Ozone Generator Opinions

[class clown]

Ozone is an area I know little about as I've never used it before, however after being told they're not quite as scary as they sound, I may give it a try because I like crystal clear water and for the benefits in skimming.

I was looking on premium aquatics and it looks like they have two models of ozone generators:

The Red Sea AquaZone DELUXE 100 Mg
http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merc...Code=RED-AQUAZONE100&Category_Code=ozoneunits

And the AquaMedic Ozone 100
http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merc...roduct_Code=AM-70205&Category_Code=ozoneunits

thoughts? opininions? other good brands?

 

[mattseattle]

I'd stay away from the Red Sea Deluxe as it's an all in one unit. One thing breaks you are out the entire unit.

The AquaMedic looks alot like the Sanders unit I had. Very well built and did it's job well.

 

[DonW]

Search Enaly on ebay you'll save lot of $$.

Don

 

[Boomer]

Ozone is an area I know little about

Well, lets fix that right now And I agree with Matt on chocie of Ozone units.

Ozone

Ozone and the Reef Aquarium, Part 1: Chemistry and Biochemistry
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-03/rhf/index.php

Ozone and the Reef Aquarium, Part 2: Equipment and Safety
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-04/rhf/index.php

Ozone and the Reef Aquarium, Part 3: Changes in a Reef Aquarium upon Initiating Ozone
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-05/rhf/index.php

 

[DonW]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Enaly-Ozone-Gen...ryZ20729QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

This should be the one I'm using now. I used the smaller $30 one without the adjustment for 2 years it was also fine but the adjustment is nice to have.

Don

 

[Boomer]

Looks like a nice uint Don But it is really big @ 400 mg l hr. But that is what the dail is for

 

[DonW]

Looks like a nice uint Don But it is really big @ 400 mg l hr. But that is what the dail is for

Yup but you cant beat the price and they hold up real well. My old one works just fine I just wanted the adjustment and also got one for my hot tub which works great also.


Don

 

[class clown]

crazy..

Ok. my reading has begun.. I have just a couple questions that I'm hoping you might be able to help me with.

Q1: after reading this, Id like to know if I should have a seperate "Ozone Reactor"? how have you guys accomplished appropriate mixing?

"After the ozone-containing air passes out of the ozone generator, it usually is sent into some sort of mixing chamber where aquarium water and the gas are mixed well, and are kept in contact for at least a few seconds. Aquarists often use skimmers or specially made ozone reactors for this purpose, and selection of suitable materials is a concern as the ozone can degrade some types of plastic, rubber and tubing. "


Q2: based on the Paragraph below, I thought it was supposed to come out of the generator into a mixing chamber, but this makes it sound like it should go into carbon. What do you all recomend? do you have seperate carbon chambers of some sort that the water and air pass through?

"Water leaving the reactor is optimally passed over an amount of activated carbon sufficient to remove the remaining ozone produced oxidants. The carbon catalytically (and also noncatalytically) breaks down these oxidants before they enter the aquarium. The air passing out of the reactor also contains ozone, and is also best passed over activated carbon to reduce the aquarist's concern for airborne ozone's toxicity.

and the reading continues.....

 

[class clown]

sniffle, sniffle, cry, cry... are we insane for messing with this stuff?

"0.08 ppm --Latest EPA study (to publish April 2006) reports significantly increased risk of premature death in humans. Each 0.01 ppm increase results in a 0.3 percent increase in early mortality. "

 

[DonW]

Carbon is a must. I use 1/2 150ft of poly line that i change once a year, the poly is fed by a pump and venturi. From there it goes into a 2 maybe three gallon bucket full of carbon. The bucket overflows into the sump via a 1.5" pipe.

Thats it, works fine.
Don

 

[class clown]

gees - sounds complex. gotta picture by chance you can share & explain the varuios steps. Sorry, I'm one of those visual learner guys.

 

[DonW]

gees - sounds complex. gotta picture by chance you can share & explain the varuios steps. Sorry, I'm one of those visual learner guys.

I'll see what I can find, mine is in the attic I should at least a pic of the little unit. Its really not complex at all. You could just dump it into your skimmer thats what most people do but it usually takes a little creativity to get it to flow out through carbon.

Don

 

[class clown]

Did you guys find you had to dose iodine a lot more? I know Xenia needs iodine supplements to grow, I think clams do too. Anything else that I might risk loosing if I don't dose iodine?

"In the ocean, iodine's predominate form is iodate (IO3-) with a smaller but significant fraction of iodide (I-). These two forms' bioavailability to macroalgae and other organisms varies from species to species, but iodide is often more bioavailable than iodate. Regardless, the use of ozone will likely skew the fraction of total iodine toward iodate and away from iodide. That may or may not be important for reef aquarists, because the importance of iodine's availability from the water column to organisms kept in reef aquaria is undemonstrated, but it may have strong implications if test kits are used detect some species and not others. "

 

[DonW]

Did you guys find you had to dose iodine a lot more? I know Xenia needs iodine supplements to grow, I think clams do too. Anything else that I might risk loosing if I don't dose iodine?

"In the ocean, iodine's predominate form is iodate (IO3-) with a smaller but significant fraction of iodide (I-). These two forms' bioavailability to macroalgae and other organisms varies from species to species, but iodide is often more bioavailable than iodate. Regardless, the use of ozone will likely skew the fraction of total iodine toward iodate and away from iodide. That may or may not be important for reef aquarists, because the importance of iodine's availability from the water column to organisms kept in reef aquaria is undemonstrated, but it may have strong implications if test kits are used detect some species and not others. "

I dont know a thing about softies but my clams could care less. Their probably happier since there is more light penetration.

Don

 

[class clown]

Good deal.. yeah, was worried more about clams than softies, so great news to hear. thanks!

 

[class clown]

Interesting.. do you guys notice a drop in your skimmate production too? I was thinking I might need a bigger, better skimmer when I upgraded tank sizes, but there's hope maybe that I wouldn't need to do so if I added ozone instead.


"It seems as if the tide of opinion has turned, however, and most aquarists now claim that the amount of skimmate is reduced significantly when using ozone. Many claim that the collection of skimmate has nearly stopped in their aquaria when starting ozone. Why the difference compared to past opinion? That's hard to say, and may depend on the types and qualities of the skimmers available now compared to years ago, as well as changes in other husbandry practices. In any case, the overriding experience of many aquarists today is that skimming is reduced, and the presumed reason is that the organics are being made chemically less skimmable by ozone. The remaining organics would then be removed more by bacterial processes than before the initiation of ozone in the same aquarium."

 

[DonW]

When I ran it in the skimmer, yes in the tube reactor not that I can tell. The tube reactor seems to keep the orp much more stable with less cycling of the controller.

Don

 

[class clown]

FYI - made new post w/ request for people to share details of their systems and components or of past systems. If you have some, please share them here:

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=229391#post229391

Thanks..

 

[Boomer]

Q1: after reading this, Id like to know if I should have a seperate "Ozone Reactor"? how have you guys accomplished appropriate mixing?

No, I would use a skimmer. Randy had lots of problems with his reactor, which is gunk and had to make mods to it and then still dumped it. Only MTC makes a good reactor and it is pricy



Q2: based on the Paragraph below, I thought it was supposed to come out of the generator into a mixing chamber, but this makes it sound like it should go into carbon. What do you all recomend? do you have seperate carbon chambers of some sort that the water and air pass through?

You mis-read that. Ozone enters the mxing chamber or skimmer, the water that leaves the mixer or skimmer is run over carbon before it goes into the tank, to remove any oxidants.

drop in your skimmate production too

In the olden days a skimmers foam was actually increased but these were tall counter-current skimmers. The more modern ones operated differently and in most cases show a drop in production of foam. This can/could be casue by two things.

1. The O3 kills some of the foam due to a shift in surface tension.

2. The organics are alterred by the O3 and are thus broken down to where they are no longer skimmabe, so less foam.

Did you guys find you had to dose iodine a lot more?

Most of us do not believe in adding iodine at all. You will usually get enough for most needs from WC and introduced food.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

So, looking like my mixed tank could be benefited by some ozone. Wow, from a fad to passé to a useful tool. Not just to kill pathogens and clean up the water, but to destroy some of the chemicals produced by competing corals. The more things change the more they stay the same.

Don, those ozone units you refered to on ebay, could I just run them into my venturi skimmer?