Ozone: My new Toy

freddie40

New member
So, I got an Ozonizer last week and I thought I would share my experiences for those who are thinking about it.

Equipment Purchased:
1) Red Sea AquaZone Plus 50 mg/hr ozonizer. Comes with 250g Air Dryer.
2) Coralife Luft Air Pump
3) Ozone Resistant Air Tubing
4) ORP Probe.
5) 1 Check valve

The Setup:
Initially this was very easy. The adjustment was a bit more difficult. I connected the air pump to the air dryer to the ozonizer to my Tunze 9010, which has a direct input for ozone. I then connected the ORP Probe to the ozonizer. Pretty easy. The water does run through my fuge before getting to the next section where it runs through carbon. I am not running carbon on the air output.

As for the air dryer: This is a problem for most people as the beads gets used up quickly. Here in Denver we are very lucky. Today the humidity is 20%. At this level the beads should last considerably longer.

I put a check valve after the air dryer, but before the ozonizer.

The Adjustment:
My skimmer had been working very well up until I connected the ozonizer. I first had to decide at what level I wanted to set the ozone at. I decided on a very low setting, thus I wouldn’t have to worry about any of the downsides of ozone (brittle plastic, filtering the direct water output of the skimmer with carbon, and filtering the air output with carbon). The setting I chose was 13mg/hr, which is slightly less than half of the recommendation of 10/mg/hr per 25 gallons (or 32 mg/hr for my tank).

With these settings I then played around with the output on the air pump until I found a balance where there was still foam in the skimmer. The final setting was just above 1 on the luft pump, an output that is very similar to the output of a Rena 50, i.e. very low air input into the ozonizer. These are settings that Tunze also recommends.

When I first tuned everything on my ORP reading was 149. My initial thought was “Not Good”. However, after reading online, I discovered that it could take a few weeks for the probe to reach it’s final reading. After 6 days my ORP level had risen to 264.

The Results:
Do I notice any difference. My water does seem noticeably clearer (remember I have always run carbon). Otherwise it may be too early to tell. I am hoping that my OPR will continue to rise. Other unmeasured benefits that I am hoping for are increased oxygen saturation and better overall water quality.
Please share your own experiences or questions.

Dave

Ozonizer.jpg


Sump.jpg
 
9 Days after the inital posting I have good news.

1) My ORP is now at 301. I am not sure if has risen because of the ozone or because it have taken this long for the probe to calibrate. Either way I am happy. My water is crystal clear this is the definite plus of using ozone.

2) I had to remove the check valve because I could not tune in the skimmer with it. As of now my skimmer is skimming perfectly.

3) I added carbon on top of the air output on the skimmer. Without the carbon I could smell the ozone and had headaches. With it everything is fine.

4) I added a bigger carbon bad in place of the 2 bags I had before. Just making sure I get as much of the ozone out of the water as possible.

Overall I am very happy I have added ozone. Not only is the water crystal clear, I can track the ORP. I guess I am aiming for an ORP or between 320 and 350.

Dave
 
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