Who's using Ozone?

[brewercm]

I thought the main reason for using it was if you were running a planted tank. Just wanting to start conversasion here and help you out and maybe learn a little more about the subject.

[GaryP]

I guess the question is what is your purpose in running an ozonator?

Raising Redox? As a sterilizer? Improved performance of your skimmer? All of the above?

Gary

[alexwolf]

I have heard ozone is rather deadly.......I would be a bit scared to use it, but maybe I was misinformed.

[GaryP]

Ozone is an oxidizer like chlorine and iodine. It acts chemically almost exactly like hydrogen peroxide.

Gary

[alexwolf]

I just got done reading a forum on RC about ozone. It said you cant use any rubber parts with it, including orings. That it will break them down over time. Also, it said that animals cant be exposed to where it is dripped in the tank, or they will die due to exposure. Someone told me also if it leaks in your room and you breathe it that you could die. That scares me.

[GaryP]

I've read some stuff that talked about feeding it into your skimmer to increase its performance. The good thing about it is that it depletes rapidly and chemically converts to oxygen. If you fed it to the skimmer it should mostly be depleted by the time it reaches anything like a bulkhead seal.

Gary

[alexwolf]

what about things like the O ring on the skimmer? Will it dissolve Teflon tape? Doesnt it have a dissolve time of ~30 mins? Supposedly it bonds with anything in the water, such as dissolved waste, which is where the improved skimming comes in. I guess if you fed it to the input of the skimmer pump you would be OK, just still a bit scary. Also, if by some reason it hits the main tank, it will kill everything in it. I dont really see how that could happen if you are running an ORP controller. Probably you would want to set it at ~400, but nothing higher than that. Too much ozone=too much risk.

[GaryP]

Alex,

It would depend on what material the O-rings are made out of. There are a lot of different materials that O-rings are made out of. I assume they are talking about latex rubber. There are even several types of rubber. Some are more chemically resistant than others. Ozone attacks the plasticizer in a lot of materials. That's the chemical that is added to plastics, for example, to make them turn solid. The city of SA had a similar problem several years ago when they started using the wrong kind of PVC for water mains. The chlorine attacked the platicizer in the PVC and it caused a lot of leaks.

An ozone generator electrically converts oxygen in air to ozone and is dispersed in water pumped through the unit. It doesn't "dissolve." Teflon should be resistant to ozone. Just as a note, there is a very common technology in some parts of the world. For example, in Europe they use ozone instead of chlorine for drinking water treatment. It doesn't leave a residue like chlorine does (chloramines). When it is depleted it turns into regular oxygen. Ozone is O3. The oxygen we breathe is O2.

Gary

[alexwolf]

Just talked to an ozone expert. Inject the ozone from the ozonizer into the air input of your skimmer. At the outlet of the skimmer, you need to run carbon 100% of the time. Also, you need to have the air from the skimmer collection cup run through carbon as well. deadly stuff, but if you take all the necessary precautions you should be fine.

[don-n-sa]

deadly stuff, but if you take all the necessary precautions you should be fine.

so having said that, are the risks worth it?

[alexwolf]

Debateable. Its supposed to make your water clearer. Also helps with the ammonia/nitrate conversion.

[Sunhutch]

If I'm not mistaken I have one on my hot tub. One of the features of it is an ozonater I believe, to help keep the water crystal clear.

[alexwolf]

yep, thats it! If I had kids, i probably wouldnt take a chance.

[RobertG]

yep, thats it! If I had kids, i probably wouldnt take a chance.

:-o

Josh let us know, Please. I have thought about it.

SunHutch you most likely have one. My unit is like 3yrs old & it has one on there. Pretty cool, dont think it works enough! Still have to do the maintnance. :cry:

[Richard]

Josh, I have an ozonizer w/redox controler. I used to run it on my 140 before it leaked. I had planned on using it on my 215 but due to some bad planning on my part I don't have an easy way to direct the water from my skimmer through carbon. So I am just using it as an ORP monitor. Strange thing is that I have found that I can keep my ORP around ~420mv just by doing about a 5% water change (10 gal) per week so I'll probably never use the ozone now unless I need it for use as a sterilizer.

Here's some tips on using it. Some of which have already been mentioned.
1.) Run it into your skimmer. Make sure your skimmer is ozone safe. It will react with some plastics and make them brittle.
2.) Run the output water of your skimmer through carbon to remove any residual ozone and some harmful byproducts that can be created through the over use of ozone. Any residual ozone will make short work of nitrifying bacteria. Carbon doesn't actually remove the ozone but provides organics for it to react with. It does remove most of the potential harmful byproducts of ozone.
3.) The air coming out of your collection cup should be filtered through GAC also. You won't be using enough to be of any threat to you or your family but over time it could cause nearby plastics such as power cords to become brittle. An auto waste container is the easiest way to do this. http://www.proteinskimmer.com/accessories.htm
4.) To avoid creating toxic byproducts use only a small amount of ozone. I would say 5 - 10 mg/l per 100 gallons.

Well that's about all there is to it. Ozone can be useful in very heavily stocked tanks (predator tanks, holding systems for example) but for most tanks there are better ways to maintain water quality. Ozone is a very effective sterilizer (better than UV) but if you want it for water quality you can get the same results other ways. Heck, just an orp probe and potassium permangenate (Kent PolyOx) will give the exact results of ozone without as many risks.

[Richard]

For example, in Europe they use ozone instead of chlorine for drinking water treatment.


I believe all bottled water here is sterilized with ozone (FDA reg.). It's a low risk but if your using bottled water for topoff it's a good idea to let breath a little bit before pouring it in your tank.

[Richard]

No, I like knowing my ORP and I may decide to play around with using ozone again one of these days.

[Richard]

Also I currently have about 27 fish in my 215 "SPS" tank and plan on adding quite a few more. So I might have to use ozone at some point.

If you get one I think you'll find knowing your ORP is the most useful thing about it. Just remember that ORP is just a number and can vary in different areas of your tank. So you might want to play around with different locations for the probe. Some really healthy tanks will have an ORP of only 350mv while others may be in the 400's. The main thing the number tells you is what direction your tank is heading. If I miss a water change one week my ORP will get down to 350 - 360mv. Otherwise it stays right around 420mv, I think that is why weekly small water changes are so much better then monthly larger ones.

Also, for me it has always taken a few days for a new probe to start reading correctly. So you may want to wait a few days before starting the ozone.

[Richard]

That's the unit I have. I haven't had any problems with it.