The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has adopted the ballast water management convention at a diplomatic conference in early 2004 that all ships should be equipped with a treatment system from 2010 gradually. In this paper, the disinfection characteristic of ultra-violet (UV) rays was studied and a ballast water treatment system (BWTS) which can treat $50m^3$/h sea water was manufactured. The system consists of a disinfection chamber with six 3.5 kW UV lamps which are operated by magnetic ballasts, a programmable logic controller (PLC) and set of pipe lines. The biological disinfection efficacy of the prototype BWTS was evaluated following the IMO rules using zooplankton such as Artemia and Rotifer species for the size over $50{mu}m$, and phytoplankton such as Tetraselmis and Thalassiosira species for the size between 10 to $50{mu}m$. From the experimental results, the disinfection efficacy was 99.99 % that meets the IMO requirement. However, more studies on an energy saving system are needed because the consumption power of the prototype system is as high as over 21 kWh for $50m^3$/h.