Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
UV steralizer
Actually, the 9.2 factor will give you 99.99 % throughput through the sterilizer. To get 99.9% throughput, the factor is 6.9. See http://www.wideopenwest.com/~brucege...ver/index.html for details. One strategy is to set the flow rate through the sterilizer so that one pass kills target organisms you wish to kill. If you set the flow rate slow enough that everything you want to kill is killed, then run your sterilizer long enough to "turnover" the tank water once or twice a day, and then shut the sterilizer off. Basically, the more slowly you put water through the sterilizer, the more UV exposure every bit of water passing through the sterilizer receives. If you have a 36 watt sterilizer with about a 3 inch diameter chamber for the water, and your flow rate is about 100 gallons per hour, then you are probably irradiating your water at about a 100 microwatt-seconds dose, which is enough to kill most bacteria, algae, and many protozoa. (This is only a crude estimate; I am working on developing some assessment tools on my website which will provide more specific advice..) If you are using a lower wattage sterilizer, or a lower diameter sterilizer, then your flow rate will need to be lower still to achieve the same dose. In the article I wrote cited above, I show that when you have run 99.9% of the water through the sterilizer at least one time, in actuality 99.2% of water has passed through 2 or more times, and 96.8% will have passed through the sterilizer 3 or more times! I recommend 6.9*(tank size in gallons)/(flow rate in gallons) to be your target turnover time. If your flow rate is chosen with some care, you need not run your sterilizer all the time. You will save bulb life by running your sterilizer through only one or two turn-over intervals per day. I hope you enjoy the article on turnover time; this is the first time I have published the web address. Remember that you can skip to the conclusion and get the formula to use. I am in process of collecting data for a suite of articles on the topic UV sterilizers. Be watching this news group or my web site; I am waiting on data from a manufacturer. -Bruce Geist "Christopher" wrote in message rthlink.net... is it wise to run the UV steralizer 24 hours a day? assuming that you only desire a 99.9% steralization rate you don't have to run the steralizer that much (depending upon gph through the steralizer and tank size). I've read: 9.2 * (tank size / gph through steralizer) = hours a day UV steralizer must be on to attain 99.9% steralization rate (assuming uniform mixing). This said my calculation is at most 7 hours a day, should I just run it for 8 hours a day and save my bulb life and power bill? Should I run it 24 hours a day to achieve 99.999% steralization or for 8 hours a day? |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Forum | |||
UV steralizer | Freshwater Aquaria Plants |