ozone dosing

[jelwyoming]

Randy,
Is there any advantage of dosing ozone with an ozone generator if you are already using a sterilizer? Doesn't the sterizlizer create some amount of ozone along with the DNA mutations the UV causes? I have been thinking of using one to improve my skimmer operation with a heavily stocked tank.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

IMO, UV sterilizers and ozone do totally different things.

UV sterilizers kill many suspended organisms, but do little to clear the water of yellow compounds.

Ozone will probably not increase skimming efficiency. Many folks find it decreases.

Ozone clears the water of yellow compounds (and perhaps reduces other organics), but kills little in he way of suspended organisms when used as reefers use it.

These articles have more on those issues:

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

[jelwyoming]

Thank you Randy.
My thought on this are coming from J. Sprungs new vol. 3 book (that you contributed to!) that I understand to say that O3 tends to cause DO's to clump, thereby improving the skimming action. Is this incorrect? He seems to also state that the UV sterilizers create an amount of O3 as well resulting in the same action. My reef tank water is very clear, but the skimmer is not producing much (1 cup of dark stuff every 4 days). It has a large bio load, but a large amout of sand and live rock to go with that.

[jelwyoming]

Randy, was I misunderstanding what he was saying?

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I've not read his book on ozone, but the clumping would seem to be an unproven hypothesis that I'd not heard before. Skimmers do that by themselves without ozone,I just don't see how ozone contributes. Next months reefkeeping article is on how skimmers work. :)
He seems to also state that the UV sterilizers create an amount of O3 as well resulting in the same action.

Normal UV sterilizers do not make enough to be important in a reefing application, IMO. You need a shorter wavelength than is used in a UV sterilizer to make much ozone.

[Boomer]

how skimmers work.

YES.......finally.......:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :D:bounce2:

[jelwyoming]

Thanks Randy. I will followup on your article links. I thnk that one of my problems with not getting much out of my skimmer is that I run carbon fairly routinely as well. I am moving to a 120g here this month and leaving the carbon out, placing a bag of phosban in the sump stream and increasing my skimmer to a EuroReef 6-2+. Hopefully, it will produce more that the AquaRemora.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Upgrading the skimmer sounds like a good plan. :)

Good luck.