Uv

[Recty]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13313161#post13313161 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Mike5252
I guess I don't understand the concept correctly. No maintenance is required once set up and running? Where does the "ozone" come from and where does the waste go?

You ever been around a lightning storm? That electrical smell you get in the air? That is ozone. An aquarium ozonizer works off the same concept, passing air through an electric spark, breaking up O2 molecules into just plain old O atoms, which tries to bond with whatever it can, ends up making O3, commonly called ozone.

As soon as it can, that extra O atom leaves and bonds to something else, and it zaps it, basically burns it up. Anything organic gets fried. So all life, basically. Now, it is highly reactive, it wont stay as 03 for very long at all. Some people run carbon after their skimmer to suck up the unused ozone, I've never done that, it breaks down so quickly I'm not worried about it making it into my main display.

One concern is lots of excess ozone can hurt some of your electronics in your home, but the ozonizers available to hobbyists for aquarium use, like that Red Sea model, really put out so little ozone that isnt going to happen. However, you can run the air that leaves the skimmer through carbon and have peace of mind if you want.

I every once in a while smelled a little bit of an electrical storm type of smell coming from my sump when I would open the cabinet doors and stick my head down there. Otherwise I never noticed I had ozone running except the nice clear water

 

[JustinReef]

As said above, hooby units do not produce nearly enough ozone to harm people unless you ran them 24/7 in an unventilated room for a long time. Even then we are talking about a very low level of ozone.

The worries many people have about ozone come from rumors and what they have heard rather than what they know from experience. I have used ozone for a while now and its the best thing I ever did for my tank. It not only benefits the tank but also the viewer. My tank is a room divider, so you can see right through it. With ozone running, you can see perfectly through the tank!

I love the smell of ozone!

 

[JustinReef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13317925#post13317925 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by e55MD
My understanding is that ozone is toxic if some of it leaks out into your home- probably one of the reasons it is not so popular. Also, UV sterilizers run 24/7 while I thought ozonizers only function at a specific ORP level. Correct me if I am wrong on this.

You are right but for one its not always that easy to hit your target ORP, so its usually on and second, I find it better to find a balance where the ozonizer is set lower but keeps your ORP just under the desired setting so that its always on.

Right now I have my ozonizer up all the way and my ORP is at 350. It would shut off at 380 but in the past four months, it has never hit 380 and never shut off...I have a lot of big fish who make sure the ORP stays below 380

Before ozone my ORP was 240. ORP is not the best way to measure water quality but in my opinion it says a lot about it. Just from experience I have seen a connection between poor water quality and a low ORP in my tanks.

 

[Mike5252]

Wow. Excellent explanations Recty and Justin. I've had a FOWLR tank for quite a while now, but never paid any attention to ozone. I guess I always thought that was something for reef tanks similar to how planted freshwater tanks use CO2. But now I see that is completely different.

Now I am curious as to my ORP levels, especially if you have seen a correlation between ORP and water quality. I think I am going to start saving money.

 

[limitdown]

Here's a link to Dr.Randy's 3-part series on using ozone.
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-03/rhf/index.php

I read this thing 3 times before finally taking the leap.

Correction to my post above, I've got my ozonizer hooked up to an ORP controller so it only turns on when my ORP drops below a certain level. So it's hooked up 24/7, but only comes on when needed, sorta like with a calcium reactor.

If you're worried about ozone in the home, then pass the output water through carbon and the put a sack of carbon on the air outlet on top of the skimmer.

 

[JustinReef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13322492#post13322492 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Mike5252
Wow. Excellent explanations Recty and Justin. I've had a FOWLR tank for quite a while now, but never paid any attention to ozone. I guess I always thought that was something for reef tanks similar to how planted freshwater tanks use CO2. But now I see that is completely different.

Now I am curious as to my ORP levels, especially if you have seen a correlation between ORP and water quality. I think I am going to start saving money.

ORP is not always a great indicator of great or poor water quality because you can have a desirable ORP but still have high nitrates. So its not that simple but I have found over the time I have run ozone that the higher the ORP, the better my water tested.