demariners
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Could it be I have too much carbon in my carbon reactor? Would that remove the ozone from the water?
Avast Marine Ozone Reactor?
- Thread starter demariners
- Start date
LouH
LouH
You want all of the free ozone out of the water by the time it leaves the reactor. The whole point of the reactor is to maximize gas to water contact, and therefore lots of plastic strips for surface area. You also don't want a ton of flow through the reactor. You want dwell time. If you are getting ozone into your vessel through the venturi and a high pressure Luft pump at the correct flow rate, then you should be there. What is your ORP variation over several days with no ozone added? That might give some insight.
Lou
Lou
demariners
Work In Progress
My ozone reactor does NOT have a venturi....... My ORP without Ozone is about the same at 190-210 or so. I set the air flow at 100% and the SPH on the thing shows 1.5-2.0 which is what I am told it should be by Avast Marine. Take a look at the pictures. You'll also notice my ozone reactor is starting to become brown.
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demariners
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demariners
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That's how it came. I don't know.
demariners
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demariners
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Ok, so I put a valve at the inlet for the water and I reduced the water flow through it. By doing this however now the output "Surges" water through. Not sure if this is the right way to do it. I am going to contact Avast tomorrow but each time I have they said that the ORP doesn't matter. But it seems to matter in my situation because it is not working.
LouH
LouH
You should get surges of water. I had regular flow disruption/air pockets in the effluent from the reactor with an Ehiem 1260. Since stepping down to a 1250, the air pockets in the effluent are even larger and the water flow is less.
FWIW, when I first started up my reactor I had similar issues which led me down the path of running the 1260 as opposed to the recommended 1250. I also ended up raising the bubble/impact plate as far as I could without it interfering with the bottom of the venturi. With that configuration I filled the head space of the reactor with fine bubbles. Over time my ORP came up. It didn't happen in a couple of days. It was more than a week if I recall correctly. I switched back to the 1250 just a couple of weeks ago to make space in my sump and to have lower power consumption. I lost the fine bubbles in the chamber head space, but can still hold ORP where I want with the ozone generator set at 15 mg/h. Perhaps it is just a matter of time with your system. You may have a lot of anoxic zones in your tank due to sand beds and/or decaying matter. That will drive down ORP. I know that my ORP will dip down to as low as 250 if I significantly disturb the sand bed. One other thing to look at is pH. I do no know why, but my ORP drops as pH increases and the opposite is true as well. It isn't a huge differential, but it is a part of the equation.
I can understand the frustration of having something not work when you seem to do everything right. I tried switching from a calcium reactor to 2-part because I got tired of constantly adjusting the needle valve and changing failed selenoids. I fought wih dosing for 6 months and ultimately went back to the calcium reactor. I just could not make the 2-part hold target Ca and Alk levels where I wanted them. I ended up going back to the calcium reactor and have now no issues with water chemistry. I hate to say it, but somethine these things happen without a clear explanation as to why.
Good luck and be patient.
Lou
FWIW, when I first started up my reactor I had similar issues which led me down the path of running the 1260 as opposed to the recommended 1250. I also ended up raising the bubble/impact plate as far as I could without it interfering with the bottom of the venturi. With that configuration I filled the head space of the reactor with fine bubbles. Over time my ORP came up. It didn't happen in a couple of days. It was more than a week if I recall correctly. I switched back to the 1250 just a couple of weeks ago to make space in my sump and to have lower power consumption. I lost the fine bubbles in the chamber head space, but can still hold ORP where I want with the ozone generator set at 15 mg/h. Perhaps it is just a matter of time with your system. You may have a lot of anoxic zones in your tank due to sand beds and/or decaying matter. That will drive down ORP. I know that my ORP will dip down to as low as 250 if I significantly disturb the sand bed. One other thing to look at is pH. I do no know why, but my ORP drops as pH increases and the opposite is true as well. It isn't a huge differential, but it is a part of the equation.
I can understand the frustration of having something not work when you seem to do everything right. I tried switching from a calcium reactor to 2-part because I got tired of constantly adjusting the needle valve and changing failed selenoids. I fought wih dosing for 6 months and ultimately went back to the calcium reactor. I just could not make the 2-part hold target Ca and Alk levels where I wanted them. I ended up going back to the calcium reactor and have now no issues with water chemistry. I hate to say it, but somethine these things happen without a clear explanation as to why.
Good luck and be patient.
Lou
demariners
Work In Progress
Well I am contacting Avast Marine today to go over my set up to make sure I have everything correct. I do not seem to have bubbles at the top but then again I do not have the venturi type system. They changed it to the spray head like I have now. I do notice that as my pH goes up, which I am having issues with, the orp goes down. The ORP went from 210 to 290 overnight when reducing the flow rate. I will take a look later today and see how it looks over the day.
LouH
LouH
I've seen comments about not using an air dryer, and I read somewhere that tests were done that showed that they aren't completely necessary. If I recall correctly, moisture does reduce generation capacity, but if your ozone generator is big enough, it doesn't really matter. Having said that, I personally run a custom built dessicant bead tower. Basically it is a 4' clear flourescent bulp cover that you can buy at any Home Depot or Lowes. I cut it into a 3' length and glued a 1.25" clip PVC end cap on one end, and a slip/MPT on the other end onto which I screw on a FPT end cap. Both end caps are drilled and tapped to receive John Guest fittings to which air lines are attached. The bottom of the colum has a coarse foam in the bottom to prevent dessecant beads from falling into and blocking the airline. The column is mounted vertically. I use color indicating beads and find that it usually takes 1-2 weeks for the beads to get saturated and require regeneration. I tool it off-line for a while and it seemed as though my ozone generator didn't work as well, so I started using it again.
Humidity can drop the generating capacity considerably. Sure you can oversize the ozone generator to get around that, but that is the expensive solution. It also ignores the fact that the humidity will shorten the lifespan of the corona discharge electrodes. An air dryer is the cheap solution to both humidity induced problems 
psykobowler
New member
Humidity can drop the generating capacity considerably. Sure you can oversize the ozone generator to get around that, but that is the expensive solution. It also ignores the fact that the humidity will shorten the lifespan of the corona discharge electrodes. An air dryer is the cheap solution to both humidity induced problems
The humidity is the problem, not the air dyer. You should fix your humidity then you won't need an air dyer. I open my windows at night on the fish room so humidity doesn't build up.
demariners
Work In Progress
Well I ended up replacing the ozone unit with a light driven one (Ultrazone). It does not require an air dryer. My ORP is still showing at 230-250. I then also removed a little but of the carbon in the media reactor and still same thing. Not sure what else I could try now.
In some areas opening windows only makes humidity worse, even at night. Much of the US east coast fits that description
Want2BS8ed
Member
demariners - were you ever able to consistently increase your ORP.
aquaenthusiast
Member
In some areas opening windows only makes humidity worse, even at night. Much of the US east coast fits that description
yupp , not everyone lives in CA where it's sunny and 75 all the time
psykobowler
New member
I did not realize you guys are in the east coast. An air dryer is a must then.
