I keep hearing people asking for advice on how to hook up their ozone generators to their skimmers so I have included a short tutorial from my website. While my ozone is being injected into a dual beckett skimmer I think this type of setup should work for any type of skimmer. You just need to make an air intake line that is larger than your skimmer's air intake line and make sure the ozone is injected before any needle valves or any other devices that are used to control air flow into the skimmer. I've also included the rest of my skimmer setup in case it might give some other people ideas. I figured it would be OK for this thread as it is ozone related.
I've made a few changes recently to the way my skimmer is set up. This was mostly due to various reasons related to dosing ozone into the skimmer. I wanted to be able to dose ozone as efficiently as possible (e.g. into both injectors) and I also wanted to address the issue of having to recharge the dryer beads on a daily basis. First, I will address the the former issue. Here is a pic of what I did:
<img src=http://sio.midco.net/cdshelton/website/page14/skimmer/126_2638.JPG>
The ozone is injected through the neoprene tubing into the 1/2" pvc air intake line. The line then splits into 2 lines, which then feed each individual injector. Notice the use of unions for easy removal of the needle valves for cleaning.
The next issue is that I was having to recharge my dryer beads on a daily basis due to air going through them 24 hours a day. The air in the fish room is fairly humid due to ~600 gallons of water being in there. Here is how the unit is now set up:
<img src=http://sio.midco.net/cdshelton/website/page14/skimmer/126_2654.JPG>
The air pump pumps fresh air through a solenoid, then into the air dryer, then into the ozone generator, and finally into the skimmer's air intake line. With the use of the solenoid I can shut off the air going through the dryer beads with a x-10 module when I'm not running the generator. I only run the generator for 4 hours each day so it was a waste to have air going through the dryer beads 24 hours a day. I can now go 6 days before needing to recharge the beads instead of 1 day.
The last thing I have changed is that I added a skimmer air exhaust line that exhausts the skimmers output air outside. I did this for 2 reasons. The first was due to the use of ozone. Even when I would run carbon on the air outlet of the collection bucket I still got an ozone smell in the air when I would feed the fish. This was due to the fact that my skimmer turns off during feeding, then when it turns back on, all of the air in the skimmer is quickly displaced with water forcing a very large amount of air to go through the collection bucket in a short period of time. This would be more than the carbon could handle and I would get a strong ozone (and skimmate) smell in the air. Now that air is directly exhausted outdoors where I don't smell it or have to worry about the danger of the ozone levels in the air. The second reason was to help lower the humidity in the fish room. My dual beckett skimmer processes a lot of air. With that air being exhausted into the fish room it was only adding to the existing humid air in there. Now with the air being exhausted outside it most likely helps with the humidity levels in the fish room (I say "most likely" as I don't have any devices to measure the effects before and after). A puddle actually develops outside under the air exhaust outlet.
Here is the 1.5" exhaust line plumbed to the collection bucket.
<img src=http://sio.midco.net/cdshelton/website/page14/skimmer/126_2655.JPG>
You can also see that I added a single union ball valve to the drain line. This allows me to easily remove the line and shut off the air to the skimmer, which in turns shuts down the skimmate production when I empty the bucket. I also drilled a hole and siliconed a piece of acrylic over it to use as a viewing pane to see when I need to empty the bucket.
I have also added a carbon filter to remove pollutants in the air before they go into the skimmer. This helps with those occasional skimmer production interruptions due to pollutants, aerosols, etc. in the air. Here you can see the intake line with the 3ft. long by 1.5" diameter air filter along side the exhaust line. Also notice that there is a tee with a gate valve on the 2 intake ends. This allows me to adjust how much air I am drawing from inside and outside with the turn of a valve. This has been nice as I cannot run very much outside air into the skimmer when it is cold out or it freezes up the air intake ports at the injectors.
<img src=http://sio.midco.net/cdshelton/website/page14/skimmer/126_2658.JPG>
And here is what the skimmer looks like nowdays with the added modifications.
<img src=http://sio.midco.net/cdshelton/website/page14/skimmer/126_2662.JPG>
