Coralife Aquarium Fish Tank Marine Salt Water Turbo-Twist UV Sterilizer 12X, For up to 500 Gallons

My son asked me to order the Coralife UV sterilizer for his 180 gallon freshwater tank after he began having a problem with the algae. The water was so green that you could barely see the fish in the aquarium. Our problem is that the aquarium is in an area where it gets a lot of sunlight.Setup: this UV sterilizer is meant to be installed "in-line" with your filtering system. Before you do anything, make sure that you have a good plan as to how you're going to connect this in-line in your system. and the right parts to install this. You'll need whatever size clear tubing you're using as well as metal clamps. You may need to purchase some 45 or 90 degree elbows to make the turns needed to set this up in-line. I purchased the metal clamps from Home Depot for somewhere around $2 each. I also purchased the elbows from Home Depot. It's not obvious at first, but one side of the UV sterilizer is the intake and the other is for the output (look closely at the intake/outputs and you'll see arrows pointing to the direction the water should flow in. You'll need to secure the UV sterilizer somewhere on the aquarium stand. We used one of the brackets to secure it to the UV sterilizer to the inside of the cabinet.Function: once you turn this on, check to make sure there are no leaks. After one to two days, we started to notice that the water was not as green and cloudy as before. After 4-5 days, the water was very clear. It's now been 6 days and the water is almost crystal clear.I would definitely recommend this if you have a problem with cloudy water from algae.

I ordered two of these, and have had to do three warranty returns because of leaking through the top housing.If I could give these zero stars, I would. These are hands down the most expensive pieces of junk I've purchased for my tank which has been running now for over 10 years.The specs are awesome, they do work great at least for a while, but be warned... just like so many other reviewers... they have leakage problems. They leak right through the top housing... some type of molding/manufacturing problem. I'm now up to four leaking units. They all leak internally into the electrical cavity where they short out and then leak externally. I've removed them from service and would never never put them back... time to fill the trash bin.Also the mounting brackets are totally inadequate. If you mount them vertically, they will break - be warned they you will want to secure them with something other than just the supplied brackets

This thing is a beast! after reading some of the neg comments... that is providing your smart enough to use it LOL. I have the 12x on my 75 gal Discus tank with a Fluvial 407 and it Sterilizes with ease. DON'T plug it in when there is no water in it, and DON'T plug it in with the bulb out of the unit LOL.

I like the twist baffle for maximum exposure to uv light, the plumbing design is great for any position, very versatile. My fist one lasted 5 yrs untill I had a pump failure, NO WATER . Got too hot and cracked glass letting water in my fault so I bought another one, not cheep. The new one developed a leak in the housing at the molded seam 13 months later warranty is 12 months just my luck so i contacted customer service any way, they still covered it and sent out a new one ! very relieved and surprised, a good company that stand behind there products *I’m an electrician and familiar with thermal protection for lighting fixtures it would be a nice feature for all brands on UV sterilizers but none do!

I've been running this UV for three months on a reef tank and just opened it up to service it only to find that the bulb housing has leaked water in and the metal sleeve is rusting. As you can imagine I'm not putting this back onto the tank and won't be using this product anymore. The rust alone is a major issue in a reef tank let alone the risk of an electrical short from the leaking bulb housing. Aside from this being completely unacceptable there are other issues as well.- The installation instructions for the 12X are awful. There is no mention of the additional piece to install on the light to stabilize it and no real parts list even. Installation instructions are for the smaller units which don't apply to the 12x at all.- The threads used are non-standard meaning you cannot hard plumb this into any installation and must soft plumb with hoses.

Bought end of December lasted until the end of February. Obvious quality and design issues. Water entered bulb socket and shorted out system. I reached out to company and they explained they did have issues with certain units. They promptly sent me a replacement. I WILL UPDATED REVIEW AFTER A FEW MONTHS

I used this device for approximately 6 months and noticed a difference in my tank. Unfortunately the item broke and an electrical current went through my tank. The company was more than willing to replace the device and I have a new device I’ve been using without issue.