how to sterilize saltwater?

[scotty b]

I want to use water from water changes in my tank to grow phytoplankton and pods in , how would i kill off any algae or other life in the water so i dont taing my phyto/pods

 

[sethsolomon]

bleach, muratic acid, or alcohol.

 

[scotty b]

i need it to be able to grow the phyto though , i was thinking use chlorine to kill off any think living in the water then adding dechlorinator so the phyto could grow . or something along thous lines

 

[FishTV]

Use freshly made salt water... just not worth trying to reuse waste water imo. You could boil it if you really want to use it.

 

[amonchak]

Boiling would boil off water and increase the salinity I'd think.

 

[sethsolomon]

Oh I misread the post. Yah just use fresh RO water and salt mix. use bleach or muratic acid to clean the containers.

 

[jda123]

UV. Run it through a BUNCH of times.

 

[jahmic]

JDA beat me to it...I'd say UV would be your best bet. There are a couple charts floating around that will tell you the amount of exposure needed to kill the algae/microfauna that you are targetting. You an reference that target level with the charts provided by the UV filter manufacturer to figure out the UV wattage and gph you'll need to run through it to reach your exposure level. I'll see if I can dig them up...

edit: found the 2 charts. This is for AquaUV sterilizers, but it should give you a decent idea...each company should have their own charts

and here's the exposure chart

Essentially, you'll want to have an exposure around 200k to sterilize the water.