I'm thinking about buying a UV sterilizer for my 14 gallon tank. Does anyone have any experience with UV sterilizers? I'm thinking about getting the Submariner UV Sterilizer/Clarifier.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+4393+19643&pcatid=19643

Anyone know anything about these things?


My main goal is clear and oderless water.

I found an even cheaper one at Petsmart

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2750628&clickid=cart

I'm going to try this one and see how it does.

I got my UV sterilizer a few days ago. The water does seem a little clearer, but it's still a little discolored, I suspect the Aquasafe and/or EasyBalance are causing the discoloration. Also, the water still has an odor.


It's a little bulky, so I got a little one gallon fish bowl, and ordered two water pumps. What I'm going to do is put my UV sterilizer in the one gallon fish bowl, under the 14 gallon tank, and use the pumps to circulate the water between the 14 gal tank and the 1 gal bowl. I'm also going to put the heater in the one gallon bowl to hide it, and give the fish a bit more open space.

How many fish do you have now? Last I saw, you had one...a Danio. They're pretty hardy fish. I don't think a UV sterilizer is really nessecary for just a few hardy/low pollution fish.

Also, probably obvious, but make sure you keep a reading on the temperature in the tank. The water will cool on its way from the 1 gal bowl to the 14 gal tank.

The temp is at 80F now. I got two more Giant Danios, so now I have three fish.

I haven't had any water problems yet. The main reason I wanted the UV sterilizer was to control the odor as naturally as possible. I want the water to balance itself out and stablize naturally as much as possible.