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Kill bugs with UV light.

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Brolloks

Brolloks

Benching Senior on Siesta, Premium Member #8
​
Joined
Dec 26, 2006
Location
Land of Long Horns
I read a few articles where they use UV light to kill bacteria and fungi in cooling water system (cooling towers) and other application. Would that apply to installing a few cold cathode tubes in your box to cambat bugs, that will alow you to run just with distilled water....any thoughts?
 
They use special uv bulbs to do this with, not your common garden variety code cathode tube. And the bulbs don't last forever either and are kind of expensive too, if I remember right. These uv sterilizers are also fairly expensive themselves. I just looked them up on www.thatpetplace.com and they run $75 and up.
 
I don't think a normal UVA/Blacklight is strong enough to kill growth. The UV light that is referred to kill algae and the purification of water uses UV-C light that is probably strong enough that you don't want it touching your skin.

EDIT:
How does UV-C kill microorganisms?

Due to its short wavelength, (200 to 270 nm) UV-C penetrates the outer membrane of bacteria, yeasts, molds and viruses, attacking the DNA which makes up their structure.

By breaking the chains between the two helixes within the DNA, the microorganism is rendered unable to reproduce, i.e. clinically dead.
Each microorganism has differing tolerances to heat, radiation, etc. The microorganism is given a "D-Value" or measure of resistance to being broken down. If this value is known, along with the power given out from the UV-C source, the time take to destroy any given microorganism can be estimated.
Click to expand...

If you wanted that type of light they make something that goes in-line for ponds: these.

More info:

Types of UV Light

Altough, I am tempted to get one and see how it does there is that small feeling that this could be unhealthy for me and/or my comp.
I've ran straight Distilled water for the past 4 months now and everything seems ok. Altough my rig sits inside a desk cabinet... so maybe the lack of light is helping.
 
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UV light is also very bad for your eyes and is associated with cataracts caused by UV damage to the lens of your eye. UV is invisible so its not easy to know when you are receiving damaging rays; not worth fooling around with.
 
I presume the UV that come from your average 12 " cold cathode lamp in my case will not burn my retina, right??
 
UV sterilization has been used a while in aquarium buffs setups to destroy bacteria in the system. Only seen them with salt water setups though.

The apparatus's are fairly large though. I am not sure just having a UV bulb in your case would be sufficient to kill bacteria as the water has to have a concentrated exposure to the light.

Here is an example:

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=7999&N=2004+113778

As said you should never have a UV bulb uncovered where you can see it as it is harmful.
 
Brolloks said:
I read a few articles where they use UV light to kill bacteria and fungi in cooling water system (cooling towers) and other application. Would that apply to installing a few cold cathode tubes in your box to cambat bugs, that will alow you to run just with distilled water....any thoughts?
Click to expand...
Sunlight contains enough UV to damage your skin and your eyes, and yet many species of algae grow very well in direct sunlight. Hence, any UV source strong enough to keep your water sterile would need to be contained and would not be sold as a lamp or PC lighting accessory. Too bad though, eh?
 
Brolloks said:
I presume the UV that come from your average 12 " cold cathode lamp in my case will not burn my retina, right??
Click to expand...

No it shouldnt hurt your eyes as it is equivalent to a blacklight, which is the least harmfull UV light. I wouldnt stare at it directly for a long time though ;)
 
They are very useful safe units, They are shear pleasure to work with. The wave length is indeed dangerous but it is shielded, so you are not exposed to it. You can get tiny 10gall and up and such. not much ells to say.

Black light UV is a safe wave length.
 
Has anybody used one of these small UV sterilizer, for $100 (for the sake of technology) it might be worth it?:rolleyes:
 
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You could get away with that. Its the bulbs that are expensive and tend to have shorter lifespans than your standard incandenscent bulb.

That being said, you could flip it on once a week for 24 hours. You would reduce the hours you put on the bulb and probably keep the loop clean that way.
 
I think a UV light like that might be very useful in something like an Evap Bong. You wouldnt want the chemicals in the water getting into the air, not only for safety reasons, but also because you would have to add chemicals constantly as well as water. You could just mount the light in the top of your bucket res I suppose.

That would seem to me to be the most useful application instance of an expensive UV light like that
 
This topic comes up over and over again for some reason. All you need is a bit of biocide and algaecide which might cost $.05 per fill or less. A few drops of povidone-iodine and a couple of drops of aquarium algaecide=no growth.
 
We use UV to kill bugs all the time you just dont look at it directly or stand under it when you turn on the UV lights otherwise you might go blind or get cancer.

Its very very effective as it kills bugs in about 3 mins. (Even the enviromental bugs that are used to living under the sun dont have a chance).

Its not as expensive as you think because the lights last for about two years. (turned on at 8h per day) (I usually turn on the UV lights when I leave the house for work).

UV light (the wave lenght) is mostly absorbed by plastics and glass (like sunglasses etc). Thuss...

My res is carved out of quartz because quarts allows the UV light into the res to kill bacteria.

I also use silver tubes which have antimicrobial properties.

I also use a drop of ethidium bromide a potent cytotoxic chemical that binds to DNA and NEVER lets go (ie all life on earth has DNA) and the bonus is it becomes flourscent under UV lights!

Soon we will apply radio acitve isotopes to track and kill the bacteria that grow in water cooling loops.
 
I looked into this back 3 or 4 years ago. It was a no go. Not only that it was impracticle the damage on some of the components withing the case from the UV light on rubber could be bad, let alone any computer component which I really wouldn't want to test to make sure it can take UV light for extended periods of time.

Best bet is distilled water then add in some agents to take care of the little buggers. As well taking apart the system and cleaning it.
 
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