UV versus Ozone

[swubasketball]

I am kinda stumped with which one to buy? New tank well 5 months old has four fish in it,but going to add bunch of corals over the next 4 months. Which one is tge best and what brand to get?

180 gal
2" sandbed
300lbs of live rock
4600gph pump

 

[ramseynb]

I don't run and have never ran either. However, I have done some research. In a reef tank a UV filter would possibly kill phytoplankton and bacteria that might be beneficial for the tank. It seems like opinions on this differ though. Ozone seems better from what I've gathered but you need to ensure that whatever you're using as the reactor (your skimmer) and all connecting parts are ozone safe. You'll also need to run the return through a carbon filter or reactor. If you're not careful with ozone, it could cause health problems for you. This is why I decided not to use it, I have a toddler in the house and it didn't seem worth the risk. However, it will make your water crystal clear and your skimmer more efficient.

 

[wooden_reefer]

I am kinda stumped with which one to buy? New tank well 5 months old has four fish in it,but going to add bunch of corals over the next 4 months. Which one is tge best and what brand to get?

180 gal
2" sandbed
300lbs of live rock
4600gph pump

UV is pathogenic issue or other waterborne microbe issue. And weaking some chemcial bonds and may cause their disintegration

Ozone is about both the above and a chemical oxidation of ammonia and nitrite. Ozone also destroys many drugs.

UV is easily and cheaper than Ozone, in general, I'd think.

I'd like to start using ozone, I already us UV extensively in disease control for fish, very useful in this regard.

 

[wooden_reefer]

UV is much safer and easier to use. If your interest is fish, get it soon. UV does not need much attention after setup.

UV has no negative impact except its effect on some drugs. UV does not kill any significant amount of good bacteria, of which only a very small percentage is waterborne.

 

[pyton]

Had both did not notice when the UV bulb burned out and ran just Ozone for 3 months. So I never replaced the bulb and noticed the Corals grew faster. I am guessing my phyto in the water to feed off of.

 

[wooden_reefer]

One thing is that UV is one of two common ways by which ozone is generated. I am not talking about the same UV bulb for UV unit for a tank, but a UV bulb for O3 generation.

The other method is by electrical arc.

 

[alexander_ktn]

The UV sterilizers used in our tanks produce ozone/free oxygen as a byproduct of their function directly in the water albeit in low low doses.

For ease of use I'd recommend ozone, however. Much less hassle, low maintenance and very safe if used properly. The sparkling blue-clear water alone is worth it imo and I use ozone in very low doses 10mg/100gallons or some such just for that effect.

Do read on WWM or in the reef magazines - there is consensus that ozone is a very powerful and (if applied sensibly) safe tool towards clean water in our tanks.

 

[rick12]

Has anyone tried an Oxydator?
Using a catalist and peroxide.

 

[alexander_ktn]

If I remember correctly the Oxydator does not release single oxygen atoms (those are basically the ones that break up other unwanted molecules) but instead normal diatomic oxygen. So it might help in getting higher oxygen levels but not in removing the yellow color etc. from the water. I do also think it's a very expensive way of doing that since you will need to refill it with some peroxide rather often.

 

[billsreef]

Has anyone tried an Oxydator?
Using a catalist and peroxide.

I remember those from when the first came out a couple of decades ago (I'm feeling old now...). IMO, go with a good ozone set up. You'll have better control over it, and less fuss and no constant need to refill the peroxide.

 

[biodegraded]

I am kinda stumped with which one to buy?

What are you trying to accomplish?

 

[Epicreefer]

I would go with ozone, and would never even consider uv on a personal tank. So there are some benefits to uv, clear water, some pathogen reduction and killing plankton. If your trying to stop pathogen transfer from one tank to another than a long dwell time in uv will only reduce risk not eliminate it so to me its main use is in ponds as green water control. Pro is you only have to change the bulb once a year and no constant air dryer to deal with.

Ozone on the other hand does all a uv does but also oxidizes organics actualy cleaning your water. And removes color in the water that uv doesnt. As far as price I haven't seen uv's at reasonable prices if you want to do more than kill planktonic algae, at wholesale I think they are way over priced. I would go ozone for sure.

 

[keithhays]

It is extremely unlikely you would be willing to spend the thousands of dollars required to make uv the slightest bit useful. Ozone can be used to do a lot of different things at many different doses, but then has to be removed from the water before reentering the tank. Assuming you can get rid of the ozone in degassing chambers etc, it would be more efficient than a correctly size UV system. I would avoid both unless you have either a lot of space or alot of money or both.

 

[alexander_ktn]

Ozone can be used to do a lot of different things at many different doses, but then has to be removed from the water before reentering the tank. Assuming you can get rid of the ozone in degassing chambers etc, it would be more efficient than a correctly size UV system. I would avoid both unless you have either a lot of space or alot of money or both.

Ozone is pretty much used up immediately in our tanks if used in the correct dose. Here in Europe many people use ozone in skimmers without even running the effluent over carbon (which removes any trace of ozone or subsequent oxidizing compounds from the water, so I'd highly recommend it). Basically there is no need to degas the water.

A rule of thumb employed by many aquarists here and that can be employed if ozone is used in a skimmer is to dial the ozone generator to a value where you do not notice an ozone smell when you take a whiff from the collection cup air outlets.

A small read:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-04/rhf/index.php (3 parts in total, only linked the important one )
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/SystemPIX/RedOx/RedoxPPTpres2.htm (esp. blue text)

 

[keithhays]

Ozone is pretty much used up immediately in our tanks if used in the correct dose. Here in Europe many people use ozone in skimmers without even running the effluent over carbon (which removes any trace of ozone or subsequent oxidizing compounds from the water, so I'd highly recommend it). Basically there is no need to degas the water.

A rule of thumb employed by many aquarists here and that can be employed if ozone is used in a skimmer is to dial the ozone generator to a value where you do not notice an ozone smell when you take a whiff from the collection cup air outlets.

A small read:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-04/rhf/index.php (3 parts in total, only linked the important one )
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/SystemPIX/RedOx/RedoxPPTpres2.htm (esp. blue text)

I generally agree with most of what you are saying except for dosage and use case. If for instance, you goal is just to produce clear water, then what you say is true and you would be able to remove ozone with a minimum of effort. The whole process is a lot more cumbersome once you begin to do more than that as in part 1: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-03/rhf/index.php#13

 

[alexander_ktn]

Thanks, Keith! That's of course true - getting parasites etc. "zapped" or completely eradicated is not feasible with that low dose approach, but as you agree, it will remove many (harmful/unwanted) organic compounds from the water column, increasing water quality a lot.

I do doubt the usefulness for completely eradicating parasites directly for both UV and ozone in our typical setups. Getting the parasites into reaction chambers/UV chambers is the part where a recirculating system like ours has its problem... Imho both systems work by increasing the water quality in one way or the other, thus providing a better basis for our fish to fight diseases.

 

[keithhays]

Thanks, Keith! That's of course true - getting parasites etc. "zapped" or completely eradicated is not feasible with that low dose approach, but as you agree, it will remove many (harmful/unwanted) organic compounds from the water column, increasing water quality a lot.

I do doubt the usefulness for completely eradicating parasites directly for both UV and ozone in our typical setups. Getting the parasites into reaction chambers/UV chambers is the part where a recirculating system like ours has its problem... Imho both systems work by increasing the water quality in one way or the other, thus providing a better basis for our fish to fight diseases.

Yes, the better systems I have seen such as the one used for Diver's Den use both I believe. The more systems you have working in your favor the better.