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Talcite · 07-09-2006, 11:53 PM

I'm not sure if the basic assumption of all this is correct: all ionizing radiation kills bacteria?

I'm sure with the right intensity, you could kill bacteria... hell you could kill people and animals. The thing is though, how do you know what intensity and wavelength of radiation you're using?

Anyways, I can think of one example that disproves this assumption. UV-A and UV-B both are ionizing radiation, yet they arn't useful for sterilizing water. UV-C is actually what is used, with a wavelength of less than 280nm.

I did a bit of reading on wiki, and it turns out that all UV-A, B and C cause dimerization, CG bonding in DNA. Anyways, for some reason, high dose UV C is the choosen method of sterilization. I doubt any other creative methods of sterilization via radioactive materials would work, other than to create some highly unique strains of algae in your loop =p.

So do what you guys want, but some of it might be useless, some of it might be pointless, and well some of it might just make you sterile =p

Ahh... and Brian, here you go http://physchem.ox.ac.uk/MSDS/AR/arsenic.html
Basic moral of the story. Don't touch arsenic, we like your w/c work, and you have to be alive to work on it =p.

Oh and you see where it says IPR-MUS LD50 46mg kg-1? That means that by 46mg per 1 kilo material concentration of arsenic entering a mouse's abdominal cavity (i.e. absoption though skin, direct injection etc... ), it killed 50% of the test subjects. Not a very nice number, considering you'd be using much more arsenic than 46mg/kilo. Best you just avoided it all together =p. (1000 mg = 1 g. 1000g = 1kg...)

I'd say just use black tubing and don't let any light in... Money and time saved there. But if you have to, use the aquarium UV sterilizer.

07-09-2006, 11:53 PM	#146
Talcite Cooling Neophyte Join Date: May 2006 Location: Toronto Posts: 64	Re: UV Light to Kill W/C Bacteria I'm not sure if the basic assumption of all this is correct: all ionizing radiation kills bacteria? I'm sure with the right intensity, you could kill bacteria... hell you could kill people and animals. The thing is though, how do you know what intensity and wavelength of radiation you're using? Anyways, I can think of one example that disproves this assumption. UV-A and UV-B both are ionizing radiation, yet they arn't useful for sterilizing water. UV-C is actually what is used, with a wavelength of less than 280nm. I did a bit of reading on wiki, and it turns out that all UV-A, B and C cause dimerization, CG bonding in DNA. Anyways, for some reason, high dose UV C is the choosen method of sterilization. I doubt any other creative methods of sterilization via radioactive materials would work, other than to create some highly unique strains of algae in your loop =p. So do what you guys want, but some of it might be useless, some of it might be pointless, and well some of it might just make you sterile =p Ahh... and Brian, here you go http://physchem.ox.ac.uk/MSDS/AR/arsenic.html Basic moral of the story. Don't touch arsenic, we like your w/c work, and you have to be alive to work on it =p. Oh and you see where it says IPR-MUS LD50 46mg kg-1? That means that by 46mg per 1 kilo material concentration of arsenic entering a mouse's abdominal cavity (i.e. absoption though skin, direct injection etc... ), it killed 50% of the test subjects. Not a very nice number, considering you'd be using much more arsenic than 46mg/kilo. Best you just avoided it all together =p. (1000 mg = 1 g. 1000g = 1kg...) I'd say just use black tubing and don't let any light in... Money and time saved there. But if you have to, use the aquarium UV sterilizer. Last edited by Talcite; 07-10-2006 at 12:05 AM.