reefkeeper2
Premium Member
I thought I would post some observations I have made of my tank since I started using ozone about 4 weeks ago.
I have a 427 gal mixed reef with about 75 gal in the sump so my total volume is about 500gal. It's a mixed reef, with many softies of various kinds, 3 anemones (one which is a huge s. gigantea) and many sps.
I had used ozone many years ago when I first started keeping a reef but stopped after about 2 years when I didn't see any difference in the tank when I discontinued it use. I have to say at this point though that I was not keeping anything close to the diversity of animals I have today and had very few if any sps.
It is because of the variety of animals I have in the tank now that I decided to give ozone another try. I run carbon 24/7 and I thought that perhaps ozone could reduce or remove organics that the carbon might miss. I thought the sps corals might also benifit, since there are so many softies in the tank.
I got a good deal on a used Ozotech Posiedon 200mg/hr unit and a red sea air dryer. I connected it to an old euroreef skimmer(never throw away or sell your old stuff unless you have to) and made a DIY carbon chamber for the outflow. I used the old euroreef because I didn't want to take chances with my BK skimmer. Lastly I bought a pinpoint orp controller.
Now remember this is not a scientific study and it's only my observations so take it for what it's worth. After 24 hrs and an increase in the orp from 280 to 340 I could see a clear difference in the appearance of many of the animals. Most notable was a surprising and dramatic increase in the polyp extension of the sps. Also observed was an increase in the expansion of the already gigantic, s. gigantea. After a week, the orp would fall during the day to around 330 and then climb to 385 when the lights went out at night. The fluctuation does not seem to effect anything in the tank, and I assume it's due to the metabolism of all the animals when they are active during the day. There have been no complications or negative effects that I have noticed.
It's been almost a month now and the appearance of the animals in the tank presently look the best I have seen. The only exception to this would be a blueberry gorgonian that does not open it's polyps as often as it did before.
So it seems that in my case, the addition of ozone has been a definate plus. I suppose the improvement could be attributed to some other unknown factor, but as time passes I think that more and more unlikely. If you're on the fence like I was about using ozone, and your setup is similar to mine, I would say it is definately worth trying.
I have a 427 gal mixed reef with about 75 gal in the sump so my total volume is about 500gal. It's a mixed reef, with many softies of various kinds, 3 anemones (one which is a huge s. gigantea) and many sps.
I had used ozone many years ago when I first started keeping a reef but stopped after about 2 years when I didn't see any difference in the tank when I discontinued it use. I have to say at this point though that I was not keeping anything close to the diversity of animals I have today and had very few if any sps.
It is because of the variety of animals I have in the tank now that I decided to give ozone another try. I run carbon 24/7 and I thought that perhaps ozone could reduce or remove organics that the carbon might miss. I thought the sps corals might also benifit, since there are so many softies in the tank.
I got a good deal on a used Ozotech Posiedon 200mg/hr unit and a red sea air dryer. I connected it to an old euroreef skimmer(never throw away or sell your old stuff unless you have to) and made a DIY carbon chamber for the outflow. I used the old euroreef because I didn't want to take chances with my BK skimmer. Lastly I bought a pinpoint orp controller.
Now remember this is not a scientific study and it's only my observations so take it for what it's worth. After 24 hrs and an increase in the orp from 280 to 340 I could see a clear difference in the appearance of many of the animals. Most notable was a surprising and dramatic increase in the polyp extension of the sps. Also observed was an increase in the expansion of the already gigantic, s. gigantea. After a week, the orp would fall during the day to around 330 and then climb to 385 when the lights went out at night. The fluctuation does not seem to effect anything in the tank, and I assume it's due to the metabolism of all the animals when they are active during the day. There have been no complications or negative effects that I have noticed.
It's been almost a month now and the appearance of the animals in the tank presently look the best I have seen. The only exception to this would be a blueberry gorgonian that does not open it's polyps as often as it did before.
So it seems that in my case, the addition of ozone has been a definate plus. I suppose the improvement could be attributed to some other unknown factor, but as time passes I think that more and more unlikely. If you're on the fence like I was about using ozone, and your setup is similar to mine, I would say it is definately worth trying.
