Skimming stops with Ozone

[Giovanni]

I have a small setup. 30 cube (4in DSB, 45lbs rock) with a fuge (10in SDB 30 lbs of rock), all totaling about 48G. I have a high bio-load and run an AquaC remora skimmer. It does a great job. The system has been up a year or better and was looking fine. A few days ago, I added a little ozone and noticed it stops skimmer production. It does this after only 30min or so of ozone. The ORP level rises 2-4 points while the ozone is on, then tends to stay up the rest of the day. If I leave the ozone off for several hours. The skimming slowly begins to resume. Is this unusual? Should I be worried?

I have noticed since starting the ozone, the water is crystal clear. I was very clear to start with, now you hardly notice it.

 

[BLockamon]

Some people report increased skimming with ozone, other people don't recommend ozone because is decreases skimmer output. Ozone will break large organic molecules into smaller ones that the skimmer can take out. However, it can also break the "skimmable" molecules down further to where they cannot be skimmed. If too much ozone is used, you could end up churning out nitrates and phosphates from stuff that might otherwise be skimmed out before it broke down. For this reason, some people only use ozone occasionally to "burn off" yellowing agents in the water.

I would check the amount of ozone you are adding and make sure it is appropriate for your tank. With such a small volume, you won't need much.

 

[Ti]

I knew it was an AquaC b4 I even clicked.
Their skimmers are like that.
I own one.
Once I used phosban in a reactor and it stopped skimming.
Put rowaphos in my reactor and it skimmed.
The AquaC skimmer are just sensitive.

 

[PelagicMagic]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7062775#post7062775 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by BLockamon
Ozone will break large organic molecules into smaller ones that the skimmer can take out. However, it can also break the "skimmable" molecules down further to where they cannot be skimmed. If too much ozone is used, you could end up churning out nitrates and phosphates from stuff that might otherwise be skimmed out before it broke down.

THats one cause the other is that some skimmers air input is effected by the ozone connection, especially when an air pump is used. The solution is either get a second cheap skimmer to process ozone or try to increase your skimmers ability to draw in air. I had the same problem until I added a beckett injector mod

 

[Ti]

You did a beckett mod on an aquaC?

 

[PelagicMagic]

nope i have an impact.

 

[infrared69]

this seems to be the question no one can answer. and as i just ordered an ozoniner i am curious myslef. some poeple say they have to skim wetter to get any kind of result.

 

[PelagicMagic]

I had visible results from ozone the day after I hooked it up. My tank has been looking better by the day since orp levels have been maintained at high, steady levels for a few weeks.

 

[Giovanni]

I just wonder if there will be a break-in period for the skinner with the ozone going like there was when it was new. I guess time will tell. I will try leaving it on low for a while and see what happens. Thanks for the input.

 

[infrared69]

its words like "ozone breaks it down" that scare me. breaks it into what? whered it go? matter cannot be created or destroyed, just converted. so what and where is it and how is it affecting my reef?

 

[BLockamon]

If the world were perfect, ozone would break all organics into carbon dioxide and water. Unfortunately, the world isn't perfect. To get "complete" distruction requires tight ozone control + a special UV light unit (not the ones we use for aquariums...different wavelength uv light). In an aquarium, ozone will just break long-chain organics into shorter chain organics. If done correctly, the protein skimmer will remove the resulting products. If overdosed, I imagine you could have a buildup of small-chain organic molecules in the aquarium, which would have to be controlled by carbon and water changes.