dreadbunny Posted March 19, 2009 Report Share Posted March 19, 2009 Hi there, I have a 300l tank that Im currently setting up as a malawi tank, mostly peacock/haps + some electric yellows. It has a Eheim 2215 running but I'd like to get another canister filter as Im going to need something extra to cope with a fully stocked tank. Im trying to decide between an Aleas brand canister or an internal with UV. Im wondering though if it would reduce the amount of algae growing on surfaces in the tanks, particularly the DIY background thats going in. Anyone had any experience with aleas filters or UV in a malawi tank? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted March 19, 2009 Report Share Posted March 19, 2009 UV won't do anything at all to effect algae that isn't floating in the water. If those are your only options, go with the Aleas, though I've never heard of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted March 20, 2009 Report Share Posted March 20, 2009 As Ira said UV is no good unless your algae is in the water, and even then you are better to find the cause and fix it that way.. The only way to get rid of the algae is to get something to eat it (bristlenoses are what I use) also the mbuna will munch away on it so it is a good natural food source for them. Or you can remove all your rocks and scrub it off all the time, cut back on lighting etc. I too have no experience with those filters I would recommend the tried and true CF1200 because they're awesome Anyway good luck with the tank, what fish are you planning for it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dreadbunny Posted March 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2009 Thanks for the advice. I have a trio each of electric blues and aulonocara baenschi and 5 yellow labs. all are about an inch at this stage. I'll put the rest in when I put in the background and the rest of the rocks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warren Posted March 20, 2009 Report Share Posted March 20, 2009 I used to have a UV filter on my old fishroom. I have no idea why it worked but it did remove non water-born algae from the surface of the glass. It was quite a big UV filter so maybe it was converting dissolved oxygen into ozone in the water - have no idea really. After running with no UV for 4-6 weeks the glass would get quite covered in green algae even though the water was still crystal clear. If the UV filter was turned on, after 3-4 days almost all the algae was gone and what was left was small very easy to remove clumps. The UV was primarily for disease control as all 36 of the 39 tanks were on one central filter. I have no idea if you would get the same results as it shouldn't have worked based off everything I've read. I never tried to find out why it worked so sorry, I can't offer any suggestion. I was running 3 x 40W UV tubes with the water flow connected in series to maximise contact time. I made them myself using plain t8 quartz UV germicidal tubes with a PVC plastic tube with a 32mm inside diameter. The UV tube was siliconed into the PVC tube - so a very simple easy to make UV steriliser that ran off standard fluro started gear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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