School me on Ozone

[Teeb]

Ozone was mentioned to me the other day and caught my interest. Is anyone around here using it? What recomendations to you have for getting started? I have an RKL and would just need to order an ORP probe to control it. Any specific units that are not too expensive and work well and how did you run it through your skimmer? Thanks in advance...

[Bill S]

Try wetwebmedia. Bob Fenner was the one who talked me into it, after coming by and looking at my tank.

Pros: The water is crystal clear. I mean GIN clear.

Cons: The units are pretty much all carp. If you do a search, you will see that the average life expectancy is about 12-18 months. So, buy a cheap one

They are brutal on your plastic equipment. However, my acrylic Ace-built skimmer seems to have handled it fine. You DO need a skimmer or other device to react it to your water.

You HAVE to have an ORP controller. Not just a probe, you need to be able to shut it off. Either that, or undersize your unit to be safe. It is toxic if the concentration gets too high.

[ErikH]

I have an ozone unit that you have to manually turn on. Even in low doses it makes the water supremely crystal clear. I do not run a skimmer, but my airstone for my ozone is at the bottom of my rubbermaid tub and by the time the bubble reach the surface, there has been plenty of contact to make my water crystal. Good stuff in my opinion.

[Teeb]

Sounds pretty cool. Hooked up to my RKL I'll be able to shut it off once ORP reaches a certain level. What filtration benefits does it have? Will it take some of the burden off my fuge? Is there a less expensive unit than the $200 Red Sea? Sorry for all the questions.

[Teeb]

I was looking around and ran across these. I'll have to wire in a regular 110 plug, but that shouldn't be difficult. What are your opinions on running these? I have an RKL that would be able to moderate dosage.



http://cgi.ebay.com/Del-Eclipse-Ozon...item35a83ad520

http://cgi.ebay.com/Clarathon-Hot-Tu...item35a83e4d09

http://cgi.ebay.com/Del-CDS-16-Hot-T...item35a8090637

They are all designs for hot tubs.

[txg8gxp]

For the price I would try the third one with the SL1. Good finds.

[Teeb]

That's what I was kind of thinking, but I'm just a little weary since they're technically designed for 500+ gallon hot tubs. That GenX one you sent me got HORRIBLE reviews. That's why I was leaning towards the small one. I guess as long as the RKL is monitoring ORP it should be ok. I just don't know how slow ozone needs to be supplied, I don't want one of these big units to dump a ton in once a day.

[txg8gxp]

Good point, looks like most systems rated for like 75g are 25mg/h. Those ebay systems are 35mg/h.

[Teeb]

You have a better eye than me, I was just about to look for that. It might now be powerful enough, the red sea goes up to about 200 mg/h. I also forgot about an air drier, but I think that's pretty much just silica beads in a container.

[Bill S]

Yes, the air driers are color changing silica beads in a container.

A 20 mg/hr unit is probably not enough for a 75g tank. And remember, it has to be supplied to a reactor or a skimmer. It may damage your skimmer.