Ozone increased skimmer production

[Cory]

So after initiating ozone. My skimmers performance has increased a lot. The skimmate is black when before it was tea colored.

I attribute it to reducing the turbulance in the skimmer because the ozonizer has restricted the air intake from the skimmer. Its a reef octopus int 200. Thought Randy might like to know.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

So after initiating ozone. My skimmers performance has increased a lot. The skimmate is black when before it was tea colored.

I attribute it to reducing the turbulance in the skimmer because the ozonizer has restricted the air intake from the skimmer. Its a reef octopus int 200. Thought Randy might like to know.

It would be interesting to turn off the ozone, keeping the same air to skimmer setup, and see if the skimmate changes again. Then later turn it back on and again look for an effect. This would be a way to distinguish the air flow effects from the actual ozone.

 

[rkpetersen]

My skimmer has two air intakes, one for ambient air and one for ozonized air, so airflow does not change appreciably whether or not the ozone is on. FWIW, less skimmate is generated at any given water level when the ozone is on, compared to when it's off. However, I run the skimmer a bit wet anyway, so it makes little difference overall. Contrary to what I've seen stated elsewhere, ozone does not 'shut down' skimming.

 

[Cory]

It would be interesting to turn off the ozone, keeping the same air to skimmer setup, and see if the skimmate changes again. Then later turn it back on and again look for an effect. This would be a way to distinguish the air flow effects from the actual ozone.

Yes i will try this test soon. Good idea.

 

[Cory]

My skimmer has two air intakes, one for ambient air and one for ozonized air, so airflow does not change appreciably whether or not the ozone is on. FWIW, less skimmate is generated at any given water level when the ozone is on, compared to when it's off. However, I run the skimmer a bit wet anyway, so it makes little difference overall. Contrary to what I've seen stated elsewhere, ozone does not 'shut down' skimming.

Yeah i thought of doing the t thing to not reduce air intake too. Ill keep it this way for now.

Ive also heard skimming stops with ozone. It hasn't for me. How many mg/h do you dose in your tank? Are you carbon dosinf? I dose vinegar.

Mine is rated 50-60mg/h and doesnt bavw an air dryer. I noticed when i run the ozone for 24 hours the star polys close up. But when i turn it off they open up after 3-6 hours. Might be irritated by something ozone makes. The trick is finding the sweet spot.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

FWIW, I didn't notice any particular effect on skimming when I initiated ozone, but also wasn't closely monitoring it.

 

[rkpetersen]

How many mg/h do you dose in your tank? Are you carbon dosinf? I dose vinegar.

Mine is rated 50-60mg/h and doesnt bavw an air dryer. I noticed when i run the ozone for 24 hours the star polys close up. But when i turn it off they open up after 3-6 hours. Might be irritated by something ozone makes. The trick is finding the sweet spot.

My ozonizer is rated for 200 mg/hr max, but the control dial is a simple 1-10 rheostat, and I have no idea if it is linear. I keep it at 4, so that would nominally be 80 mg/hr (for a 100 g tank). I do use an air dryer, the silica gel kind, not the electronic kind. I would prefer electronic, but my setup requires air to be pushed through the line by an air pump, and the electronic air dryers don't work with it. Just as well; the silica gel is foolproof, lasts a good while, and is easy to regenerate over and over. If you don't have an air drier and your ambient humidity is 30% or higher, you're dosing considerably less than the nominal amount of ozone your unit is capable of dispensing. Also, I have read that moisture in air can interact with ozone to produce nitric acid and that this can be corrosive to equipment and tubing.

I don't carbon dose currently, but have used NoPoX previously. No plans to so so again in the immediate future, but I would probably use vinegar were I to do so.

I used to administer ozone based on a somewhat complex algorithm programmed into my Apex. I've found that less and less has been needed, over time, even without other changes to tank maintenance. Now I just run it for 5 minutes at the top of the hour, every hour, day and night, for a total of 2 hours a day. I've never seen any adverse effects, nor have I ever let my ozone run to the point where my ORP got dangerously high. I do keep a bag of GAC hovering right in front of the skimmer outlet, which may neutralize some percentage of the residual ozone, hypobromide, etc. I also have a large homemade carbon filter cap on top of the skimmer cup, to decrease residual ozone in the air coming out of the skimmer into the cabinet above the sump.

Here's another thing about ozone: Keep a close eye on the tubing and especially any black rubber o-rings on plumbing fittings in your sump. Exposure to ozone will cause them to deteriorate prematurely, even with a carbon filter cap on your skimmer. Red silicone o-rings seem to be a bit more resistant.

 

[Cory]

My ozonizer is rated for 200 mg/hr max, but the control dial is a simple 1-10 rheostat, and I have no idea if it is linear. I keep it at 4, so that would nominally be 80 mg/hr (for a 100 g tank). I do use an air dryer, the silica gel kind, not the electronic kind. I would prefer electronic, but my setup requires air to be pushed through the line by an air pump, and the electronic air dryers don't work with it. Just as well; the silica gel is foolproof, lasts a good while, and is easy to regenerate over and over. If you don't have an air drier and your ambient humidity is 30% or higher, you're dosing considerably less than the nominal amount of ozone your unit is capable of dispensing. Also, I have read that moisture in air can interact with ozone to produce nitric acid and that this can be corrosive to equipment and tubing.

I don't carbon dose currently, but have used NoPoX previously. No plans to so so again in the immediate future, but I would probably use vinegar were I to do so.

I used to administer ozone based on a somewhat complex algorithm programmed into my Apex. I've found that less and less has been needed, over time, even without other changes to tank maintenance. Now I just run it for 5 minutes at the top of the hour, every hour, day and night, for a total of 2 hours a day. I've never seen any adverse effects, nor have I ever let my ozone run to the point where my ORP got dangerously high. I do keep a bag of GAC hovering right in front of the skimmer outlet, which may neutralize some percentage of the residual ozone, hypobromide, etc. I also have a large homemade carbon filter cap on top of the skimmer cup, to decrease residual ozone in the air coming out of the skimmer into the cabinet above the sump.

Here's another thing about ozone: Keep a close eye on the tubing and especially any black rubber o-rings on plumbing fittings in your sump. Exposure to ozone will cause them to deteriorate prematurely, even with a carbon filter cap on your skimmer. Red silicone o-rings seem to be a bit more resistant.

What kind of algorithm? Sounds interesting. Ive got silicone tubing wich ive heard is ozone resistant. My main concern is actually the skimmer pump impeller getting degraded. Ever heard of this?

Yeah right now im just using it at night for like 6 hours. I aslo use rox .8.

Why did you stop nopox?

 

[rkpetersen]

What kind of algorithm? Sounds interesting. Ive got silicone tubing wich ive heard is ozone resistant. My main concern is actually the skimmer pump impeller getting degraded. Ever heard of this?

Yeah right now im just using it at night for like 6 hours. I aslo use rox .8.

Why did you stop nopox?

In addition to cyclic activation like I current have it set, I used to have the ozonizer activate when the ORP fell below a certain level, although with a 2-hour lockout immediately after a water change which would depress ORP acutely and didn't warrant generating a big bolus of ozone to bring it back up. I still have a manual 'OzoneBurst' switch set up which will generate O3 for 15 minutes and then shut off. And some other tweaks which I now feel are no longer needed.

Silicone tubing is fairly ozone resistant. I use this stuff from brs. It contains no plasticizer so it doesn't harden or crack, but I know it's time to replace it when it starts to turn yellow. Not surprisingly, the section of tubing immediately after the ozonizer output is usually the earliest to degrade.

I used NoPoX briefly shortly after I set up my current tank to bring the initial nitrate levels (after cycling) down. It worked very well. However I have heard too many horror stories of tank crashes associated with use of this product to trust it now that I have many thousands of dollars of livestock. All reports suggest that vinegar is safe and effective, so if I ever need nitrate control that water changes and a refugium can't handle, I'll go that route.