PWC last week (someone upstairs flushed the toilet).
This resulted in an Ick flair-up infecting our 2 Oscars.

Unfortunately, I managed to compound things myself.
I had tried to setup an area in the tank that I could put food for Cheetah, (our Ornate Bichir), without either the Oscars or our big Pleco Hoover eating it all. I rearranged some rocks into a "cave" that only Cheetah could get into and put in a few pellets.
I think it might have worked......
It turned out to be one of those "best laid plans of mice & me" senarios life is full of...
As fate would have it, Cheetah wasn't hungry that night.
After all my efforts, the only thing I suceeded in doing was making a place where food sat untouched all night.
When I looked into the 90 the next day, guess what I found!.....
I'm sure some of you might know.....
Yep... the start of a Planaria infestation!!!
I dismantled the cave, wiped the tank walls & did another PWC. That reduced the Planaria in the tank, but didn't eliminate them.

For those interested in readings:
Temp 77-78F
pH - 7.2
NH3/NH4 - 0
NO2 - 0
NO3 - 5-40 ppm (Whenever NO3 hits 40 ppm, I do a 75-80% PWC.)

I got a new digital thermometer. I had started to treat the tank with Jungle brand Ick tablets last Thurs & Friday, but stopped. Rather than treating every parasitic outbreak individually or using a stronger med, I decided to kill both parasites with the same shot.
I added a 9 Watt Turbo-Twist 3X UVS to our 90 gallon tank last weekend.
The installation of the UVS was a PITA as there isn't much room behind the 90 and I was missing one rubberized hose connector.
I finally got the missing part & got it all installed on Sunday. The UVS required less water flow than the Fluval puts out, but I didn't want to reduce the flowrate of the filter. So I used a "T" coupler to split the output from the Fluval 404; half comes from the filter and goes straight back into the tank. The other half flows through the UVS first, then back to the tank.

72 hours after installation & activation: no sign of Ick on any fish & no Planaria.

Here's the funny/questionable part:
Since I got the UVS, I've been told by 8 different people that I shouldn't run the UVS all the time.
Not to save on electricity....
or even to prolong the UV bulb's life....
but because it will cause all the fish in the tank to experience a profound & complete collapse of their immune systems.
? what!? ?
Yeah, Riiiiiiiight!!!!!!!!:rolleyes:

When I asked, it turned out none of the people who'd said this to me used one or had ever owned one.
Their "proof" is what I would consider to be nothing more than "heresay evidence". I might be able to believe what they'd said was possible if the UV light were actually installed unsheilded in the tank itself.
If what I'd been told were really true, I think that a UVS would be the last thing any Aquarium, LFS or hobbist for that matter, would add to any of their systems. Manufacturers would be including some kind of warning on the packaging or the instructions would include a notice outlining a limit to the unit's operational duration. The high end units would include their own timer.
Since UVS are now also used to sterilize drinking water for human consumption, I really doubt that it causes Immuno-deficiency responses.


I know there are members here that use a UVS on one or more of their tank systems. Can I please hear from some of them? Or anyone else with relevant information.....
Please feel free to answer as well.

LOL, now that I think of it, this sounds like a longterm project for Adam & Jamie of Mythbusters. It would give them something to do with the goldfish they trained.

Here's the funny/questionable part:
Since I got the UVS, I've been told by 8 different people that I shouldn't run the UVS all the time.
Not to save on electricity....
or even to prolong the UV bulb's life....
but because it will cause all the fish in the tank to experience a profound & complete collapse of their immune systems.

"Supposedly" that is true to a point.
But misworded or misexplained often.

There are some studies where they kept fish with no UV and fish with UV's. Added those fish to problematic situations (parasites,etc.)
The fish that weren't kept in UV sterilized tanks had no effects.
The fish from tanks with UV's showed problems fairly fast.

The theory behind what happened is the fish that never had UV's always carry common parasites so they just live with them,it's normal. The fish kept in sterilized systems cought the new "bugs" and it was a shock to their system.

Weaker immune system? In my oponion NO
Think about drinking water - in third world countries people that live there drink the water with no ill effects,tourists drink it and it often makes them sick. Immune system? Doubtful,but likely shock from the foreign bacteria.

I've used UV's in the past and have the same fish from my sterilized system in normal tanks,they've been in unsterilized tanks for almost a year now since I moved and none have shown any signs of a weak immune system.

First of all, thanks for your reply.
Yes, you're right in that's not the way these people explained it.
What they said to me basically was the introduction of a UVS caused an "almost immediate" collapse of their immune system.
Now I know that's just not possible without some severe damage or alteration to the host animal's cells or DNA.

There are some studies where they kept fish with no UV and fish with UV's. Added those fish to problematic situations (parasites,etc.)
The fish that weren't kept in UV sterilized tanks had no effects.
The fish from tanks with UV's showed problems fairly fast.

The theory behind what happened is the fish that never had UV's always carry common parasites so they just live with them, it's normal. The fish kept in sterilized systems caught the new "bugs" and it was a shock to their system.

I understand what you mean, stilllearnin.
It's the first class at the "Use it or lose it" school of immunology.
My understanding is that this type of deterioration is a lengthy proceedure. It takes a considerable amount of time for a body to completely "forget" what it knows. In fact, I believe it would take a few generations for the immune system of fish kept in relatively sterile environment to degenerate to the point of a total collapse.

Think about drinking water - in third world countries people that live there drink the water with no ill effects, tourists drink it and it often makes them sick.

I hate to tell ya, but that's a bit of a myth. The drinking water does have ill effects on locals just as easily as the tourist. Talk to anyone with PeaceCorp experience and they'll tell you 70% of children in the third world under 5 years old are infected by something they caught from their local water supply.
Literally thousands of people every year die from water-born diseases & parasites. While local adults may show a small resistance to some of the effects of some illnesses, the adults themselves are still infected carriers, spreading the diseases/parasites.

There is no immunity to Cholera, Bilharzia (Schistosomiasis), Giardiasis, Amoebiasis, or the dreaded Guinea Worm except for clean water for drinking & cooking.