Anyone tried a UV Sterilizer

[Roadblock]

Seen one at Bunnings the other day , I checked on the net and it is germicidal and they sound like a very good methed for water treatment without side effects and no effect on nutes or anything , sounds ok at $130 for 6mths treatment ( globe every 6mths ), the only thing I carnt find an answer too is whether they heat the tank up or not , does anyone know ?

 

Thanks Rod

[SukonmiSkunk]

yeah rod... obviously it would depend on the size of your tank and the size of youre light...

ive seen these being used where I used to work.. mainly for dealing with pithium... from memory I dont think it made a lot of difference...

I really think if you keep a clean system and flush regularly.. and obviously scrubbing your pots and shit inbetween grows theres no real need..

the application I seen was for a commercial herb garden.. 3500liter tank, NFT...hard to scrub the tanks and the piping... so I guess with that sort of set up its worth the money...

[Roadblock]

Thanks for the info Im thinking in terms of a systematic approach to Pythium ,, which like a mate said today ,, its only are word to most people ,,, untill you got it ,, then its a real prick , he has had a big P problem for years ,,, the UV sterilizer idea is for running 24/7 on a tank of source water , the source water is then used in the systems res and backed up with dose of Pythof ,,, a UV unit would do away with the step I do of super chlorinating the source and using a chlorine neutralizer , works great but its pain to have to do all the time ,, but when you dont do it , bingo you got P back like I have now , I like the sound of these UV Sterlizers for treating source water .

 

Be aware guys running one of these on your nute tank it can break down some chelated elements of your nutrient , but if you tank change weekly there is plenty of food to go around , that came from a chemist .

 

Rod

[keepleft]

hey rb ive done some research for you on the UV.

 

heres a scientific article that compares 5 methods of controlling root diseases. namely heat, filtration, chemical, radiation and biological control.

 

http://www.edpsciences.org/articles/agro/p...2.pdf?access=ok

 

heres relevant extracts re UV

 

ULTRA-VIOLET RADIATION

 

The use of UV sterilizer lamps has proven to be highly

effective for disinfestation of recirculating systems, but at high intensity, the

ultraviolet sterilizer significantly inhibited the production

of plants grown in the treated solution.

 

The cause of

this inhibition was suspected to be due to ozone and/or

free radicals in nutrient solution, which are known to be

generated by UV radiation

[Roadblock]

Thanks for that Keepleft thats a very good pdf on the subject, a keeper

 

Yep I reckon the way I want to use UV for source water only before anything is added into the water will work great according to that paper as UV is very effective at killing bacteria , it was interesting where it says it in a trial with heavy zoospores infected water seedlings in the group in the untreated water died and the treated water no plants got infected , I wouldnt use it on the nute tank with nutrient in it according to that article , Ill use pythof for that ,, Im off to bunnings

 

Rod

[mull]

Hey ROD. I've used UV sterilizer for purifying drinking water. It does a good job at taking the place of chlorine in changing not pot to potable human drinking water. With UV + filters, no more chemicals are required anymore, unlike with other purifying methods.

Not the same size production tho ofc.

 

Good luck with the pyth.

[Roadblock]

Thanks mate , its sounds a good thing , Im going to fit a UV setup to my rainwater tanks on the house , your roof picks up so much crap from airborne dust and bird sh!t on the roof that your rainwater tanks in a warm climate are a real problem waiting to happen , mate Ive punched up with Pyth for a couple of years now,, prick of thing gets you pressurized , had it whipped a number off times , learned a lot in the process , but its like having the big Ogre hiding behind the door , one slip up at the wrong time and its smacking you in the chops ,, anyway guys here I go again but I,ll attack the source this time ,,, one thing though it aint winning

 

While looking at UV stuff I came across this ,, Hydrosheild and prolly 3 or 4 other relabled hydroshop products that cost about $80 to treat 2000 ltrs , here is the same stuff for $35 to treat 15,000

liters .

 

http://www.acquasafe.com.au/acquasafe_-_th...rrp_cost__2.htm

 

Rod

Edited September 30, 2006 by Roadblock

[Roadblock]

Hey guys , just an update ,, I bought a UV unit and fitted it to my rainwater tanks where water pumps from one tank through the kit and into the next tank 24/7 , I have 2 x 5000gal connected to each other ,, before I did this I had the tanks cleaned and the gutters cleaned and covered with leaf guard , what a mess no wonder I had Pyth the bottom of the tanks where terrible and the gutters were full of decaying leaf ,, all done had the water tested and its about as good water as you can get and came up sterile ,, the Pyth plants recovered with treatment and are booming , hopefully now my source water is perfect the reaccuring Pyth is gone for good , the UV unit is a great way to sterilze source water , the water even tastes better and Im so glad I went this route as my family was drinking dirty water from them tanks , not now

 

Rod

[keepleft]

hi rb glad to hear its working out for you

 

what did u use to treat the pyth infested ladies?

[Roadblock]

Howdy keepleft , I used Banrot mate , it works really good , that and Pythoff , took about 2 to 3 wks to grow out but they have lovely root systems now and look to have no sign of Pyth , just turned them to flower .

 

Rod