ozone

I have heard that too much ozone from an ozonizer may potentially harm small pets in the house, can anyone verify this?
 
If simple proper precautions are not taken too much ozone can harm more than just your pets. It can harm you as well. But as long as the proper safeguards are observed (effluent thru carbon etc) the likelihood of ozone harming you or your pets is slim to none.
 
Randy - Do you dose ozone? If not, do you even bother with measuring ORP? If you do measure ORP where you you keep your level of ORP?

Also,,, got any picks of your tank?
 
Yes, I use ozone. The ORP runs in the low 300's with ozone. My ORP probe broke a while back and I have not fixed it, but my ORP has never gotten too high with the setup I use.

The last article above has more on my experience with it.
 
Here are some old pics, and the tank has changed a bit, but it shows the type of tank I keep and I had been using ozone when I took them:

3491Randys_Tank_March_2__7_.jpg


3491Tank_Photos_Sep_2008_002.jpg
 
I have been using ozone as well on this tank. The tank is 17 months old and has been ozoned for 12 months.

On this 180 gallon aquarium, I run a small 50mg ozone unit at 90%. The ORP stays about 340-360.

MY ozone reactor is an old Coralife Super Skimmer with a mesh bag of carbon hanging on the outlet.


aaq.jpg
 
Randy, there seems to be a lot of bi-polar advice and information online regarding the use of ozone in the marine aquarium. Your last articles gave a luke warm indication that it was a good thing albeit discussing that you see its merits for water clarity.

My reactor redox sits around 650mv with the effluent at 380mv - with the studies on water treatment, parasites and bacteria should be nuked. Was wondering if you done any further research into ozone as a sustainable measure against parasitic control?
 
Bipolar in what way?

It is good for reducing yellowing, and if that is the goal, it is a good bet. It may be useful in reducing certain organic toxins that may be in the water. It is not especially useful for anything else, IMO.

What sort of contact time do you have in your rector? That will determine if it is successfully killing bacteria and parasites. Most reefers do not have adequate contact time. Certainly not those who are using a skimmer instead of a true reactor.
 
Randy - I guess what I am trying to figure out is if I can use an ozonator (moderate use) while running zeo or using bacteria products like Prodibio. I have read that you shouldn't dose ozone when trying to "dose" bacteria. However, according to your articles, if I understand them correectly, we are not killing a significant amount of bacteria with moderate use of ozone dosing. So I am coming to the conclusion that it is OK to use ozone along with these "bacterial driven methods". Would my conclusions be accurate? I just want to make sure I'm understanding your articles correctly.

This might actually be some of the "bipolar" talk sophos9 is talking about. Seems some people swear by it while others (usually in the bacteria driven camp) swear at it and say it does more harm than good.

Your tank looks great, BTW!
 
Randy, thanks for the reply - I've enjoyed many hours reading your articles so thanks for that.

As stealle suggested, ozone seems to be one of the most argued and subjective topic out there. In one camp, there are people that swear by ozone for keeping a perfect aquarium, removing parasites/bacteria and everything else thats gone well is attributed to the day they installed an ozonizer. On the other hand are the reef keepers that swear there is no benefit only risk.

Somewhere in between must lay the truth. To explore most of the suggested selling points, ozone is sold to achieve the following

#1 - Parasite/bacterial removal
#2 - Water clarity
#3 - Higher redox potential

To use a hypothesis for each of the above, we can reject the null hypothesis in favour of the alternate in which is ozone can make a difference to 2 and 3

Water clarity and higher redox potential is altered by the introduction of ozone although the jury must be out on the accuracy of redox measuring in relation to dosing ozone. With redox being swayed by PH and other factors, its the sum of all parts measurement and not directly linked with ozone.

Its clear science behind water clarity and oxidization of compounds.

Whats unclear is the direct effects of ozone on parasites and bacterial organisms and thereafter, the effects on beneficial bacteria. I've read lots of claims that 'ozone cured my marine whitespot' etc however there still remains little scientific proof that ozone dosing has a great effect on the parasites/bacteria in a marine aquarium. With millions of these units being sold to combat parasites - its strange that not much scientific evidence stands behind them :(

On the scale, you have been clear what place you believe ozone holds in the marine aquarium, do you know of any recent scientific testing for marine?

Thanks
 
Randy - I guess what I am trying to figure out is if I can use an ozonator (moderate use) while running zeo or using bacteria products like Prodibio.

I do. Most of the bacteria is benthic, and most ozone systems do not kill bacteria very effectively anyway. I dose large amounts of vinegar and some vodka each day and it works well along side my use of ozone. :)

I expect that few people blasting them for killing bacteria have not actually tried it while dosing organic carbon, and so are just guessing. I'm not guessing as I know in at least one case (mine) it works fine. :)
 
Somewhere in between must lay the truth.

yes, I agree. That's why I wrote the article and did tests on my own system: to see what was actually going to happen, and what was not.

With millions of these units being sold to combat parasites - its strange that not much scientific evidence stands behind them

A bit of hyperbole? I don't think they are all that popular for hobbyists, and their main goal is not usually killing parasites. If that is the goal, a properly sized UV is clearly the way to go.
 
As to high redox potential, there is zero doubt that one can achieve that with a big enough ozone generator. I personally doubt that is beneficial by itself, however.

On the scale, you have been clear what place you believe ozone holds in the marine aquarium, do you know of any recent scientific testing for marine?

I've not seen anything especially useful that has come out beyond the things I cite in the articles.
 
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