ozone generator

[watson0720]

can anybody fill me in on the ozone generator, ie! what is it's primary purpose, does anybody using them, pro/cons, what does a ozone setup consist of? Is it hard to setup and maintain? can you have to much ozone? i have talked to a salesman at MACNA, but i was really new to the game then and would like some more info now that i understand more.

[caferacermike]

I bought one and was unimpressed. The idea is that you have these free radical oxygen molecules attaching to minute particles in the water, this increases their size plus it tends to bind other particles together. In turn this makes it easier for your skimmer to take out even the finest of all particulate matter from the tank. I'll say I liked the way my house smelled after running it, smelled like a sterile Hospital. I did notice that shortly after getting it running that all of my pods have disappeared. My fuge and overflow used to crawl with them. I no longer see any at all. Coincidence, not sure. If you want to try them out order the Enaloy units from Ebay to save a buck. Keep an eye for a US distributor and you'll save even more on shipping. My unit is rated at 400 and ran me about $90 delivered.

It is said that they ruin plastics, I saw that first hand as much of my clear acrylic is now fogged and rough to touch. I tried scrubbing the areas to see if it was a build up of some sort, nope it's etched. I've read a lot of people say they drill a hole in their skimmer body and drop the air stone in the skimmer so the waste goes straight into the collection cup. I contacted Euroreef as to whether I could do that with their unit and they told me not to do it. Said it was a waste of time and would break down my acrylics. They said if I really had to run ozone to buy a reactor for it. The ones I've seen are kind of like the 2 little fishes units we use for phosreactors. The gas is injected in the tube and vented away, the nasty effluent head out towards the skimmer.