Ok so I have been looking at UV strerilizers, Im looking for a submersible, as I dont want to make my fluval 404 any more awkward to deal with. If you all could give me some pros and cons of UV sterilizers Id greatly appreciate it. Are thy worth it or not, that kind of thing

I moved your topic to equipment because the other area is for site related questions not fish/equipment.

As far as your topic I have never used a UV sterilizer...I have never had a need for one. Is there a reason you feel you need one?

mysterious angelfish death

In my opinion if you have adequate filtration and you are doing routine maintenance a UV sterilizer is really unnecessary.

Cons: Bulky, Take up tank space, Hard to hide, Have to be cleaned too much, Will kill everything including beneficial bacteria which move through the light, cost vs. benefit.

Pros: Will kill algae that passed through it, helps control bacterial and fungal nasties in tank.

Proper filtration and maintenance will do the same job and cost a lot less. I personally would not waste the money on another one unless you were really keeping some super sensitive fish.

not particularly sensitive fishes, angels rams apistos kribs dwarf parrots...my water parameters are perfect ammonia, nitrite, nitrate all 0ppm, and ph 6.8... so Im not sure whats causing the angel death problem

What else in tank? Tank mates, tank size, what are you feeding and how often? Have you introduced anything to the tank recently? Is the tank planted? The Nitrates shouldn't ever be zero unless you have tons of plants and and mega filtration. Are any other fish showing signs of stress?

40 gallon tank, tank mates are
4 german rams
4 dwarf parrot cichlids
1 apistogramma bitaeniata
3 apistogramma caetei
2 kribensis
8 angels
1 sailfin pleco
1 red lizard whip tail
2 banjo ctfish
2 raphaels
2 small id sharks
2 small pictus

1 small feeding of bloodworms a day one small feeing of flake a day
there are 15 med-large plants. I have not indroduced anything new. I run a fluval 404 a ario turbo aerator and a 40 gallon rated fountain filter. I do a 40% water change once a week. The tank is kept at 80-82 degrees F. no other fish showed or are showing any signs of stress, only ever my angels, I have never kept more then 8 either, none are paired up. So Im not really sure whats going on. I do know all my readings cause I have my own test kits and test about twice a week, only because our waters' PH is a little bit low

Have you investigated "Angelfish or Discus Plague" I have read some articles lately on the subject that point to a reemergence of the infection.

Rick

To get back to the subject for a minute your water looks good, you are overstocked which I am sure you know. Filtration is good, I would cut back on the blood worms, maybe supplement with brine shrimp, or black worms, otherwise feedings seem ok. I don't think a UV light will help you out much with what you have posted, water looks fine and you are doing things right as far as feeding and maintenance.

Saint_felony has some angelfish info in this thread....

http://www.freshwatermadness.com/fish-health-and-medications-f13/angelfish-virus-t1770.htm

This may help you out a bit.

I thought I had posted about this earlier, but anyway..

What MC says about the UV sterilizer is spot on. I have one, but only use it for turtles with protozoans. Mind you mine's a 72w model so I'm not sure if anything survives coming out the other end of it.

If you're feeding live bloodworms, stop. They can carry disease. In fact, if you can switch out to blackworms or brine shrimp. Even freeze dried krill every other day or so is good too.

Coupla other questions. What symptoms are your angels showing? With the lack of infection in other species, angelfish virus would be my top suspect. However, angelfish exposed to stressed, crowded conditions are often more susceptible to parasitism by microorgamisms, esp. flagellates.

Clamped fins, listless behavior, lack of appetite shimmying and excess slime would point to the angelfish virus. No cure that I'm aware of and some angels that survive become carriers. Even if they don't become carriers, angelfish that become infected may be able to infect other angelfish for as long as six months. At one point I read that mortality was upwards of 95% with this, but since then I've also read that newer generations of angelfish have become more resistant. Your best bet would be to quarantine your angels and stress them as little as possible.

Flagellates usually are characterized by a loss of appetite and dryish, white looking feces that don't hold together real well. If ya only have one or two of yer angels dying off sporadically, I'd lean to an infection or parasite. Stressed fish, due to overcrowding or bullying usually decrease immunity and increase the liklihood of infection.

Well, we just finished chattin'. Hope I was helpful and good luck. Good move on the quarantine and keep us updated on his progress!

WYite

I do use a UV light on my tanks but only periodiclly, and only for a little while at a time. I use it mainly for fixing my own mistakes like an alge bloom from over feeding all my little carnivors.