ASM G-5 and Ozonizer causing watery skimmate

[triggerfish1976]

I recently setup a ASM G-5 and am running ozone through the effluent. I added additional pvc to the riser pipe to be able to run the effluent into a basket of carbon. Ever since I made this mod the skimmate has went from a mice thick sludge to basically colored water.
I have played around with the riser pipe to try and get back to the sludge but the best I can do is the brown colored water. Is this normal given the setup or do I need to remove the PVC mod?

[triggerfish1976]

Correction: I am running ozone through the air intake.

[bljohnson]

This is completely normal for using ozone - you need to switch to "wet skimming" to compensate. You need to keep an eye on SG b/c you will be adding more top off water when you are wet skimming though.

[triggerfish1976]

Explain the process of Wet Skimming.

[bljohnson]

I have a Euroreef which is basically the same as an ASM - you need to either *raise* the tube that controls the water leaving the skimmer or you need to *close* your gate valve a little - depending on what you have. When you do this you should see the water level in the skimmer neck rise a little. Wet skimming will produce more skimmate than dry skimming but it will not be as concentrated - maybe like a watered down coke instead of black coke liquid + sludge. Because you are removing more fluid from the tank you need to watch your salinity because you will be replacing *more* tank water with top off water. Your salinity will basically fall faster over time so you may need to add some *concentrated* pre mixed salt water to bring your salinity back up.

[skylar]

If I understand what you did correctly it is the mod you did - raising the pipe - which raised the water level in your skimmer. This is what is causing the light colored skimate. You now have "wet skimming". When you raise the riser pipe or restrict the flow exiting the skimmer you raise the water level in the skimmer causing more or "wetter" bubbles to overflow into the collection cup. Since these bubbles have not been covered with a lot of proteins and waste in the neck while churning around it comes out clearer and with more water.

Just because you run ozone you do not have to skim wet. That is ridiculous. IMO wet skimming is a waste.

To fix you wet skimming issue get rid of the extra pipe and do a gate valve mod. I like bill and elaines method better than ASM's. It is a 90 elbow off the riser to a gate valve to a Tee. You will need the same sized pieces of PVC pipe as described on the ASMskimmer.com web site. I think it is 1 x 3" 2 x4" and a about one 6" piece all 1.5", but check the web site.

The gate valve mod will cause a loud gurgle sound. To fix this add a cap with two small holes drilled in it to the short pipe on top of the Tee.

have the bottom pipe - from the Tee run into your GAC. Also, You may notice a stronger odor from the skimmate now that you run ozone. ASM's don't have holes in the lid which you could place carbon over to absorbe this odor, but you can rig something up. Just remember carbon will take the odor away if it bothers you.

Hope this helps.

[bljohnson]

Skylar - It is very nice to see that RC is such a *friendly* environment.

Triggerfish1976 - I am giving you first hand experience of ozone use. You may also want to do a search or even read some of Randy Holmes articles on ozone (he has written a few) if you haven't seen them yet. They also refer to skimmate becoming lighter and less skimmate being produced. Here is a direct quote from his frist article on ozone:

"It seems as if the tide of opinion has turned, however, and most aquarists now claim that the amount of skimmate is reduced significantly when using ozone. Many claim that the collection of skimmate has nearly stopped in their aquaria when starting ozone. Why the difference compared to past opinion? That's hard to say, and may depend on the types and qualities of the skimmers available now compared to years ago, as well as changes in other husbandry practices. In any case, the overriding experience of many aquarists today is that skimming is reduced, and the presumed reason is that the organics are being made chemically less skimmable by ozone. The remaining organics would then be removed more by bacterial processes than before the initiation of ozone in the same aquarium."

Here is a link to the article if you are interested:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-03/rhf/index.php#11