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View Full Version : Could you review my ozone setup?


jakano
09/30/2009, 10:12 AM
OK I have just started to use ozone and I now know I am not doing it correctly. I have read Randy's articles and it looks like I should have been filterering the water and air for residual ozone. First I'll give you my reason's for starting the use of ozone, then how I have it setup. Any thoughts or suggestions you might have would be greatly appreciated.

Just recently out of nowhere I had a complete outbreak of cyno. I had made no changes to my tank, Had not fed more than usual, or added any new inhabitants. So I added some phosguard and hooked up an ozone reactor I have had for awhile but just never used. Within a week my cyno is now almost completely gone, so one or both of those changes took care of it. Problem is I had a lot of ozone in the air in my basement fishroom. I wasn't to worried about it since the room is sealed off from the rest of the house and it has a large fan that vents to the outside, but after reading Randy's articles its obvious that I had a problem that needed fixed due to the smell of ozone so I turned it off.

Here is how I had it set up. I use this ozone generator and here are the specs:
Model Name: OZX-300U
Ozone Output: 300mg/h
Pump Output: 2-3L/min
Pump Pressure: 0.015-0.02Mpa
Ozone Generating Method: Corona Discharge (Ozone Tube)
Gas Resource: Ambient Air
Air Inlet Dim: 6.5mm
Air Outlet Dim: 6.5mm

I had the output of the Enaly ran to the air intake of my skimmer. The skimmer is a Geo needle wheel skimmer that I have converted to a Beckett skimmer. Since this was built to be a needle wheel it does not have the sealed collection cup nor does it have the collection cup drain that would normally be ran to some kind of skim mate waste collector. So as we all know a Beckett skimmer takes in a massive amout of air to do the skimming. Mine will peg a 100 scfh meter to the top so the skimmer is makking well over 100scfh.

So since I dont have the sealed lid all that air just escapes out of the top of the collection cup lid.The neck of the skimmer where it attaches to the body of the skimmer has an o-ring to seal it so I am pretty sure most if not all of the air esacpes through the lid. My ozone generator makes 300mg/h so thats quite a large amount of ozone being made and I can't lower that amount since thats not an option on the unit I have. I realize I am probably not getting the full 300mg/h into the skimmer since I am not running an air dryer since the Enaly has the built in air pump, or the unit itself might not really make that much ozone. But I was smelling a lot of ozone so its obvious I need to contain that some how. Should I place a bag of carbon on the lid of the cup that will cover all the vent holes? Would just doing that be enough to remove that much ozone?

I also read that I am supposed to filter the water leaving the skimmer with carbon to keep bad things from entering main tank itself. I of course was not doing that but I thought I was ok since I have such a large distance from basement sump to the tank. My skimmer is sitting in my sump which is a 150 gallon rubbermaid tub. The main tank is on the second floor of my house, so I pump the water over 25 feet straight up to get the to the main tank. My thought was with that much distance between the ozone generator and the main tank, the bad things the ozone leaves in the water would dissapate completely, or at least to the point that it would not be in enough quantities to cause any harm. Is this a valid thought or am I completely wrong on that?

I also had the thought that since my cyno problem has been taken care of, I would now just run the ozone generator in a maintanence capacity. By that I mean that I would put the Enaly unit on a timer and only run it for about two hours a day just to maintain water clarity. If I did the much shorter run time would I still need to filter the water coming from the skimmer? If at all possible I really would rather not have to constantly have the skimmer water run through carbon since I really dislike using carbon in the first place.

Like I already said any thoughts, suggestions, or critiques you might have on any of this would be great to hear, Thanks.

bertoni
09/30/2009, 03:52 PM
How many gallons is the tank? That's a fair amount of ozone. Is the ozone unit adjustable?

This article covers ozone equipment:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-04/rhf/index.php

I would leave the ozone off for now. At the very least, I'd add a carbon reactor at the skimmer output before starting the unit again.

Boomer
09/30/2009, 07:18 PM
I would shut that thing off till you get a ORP controller if it does not have a dial control on it. 200 mg / hr is for a 400 -600 gal tank :worried2:

It is NOT a 300 mg/ hr unit but a 200 mg /hr unit

http://www.enaly.com/ozx-300u.html

You should have gotten the OZX-300AT or a ENALY OZAC-PLUS 50/100/200mg aquarium ozone generator comes with built-in redox meter/controller with a digital readout and use adjustable set point to turn the ozone on and off automatically.

jakano
10/01/2009, 08:02 PM
Boomer my unit says its a 200-300mg/h so yes it is apparently capable of going to 300. Good advice on the orp probe but per Randy's article its not even clear what the orp probe measures or if its even close to being correct. Just because I have a probe in there does not mean its reading correctly. Back to the thought of only running it for very short intervals. I have read where people only run there ozone for 1-2 hours a day and have now side effects. This seems to easy to me and was wondering if anyone has tried this themselves.

tmz
10/01/2009, 09:15 PM
Jakano, I would heed Boomer's advice. I would not dose ozone without at least measuring orp, preferably controlling the ozone dosed to a preset orp of around 400mv or less.it can be dangerous to you and to your tank in excess. Orp units do work and can be checked.

I have an enaly rated for 1000mg with oxygen, 300mg with air, a milwaukee controller and a coralife luft pump 7psi but haven't started dosing my 550 gallon system yet since I want to be sure to get an efficient set up for ozone to react with the water without putting it through the skimmer since it may damage it and of course to run both the water and air through gac.

Boomer
10/01/2009, 11:02 PM
I think you completely misunderstood Randy's article janko he does not say that at all. He even often recommends a controller and ORP probe. He has even checked and has an ORP probe. He made the mistake a couple of years ago not cheking his ORP, got a new air pump, thought things did not look right and checked the ORP and it was very high but caught it in time. I do not believe in running zone for 1-2 hrs, it should be 24 /7. If ones dosage is very low, then it is not a issue IMHO but with a unit as big as you have and no control dial it is dangerous. Controllers do work we having been using them for many, many, years as do all public seawater aquariums that run Ozone.

You need to read these

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

jakano
10/02/2009, 05:18 AM
Yes I have stopped all use of the ozone and I have read Randy's articles and I didn't misunderstand anything. I see that Randy recommends and uses orp probes ( which I will go get) my only point was that even he admits its not clear exactly what they measure or if even the number they show is truly a correct figure due to the nature of the probes themselves and the difficulty in calibration. What it will do is show a rise in orp which I believe is the main purpose. You let it run in the tank for a little while to stabalize and get a base reading, then you can start your ozone and watch for the rise in orp.I just don't write things out very well sometimes. Thanks for the advice Boomer and like I said I will be getting a orp meter here in the near future.

Boomer
10/02/2009, 09:11 AM
That is because ORP is a very, very difficult and confusing subject to even understand and both Randy and I will tell you that. Yes, that is correct we use them only to show the rinse in ORP and in the water -waste water field it is also used for that as oxidizing agents are often addded to the water, O3, Chlorine, Bromine, H2O2 and this is how they are monitored to keep a set REDOX . A good example is if you ran ozone @ 500 mV we would tell you that is dangerous level but if you where not adding any oxidizing agents what so ever and it was 500mV we would tell you that you do not need to worry about it. This is what Randy means by those remarks.