Thumbs up for Ozone!

[joelsaxton]

I noticed today that my aquacontroller ORP probe gets inaccurate really fast. I think it should be cleaned weekly. Readings seem to increase over time and I noticed this weekend it was at 408mV. I cleaned it and it went down to 300!

 

[megachrome]

Thanks folks for the review on ozone. Been looking for it since a feew days now.

A question remains in my mind though. If you have a red sea aquazone, do you need a air pump to flow air into it or does it come with it's own built-in air pump.

 

[joelsaxton]

if you have a venturi skimmer it will suck the air into its air intake without needing an air pump

 

[megachrome]

but if you want too blow the air directly into the water (for example with an air rock), does the unit has an internal air pump?because in this case you will need pressure

 

[joelsaxton]

you would need a pump if you wanted to do that. Go for an Optima since you can adjust the strength.

 

[spamin76]

Anyone running Ozone on a tank with a clam in it? How does it seem to be doing?

 

[DL]

Any advise on cleaning the ORP probes? I rarely clean mine, but when I do, the ORP levels read substantially lower for a couple days or more.

What do you use to clean the probe?

 

[Travis]

I don't need to clean my probe. I use an Aquacontroller and their probes don't need to be cleaned. I don't know why I read about others who use Aquacontrollers and need to clean their probes. Maybe they just need to replace their probes. My probe is 6 months old and I never cleaned it. Just to make sure it was still getting accurate readings I cleaned a couple days ago (soaked in vinegar for 15 minutes and then scrubbed lightly with a toothbrush). After I put the probe back in the water I was still getting the exact same readings.

 

[joelsaxton]

travis,

that sounds very unusual. My ORP probe gets way off if I don't clean it on an almost weekly basis.

 

[shred5]

Anyone running Ozone on a tank with a clam in it? How does it seem to be doing?

I have done it with no problems...

Dave

 

[megachrome]

thanks a lot everyone for all your advices

 

[Travis]

travis,

that sounds very unusual. My ORP probe gets way off if I don't clean it on an almost weekly basis.

Yeah, I've heard the same thing you are saying from several people that use their probe with an aquacontroller. How old is your probe? Here is what my aquacontroller instructions say: "It is not necessary to calibrate the ORP probe of the AquaControllerPro. It has been properly calibrated at the factory to maintain accurate ORP readings for the lifetime of the controller."

Mine is the Pro version but I don't think that should make a difference as it says the probe is calibrated, not the controller. Maybe you can see what the instructions say for your version if it is not the Pro.

 

[shred5]

Just curious since I was thinking about buying one with the orp controller... maybe they come with a cheap orp probe... Has anyone tried a different one?... Maybe the orp controller is not very good and looses calabration easily?

Any ideas what is going on with those that are having problems?

Travis
How can you callibrate a probe..? That line does not make sense to me... You need to calibrate the unit with the probe... Sounds like a misprint to me..

Dave

 

[justgettinstarted]

all these probes do, whether they are pH probes ORP probes or Ca probes is measure the reduction potential of some type of metal which reacts with the desired ion (and hopefully only the desired ion) in a redox type reaction causing a current to flow in the probe and then the contoller changes this current into a readout according to some mathmatical calculation. So when you calibrate a probe all you are doing is telling the controller that this is what current X should read.. this is what current Y should read, and then it adjusts the scale accordingly.

 

[Travis]

shred5, the probe can be calibrated with Quinhydrone (whatever that is), PH 4.00 solution, and PH 7.00 solution. The instructions are fairly lengthy so I'm not going to post them here. If you want to see them you can go to Neptune's website and download the latest instruction manual. It is on page 30 of my ACPro instructions.

Neptune offers a standard grade ORP and a lab grade ORP probe. Not sure what the difference is, besides price. FWIW, I'm using the standard grade probe.

 

[joelsaxton]

although it is not mandatory to calibrate, the ORP probe must be cleaned regularly since things build up on the electrodes and screw up the readings.

 

[NewSchool04]

can someone explain how you hook the ozone up to your skimmer. I'm thinking about the red seas 50 mg and have a euro reef skimmer. thank you!

 

[joelsaxton]

you should only need to buy some norprene (black rubber) tubing and use it to connect the O3 to the venturi. you should have an ozone resistant check valve between the O3 and the skimmer to prevent backflow.

 

[playful1]

I put an air pump on the Ozonizer and pumped air through it to a tee in the venturi line for the skimmer so that the skimmer pulls in air and O3.

 

[joelsaxton]

I just bought a Sander 100 ozonizer to replace my failed RedSea 50. I read here and in other places on the net that Sander's are pretty good. Cost me about $250 including tax and shipping.