Who uses ozone?

[Brad A.]

I would stay away from O2 tanks and hobbyist ozonators. I know the commercial ozonators use O2 as it increases efficiency of O3 production. I believe some hobbyist ozonators use coronal spark to generate the O3. Sparks and pure O2 dont go well together if you know what I mean.

I dont use an air dryer on my red sea and it seams to work fine. Rea Sea says it decreases the life of the ozonator..oh well. Vermont is too humid!

Use a reaction chamber for the o3...like a chem reactor tube..petsolutions.com has one for about $30. Bubble into the chamber and pipe the outflow through carbon before it enters the main display.
Brad

 

[ldrhawke]

I use a Red Sea Aqua Zone Plus 100 ozonator with a built in controller. I love it.

When I started using it my ORP readout was down in the 220's. I started doing more water changes to bring it up.

I set it at 350 now and it runs itself turning off and on maintaining 350 mv. I feed it into my PM skimmer. MY whole system, including the skimmer are all run off of one pump. I use a Dolphin Amp 3000. Go to my gallery to get the picture.


The water quality is without question better using ozone. The water gets crystal clear. The coral has never looked better. If the level starts to drop below 350 and takes too long to recover, more than a half day. I know I need to do something to improve my water quality, like a water change.

The ORP meter alone is worth the cost now that I have used it. ORP reading is the best indicator I have for what is happening in my tank. It is also a good prophylactic to keep from spreading disease in the tank amd keeps the odor from the skimate down. I no longer have a fishy smell around my system.

If your discharge is into a sump any ozone carry over is quickly dissipated. Running it through carbon isn't a bad idea as insurance. Ozone oxidizes so quickly it is difficult for it to remain in the water more than seconds. The amount of ozone put out by the system is very low dosages.

It has now become more of a back up system for CPW(controlled plenum wasting), because it keeps my ORP over 350mv, without the need to add ozone.

 

[Kitzo]

Yes it kills plankton. It probably kills almost every living organism that it comes into contact with.

On this subject, I have many clams and culture and feed live phtyo daily.
Could using Ozone deplet the nutrients the clams receive?

 

[ldrhawke]

yes....

The feeding procedure is often to shut the skimmer and ozone down for a few hours when you fed. Ozone will kill what is floating around the tank as it goes through the skimmer being fed ozone. Of course your skimmer is also taking it out with or without the ozone being fed.

 

[Tom Berry]

Ozone users,

Have you seen any tanks, with water as clear as yours, that don't use ozone?

I am curious if this kind of water clarity can be achieved by any other means.

Tom:fish2:

 

[Brad A.]

Tom,
Carbon use may come close???? I suppose...

 

[RedEyeReef]

tagging along

 

[va_reefman]

I have not seen a tank that uses ozone personally but IME with my previous 180g, some time I have a feeling that there were no glass between me and the coral/tank. I was running carbon 24/7 on that tank.

I am hopeing to have the same water clarity with the new 180g. The tank is not doing so bad after 3 weeks from the transfer.

John

 

[justgettinstarted]

O3 is extremely unstable and reacts with the yellowing agents in the water. The yellowing agents are chemically modified in a way that facilitates removal my the protein skimmer. I can't remember actual chemical equations right now.

Ozone acts as an oxidizing agent... The "yellow agents" in the water are actually DOC's (dissolved organic compounds) and nearly all organic compunds contain carbon carbon double bonds (ex any unsaturated fat... (selcon, omega 3 fatty acids, and so on). The ozone attacks the double bond and breaks is into a smaller chain.. and where there was preciously a double bond there is now a carboxylic acis (-COOH).

The strange thing is.. (and i had a discussion with Randy Holmes-Farley about this) that these new shorter compunds should actually be MORE water soluble and be harder for the skimmer to remove... but they are in actually easier to remove.. the only thing that I can think of is that all these shorter chained DOC's with carboxylic acids on one end can get together and form a mycell (on inverse mycell.. i forget which... the one with the polar heads on the inside) similar to that of a cell wall with all the hydrophobic tails on the outside... and then the skimmer cane easily remove this quasi "grease" or "oil". Thats about the simplest that i can explain it!

LOL

I think when people talk about running carbon.. they mean the the gas exiting the skimmer (after bieng removed of skimmate) is ran through a pad of carbon to break up and remaning ozone. Ozone is a respratory irritant and many people actually die due to ozone exposure every year (due to warm smoggie weather in the summer... "old people when it gets warm")

Garrett

 

[Tom Berry]

Ozone would be easier and cheaper long term. Unless you feel the need to run carbon on the output of your skimmer. From what I'm gathering, it really isn't necessary.

Tom:fish2:

 

[AgentSPS]

FWIW I used to run ozone a long time ago (when airstone skimmers were state of the art LOL). It definitely helped increase skimming capability and water clarity. One warning I want to put out there is to make sure you ventilate the room the tank is in. I had the tank running in a bedroom with poor circulation. Ozone is highly reactive and a major irritant to mucus membranes. It was some time before I associated bad sinus headaches with ozone. Upped the ventilation and no more headaches.

 

[mhurley]

AgentSPS,
So exactly what do I have to do to get a frag of that beauty in your avatar??

Mike

 

[Brad A.]

Good point. Thats why I try to run the least amount possible. O3 is a great tool, IME, if used properly. I also acknowledge that O3 is not required equipment for a successful aquarium.

A little side note:

Irritation and dryness of the throat occurs at a concentration of 0.1 ppm O3 (10-30 minutes of exposure) (Katzung; Clinical Pharm pg 991).

Thnks for the reminder AgentSPS

 

[AgentSPS]

AgentSPS,
So exactly what do I have to do to get a frag of that beauty in your avatar??

Mike

Hah...well I gave a bunch of frags to www.exoticreefs.us but unfortunately catastrophe happened to the prop tank and they all died. One of the frags was huge too
Fortunately this piece grows really fast and I will give more to Tubs to sell when he gets things going again.

 

[bice0004]

Reading this thread has me intrigued about purchasing a O3 system. However I have a question. Many people advocated an O3 system with a controller and monitor. I don't have either right now. But by reading into everyones use of their O3 system, it seems that a lot of people are not using the controller and monitoring functions. In addition, most people are recommending a very small dose to clear up the water, which shouldn't cause a concern for overdosing. Therefore my question is: are the purchasing of the monitor and controller really worth the extra money? Do you really need these functions?

Thanks
Bice

 

[Leopardshark]

IME, I have a pinpoint PH meter and if you donÃ"šÃ‚´t calibrate it often, you will start to get bad readings.
But I know that when my monitor if reading a ph of 8.5 or 8.6 it really is not that high.
Well, what happens if you have your redox controller connected to the ozonizer and you forget to calibrate it or by any means it goes bad, it will introduce humongous amounts of ozone into the tank.
Do I get myself clear?
Mechanical and electrical stuff tends to go bad, not the case of the biology of our tanks so I preefer to introduce just a little bit of ozone and control it myself rather than letting an electrical device do it.
IMO and IME.
HTH
Marco

 

[bice0004]

Thanks leopard shark, so if you don't use a controller, what is your dose, and time of addition? Do you just set it low and not worry about it? Also if you buy a 100mg/hr (thinking redsea ones), is there a dial on it to adjust the level below 100mg/hr? Or are you stuck with delivering what the unit's rate is?

 

[Brad A.]

bice0004,

The red sea machine has a dial on it. Try 10 - 20 mg/hr for 2 days and see how effective that setting is. you have a 75 gallon tank?

 

[bice0004]

Yes, it will be going on a 75. Thanks for the info, I'll probably get one. Not sure if I need a 50mg/hr or a 100mg/hr. I'm thinking 100mg/hr as I have plans to upgrade my tank in the future to around a 180.

Bice

 

[victor90]

one person said that you should air out the room well when using ozone. Is this a must evn if i just use 10-=20 mg /hr. Also how do you guys feel its effectiveness against ich.
Thank you