Who local is adding ozone?

[DrBDC]

Just wondering who is using ozone and how they're adding it. i.e. skimmer venturi, skimmer feed line injection, ozone reactor, etc. What was your ORP before and after. My probe is settling in still and I've heard it takes a couple weeks to do so. Right now I'm at 302 in the mornings and I was thinking of getting an ozone generator and try to get closer to 400. I doubt mine will be that high even after the probe settles so I'm trying to think ahead.

 

[pfish]

I have a downdraft skimmer and I attached my ozone generator outlet to the air intake of the skimmer. Orp started at 250 and is now 400.
It only took the probe to settle in 48 hrs.
I made my own ozone generator but it was'nt effective, used plans found on the web, I think it was too small for my 240 gal. skimmer application is working good. I'm a little worried about damage to it.

 

[Goalie66]

tagging along on this one. pfish what kind do you have and what would you say your total water volume is.

Thanks!

Tom

 

[rottielover]

I've been thinking about ozone for a while now, so I'm also going to be tagging along on this ride...

I didn't have the money for the whole ozone setup, so for right now, I purchased an ORP monitor (NOT a controller) and let the probe settle for 48 hours per instructions... It settled at 240 *OUCH!*

So I went out and purchased a bottle of Kent PolyOx (potasium perm.) and dosed it per instructions. My ORP has gone up to 382 and it stays about there until feeding time...

Anyway, it was a heck of a lot cheaper to go this route than the whole ozone setup, and my water is really looking clear now.

I'm going to keep going this way for a while longer, I'm about 4/5's thru that first bottle of PolyOx now... Heck if my results hold, a $9 bottle of PolyOx ever couple months is still cheaper than $400-600 for the whole ozone setup, not to mention the $$$ for upkeep of the ozone (air driers) and the carbon required to pass all the water comming out of your skimmer or reactor thru it....

 

[DrBDC]

I bought the ac3 and the probes. My orp isn't bad but since I already have the controlling ability I figure I might as well. I bought a sander 50 mg unit on ebay for 49 bucks + 9 shipping. If anyone is looking at ebay ones, the enaly's will mess up any x10's you may be or will use even if they are not on an x10 controlled outlet. Icecap ballasts do too but those supposedly can be corrected with a noise filter. In short they make high emf's. I'm not worried about using charcoal to keep from smelling the ozone as I have an ozone generating air purifier anyway. Some report headaches with those as well but that's sinus clearing for the most part. If you don't run the air drier you lose about 1/2 of the output if the air is too humid so I may go with one of those later.

 

[kentrob11]

I've got an Ozone setup that I plan to put un my Deltec clone when it's finished. It's an Enaly 250 with mil ORP controller....I'll give you my thoughts on it when I get it running...

 

[DrBDC]

Do you think it would be better to put one inline with my main airpump on the skimmer so that it enters the lowest portion of the skimmer or add a venturi on the water pump feedline to the skimmer? I guess what I'm wondering is would some extra venturi air intake mess up the physics of my cc skimmer? Plus it would enter at a higher point on the skimmer than I typical venturi skimmer does and possibly vent out the skimmer exhaust too fast.

 

[kentrob11]

Based on my research it would be better to tap into the main air injection line to dissipate it along with the air drawn in....

 

[DrBDC]

That's what I was thinking and is actually the easiest/cheapest way. I don't have to buy a venturi or anything, just cut one of the lines and put it in the middle.

 

[kentrob11]

Yeah that would be best- Something I was looking into was a stainless steel T fitting so that I wouldn't have to replace them when the ozone makes them fall apart...No plastic pieces in the pump housing...

 

[Goalie66]

I now have had my controller running for a week and my ORP reading is about 300. I bought an Enaly 300 off of ebay and hooked it up today.

TOm

 

[pfish]

Sorry it took so long to get back, I have a etss 800 pro skimmer. I've not noticed any damage to the skimmer yet after a month. The john guest elbow fitting goes out every 2 weeks. I got an e-mail from ozotech telling me what materials are ozone safe. they say Kynar fittings, and they are available at most hardware stores. I have'nt look for them yet, but I have never heard of them before.

 

[DrBDC]

Keep me updated on the speed of ORP rise Tom. I've looked at those enaly units but I hear they are "noisy" in an electrical field type noise and interfere with the X10 controlls on Aquacontrollers. Great price though. I bought a used sanders, only 50 mg/hour but the test tube inside is busted. I'm not sure if it was before I tried to clean it or ?? Easy enough to fix though and if they have the part even easier. It def. was dirty though and needed cleaning. I'm staying right at 300 w/o. Clean that orp probe every week with a vinegar soak. I went to 400 and was getting a little big headed about how good my husbandry was until I cleaned it and it dropped by 100! That was only after 2 weeks.

 

[Goalie66]

Wow, I'll clean it this week for sure then. Do you just use standard white vinagar? The ORP as risen about 10 so far.
It is in the 315 area. I'll keep you posted on "things"

Tom

 

[DrBDC]

What I did after about a week and a half was just swish it real heavily in vinegar. Then after reading some threads I saw that people were recommending 1/2 hour soaks and gently using a toothbrush. There was a noticable difference again even though only less than a week that time so maybe I didn't clean well enough the first time. Looked clean as a whistle both times to the eyes though. Yes just the standard white vinegar.

 

[Goalie66]

Ok thanks for the info Roy!

Reading of 333 this morning at 5:15am

 

[Goalie66]

Strange it got up to 355 and now that my lights have been on for a few hours it is down to 330. Of course I fed about an hour ago and if I remember correctly that does lower the ORP readings for ahwile.

 

[DrBDC]

It should drop as the day goes on as well as after feeding. I also noticed a drop after shaking and pulling at my chaeto. Which I guess makes sense that it picks it up as junk in the water. Some say when you put your hands in the tank but I played with that and I can't tell a diff even with both arms up to my elbows. You'll see the high of the day right before the mh's turn on usually.

 

[Goalie66]

What do you have yours turn off at? The reading makes sense then because the 355 was right b4 the MH's turned on.

 

[DrBDC]

I'm going to start at 370 I think but I have to fix the ozone unit still. I have an email to them about the part. If it is too much I'll buy an enaly since neptune has tested them and they are working. The neptune rep doesn't know if people were incorrect or enaly fixed a x10 noise problem on the newer ones.

Since the controllers only have an off function to them I guess it will depend on the nightime drift. When it's low, it will be making o3 but when it's night and the orp is naturally rising, I can't really control that so that nightime rise I'll try to aim it to about 390-400. That will probably have me in the 375-385 setting for the controller.