Ozone, Anybody Use It?

[jhale]

I'm thinking about adding Ozone to the tank in the future.

If you have experience with it, or are using it now what
are your thoughts about it.

are there any negative aspects to it? other than the cost of the equipment.

 

[herman]

I use it. I will let you know tonight when I come by. Many people are wary about using it but used properly it really helps!

 

[cali_reef]

I use ozone three to four times a month, few days at a time.. Usually after my weekly water changes.

Didn't find anything negative at all in the last 8-9 months of use.

 

[jhale]

I see it's equipment intensive, the reactor, controller, drier, ozone maker, it all adds up.

I'll be home by six, see you later.

 

[jhale]

Pierce, is there a reason you don't use it all the time?

 

[cali_reef]

I run mine thru the beckket head (by suction, no air pump) on the skimmer, no controller, no drier and 90ml on the Redsea unit.

I tune it off when I see my water have cleared up, I don't see a need to keep it running all the time.

 

[jhale]

I see, thanks for the info.

so it's possible to use it without getting all the equipment I see associated with it, that's good to know.

next question, do you feel by running ozone your carbon lasts longer?
or do you change it just as often?

 

[herman]

Whe I run ozone I make sure that all of the exiting water goes through the carbon to capture excess ozone. O3 is poisonous and you dont want that running through your system or your house.

As toit making the carbon last longer, i dont know. I run it through a carbon pad on the exit of the skimmer

 

[marrone]

Whe I run ozone I make sure that all of the exiting water goes through the carbon to capture excess ozone. O3 is poisonous and you dont want that running through your system or your house.

As toit making the carbon last longer, i dont know. I run it through a carbon pad on the exit of the skimmer

That usally a big problem with ozone making sure you apartment is well ventilated as you can get headache from ozone at the small amounts that your using.

 

[Dace]

i use mine 24/7n on a controller so it doesn't over dose.

 

[herman]

i use mine 24/7n on a controller so it doesn't over dose.

what do you keep your redox at?

 

[Dace]

what do you keep your redox at?

360 is what i keep it at

 

[herman]

the reason why I ask is that opinions alwas vary. In reefs thr redox is between 400 ~500 and a healthy tank they say is between 300~350. I dialed mine to 400 as it is the middleground. What keeps people from taking it to 500mv?

 

[Rborgia]

As mentioned... Ventilation is key. even using a drier, carbon, etc... the stuff still stinks. I used a Red Sea Red 03x Plus on a 55 reef I use to have and it definately cleared up the water. At the time skimmers were air driven using wood blocks.

If you have ever gotten close to a laser printer when it is printing, in many cases you will smell a very odd smell coming from the ventillation on the side... that is Ozone and thats what you smell from an ozonizer.

I'm still up in the air about using the Ozonizer now.. only because of a new born in the house.

Rich

 

[NYPDFrogman]

I'm in the process of building an O3 reactor as we speak.
my plan is to run the reactor 24/7 with an ORP controller, controling the ozoner.
the effluent water will return to a carbon reactor than back to my sump.
I purchased through ebay

controller
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7720162028

ozoner
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4418644591

I'm building the reactors and canister for the drier

coralife luft pump


when the Ozoner is not on the reactor now works as a O2 reactor keeping the
O2 saturation high

I dont agree with using Ozone in a skimmer or with out a controller.

with the current set up there should be no Ozone smell or leakage

 

[cali_reef]

I dont agree with using Ozone in a skimmer or with out a controller.

Why??

 

[NYPDFrogman]

Why??

first off you've now turned your skimmer into a O3 reactor rathere than a protien skimmer
second the skimmer isnt sealed so youre wasting ozone ( smell)
using Ozone in a pressurized reactor increases the efficency of the ozone
nothing is wasted into the ambiant air.

I've run ozone both ways using it in a reactor is a far more efficent way to use ozone safer too

as far using it with out a contoller is hap hazard like pouring bleach right out of the bottle into the wash with out measuring it.

poeple often overlook the fact that stability is a very important aspect of reef keeping. the ocean is a very stabile enviorment and it's inhabitants generally do not take well to suddden change

Just MHO

 

[jhale]

ozone article

I found this on Marine Depots site, it was written by Mike Paletta.
I thought it would help someone reading the thread who had not heard of using ozone/O3

It has long been recommended that ozone be used in marine tanks for many reasons including its ability to kill many pathogens and make the water crystal clear. Ozone (O3), which is an unstable form of oxygen, acts by oxidizing with (giving up an oxygen molecule to) anything that it comes in contact with. In laymen's terms, ozone acts as bleach and kills things like bacteria and viruses on contact. Not only does this bleaching action help reduce the pathogen load in a tank, but ozone also interacts with dissolved organics in a tank to make them less interactive so that they can easily be removed by a protein skimmer. This is why when the saltwater hobby was starting out forty years ago, the use of a protein skimmer coupled with an ozonizer was highly recommended. Fortunately we have come a long way since then. Those old ozonizers created ozone via an electric spark, much like lightning does. Newer ozonizers are now in a solid state and produce ozone through corona discharge technology where oxygen molecules pass over a specially designed light source to produce the ozone.

Ozonizers clean the water chemically by having this extra oxygen molecule interact with living material as well as with the by-products of metabolism. The relative cleanliness of the water can be measured by the reduction-oxidation (redox) potential of the water. In most healthy systems, this redox potential is usually between 300 - 350mV without the use of ozone. In order to measure the redox potential a special electronic monitor and probe needs to be used. With ozone, redox potential can easily be raised to 400 - 500mV. This higher level is closer to that seen in the waters surrounding a reef, where levels of dissolved organics are very low. This is why the fish seem to be suspended underwater. The same effect can be achieved in an aquarium with the use of ozone. The ozone removes much of the yellowing compounds that tend to accumulate in a reef tank over time. By intermittently using ozone the water can be kept crystal clear, even more so than can be achieved with the use of carbon.

Ozone does not need to be run constantly, but can be run for short periods of time once a month to keep a tank crystal clear or when the redox potential drops below a certain level. Ozone should also be utilized when a tank is being started and live rock is being cured to remove as much of the dissolved organics as possible. Ozone should also be run constantly when a disease breaks out. Ozone cannot affect the pathogens that are on the fish, but if any free-swimming pathogens come into contact with it in its reaction chamber or in the skimmer they will be killed. Ozone needs to be kept out of the tank as it bleaches any organic matter that it comes into contact with. It should either be bubbled into a protein skimmer or into its own reaction chamber. When it is in use, the water should then flow over carbon to keep any ozone from reaching the tank itself. If ozone does get into the tank it can cause bleaching of the gills of fish, so this needs to be avoided.

As noted above, ozone is highly interactive and as a result it needs to be used with special equipment. Any tubing that it passes through needs to be of silicon, which does not interact with ozone. If regular airline tubing is used, it will become hard and brittle quite quickly when exposed to ozone. Similarly, most plastics will become brittle and crack when exposed to ozone so be careful when choosing a vessel for introducing ozone. Ozone also breaks down quickly when exposed to high humidity so it is best to run the air going into the ozonizer through an air drier. This will dramatically increase the production of ozone.

As noted above, it is not necessary to run ozone constantly in any system. However, having ozone available when necessary is a worthwhile investment, especially when its use makes the tank so clear that the fish seem like they are suspended without any water around them.

 

[NYPDFrogman]

first off you've now turned your skimmer into a O3 reactor rathere than a protien skimmer
second the skimmer isnt sealed so youre wasting ozone ( smell)
using Ozone in a pressurized reactor increases the efficency of the ozone
nothing is wasted into the ambiant air.

I've run ozone both ways using it in a reactor is a far more efficent way to use ozone safer too

as far using it with out a contoller is hap hazard like pouring bleach right out of the bottle into the wash with out measuring it.

poeple often overlook the fact that stability is a very important aspect of reef keeping. the ocean is a very stabile enviorment and it's inhabitants generally do not take well to suddden change

Just MHO

Cali your thoughts??

 

[spykes]

you should use o3 in a seperated reactor, because going through a skimmer will tremendously weaken the acrylic structure. in the first months it will look like protein combination with o3 makes the skimmer stronger, but then after using it for a while, constantly your skimmer will slow down protein removal.

please read http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-10/rhf/index.php
and also antony calfo's ozone
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=639805