Ozone Safety Warning!!!

[jay24k]

I apologize if I'm asking too much or just not getting it.

You have your outake of your ozone into a tube of GAC before it hits your skimmer? Does having it go into GAC before it hits my skimmer make it any less affective?

I could easily have all my water from my skimmer go into a filtersock with carbon but not sure on how to do the air portion unless it passes through carbon first but I'm not sure if that would affect the oxygen content.

 

[justinzimm]

Randy,

Thanks for the great info. I've got a question about the ozone levels you posted. I smell ozone sometimes at work so I know the smell and can notice it before allot of my friends. I've never noticed it outside work or even when I visited LA during heavy smog days. If I can smell O3 at .001 to .010 ppm why havent I noticed it in nature or even smoggy cities? Also, are these exposures over time or a one time dose?

Thanks,
Justin

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You have your outake of your ozone into a tube of GAC before it hits your skimmer? Does having it go into GAC before it hits my skimmer make it any less affective?

GAC breaks down the ozone and certain ozone byproducts. So you want the GAC in the air and water after it leaves the skimmer. I agree that it is hard with the air, and also it is hard to get adequate contact time with the water since the flow rates are often very high.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I've never noticed it outside work or even when I visited LA during heavy smog days.

I never recall smelling it on smoggy days either, although at the time I lived there I did not know what it smelled like. One thing is that your nose can become accustomed to it. So asking if a person can smell 0.1 ppm when comparing it side by side to 0.00 ppm may be very different than asking if someone living in 0.1 ppm smells anything.

Also, are these exposures over time or a one time dose?

OSHA permitted levels for most chemicals have various time constraints, such as time weight over 8 hours, as well as instantaneous maxima.

 

[DrBDC]

Here is an interesting page. There are a lot of claims for ozone benefit but the one I find interesting is the one about breathing it after bubbling through olive oil. Different I must say.

http://www.geocities.com/ojoronen/OZ.HTM#100

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

good heavens, check this one:

DIRECT IV INJECTION OF OZONE

"Some patients will cough after injection as the ozone outgasses in the lungs. "

 

[DrBDC]

And the cavity injection. The ozone production produces heat, so would it be blowing a lot of hot air up your ###?

 

[Bubbob]

Randy
Have you ever had a fire in your dry filter?
I've had two so I gave up on them.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You mean the carbon caught on fire? Wow. How much ozone were you using?

 

[Bubbob]

I run it at 125 mg/h.
The unit only tends to run in short bursts.
It mayu have alot to do with the filter size as the ones that I made were small.
How much carbon does your hold.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

It holds between 1/2 and 1/4 gallon of GAC, I expect.

 

[Bubbob]

Mine were alot smaller.
The size of the carbon may have also be an issue, mine was very fine.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Oh, OK. Mine is the usual Marineland Black Diamond pellets.

Thanks for the warning. I would not have worried about a fire.

 

[Bubbob]

Hhmm If I had the time I'd become a fire bug and do some experiments, I would see how hot diferrant chamber sizes and carbon size get.

 

[thrlride]

Randy, what are the pros and cons of using a ozone reactor instead of sending directly in to the skimmer?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Ozone reactors may have longer contact time, may be under more pressure (forcing the O3 into the water), and may allow the air and water to be passed over GAC more readily than many skimmers.

My tubing coil also allows these things, although it may not mix as well as a really good reactor.

 

[thrlride]

I can only find the coralife reactor, is there a really good one?

 

[jknecht]

What do you think about the new OxygenFresh Fans that Sharper Image sells? They are suppose to convert ozone to oxygen. Do you think they would help if you have a slight smell of ozone in the air? I have a 16 x 17 fish room setup in my basement running a Sander 50mg/hr at about 20%. I run it into a Coralife Ozone Reactor then into a Phosban Reactor filled with Carbon and can still smell ozone if I put my nose to the sump. I can also smell it in the air when I walk down to the basement. It's ever so slight but still present.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I can only find the coralife reactor, is there a really good one?

The Coralife reactor should be avoided. I used it for 2 weeks, and will not again.

Yes, there are good ones, although they are expensive:

http://www.marinetechnical.com/page6.html

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

What do you think about the new OxygenFresh Fans that Sharper Image sells? They are suppose to convert ozone to oxygen.

I do not know how effective that is at ozone removal.

It is a different application entirely, but here the EPA criticizes air cleaners that generate ozone:

http://www.epa.gov/iaq/pubs/ozonegen.html