Ozone. Why don't we use it anymore?

[Paul B]

They may not be, but I never found any other solution till I made that change.

Randy I know about the carbon theory but I have a different theory. Only captive fish get HLLE, it is not found in the sea and tangs are most vulnerable. I believe that is because tangs are schooling fish and have a more well developed lateral line system which allows them to "feel" or sense any solid object around them. That allows them to swim inches from another fish in the school without hitting them. In the sea, they don't sense anything unless it is the bottom a rock or another fish.
If they are swimming in a school, like they always are, they sense the fish next to them and turn with them.

But in a tank, they always sense the glass and bottom. Then can not get away from either of them and their lateral line is constantly bombarded with very close signals that they can't get away from.
They also can't see the glass from inside just like we don't see the glass from outside. Their senses are overloaded causing the lateral line to disintegrate which always starts on the head where the line connects to the brain and it continues to the tail. It only invaded other parts when there is no lateral line left.

Pelagic Sharks which have a different system are even more sense conscious than real bony fish and can't be kept in square sided tanks at all and must be in a round tank so the signals are scattered.

Anyway, that is my theory.

 

[Want2BS8ed]

Limited use of ozone in a closed system seems an odd concept to me. Ozone seems like an all or nothing endeavor. Either you sterilize all the water or you don't sterilize all the water. There is no real middle ground.

Yes and no. Much like a UV sterilizer, only what comes into contact with Ozone will react with it. Flow through a skimmer or reactor and the amount of ozone injected can all be limiting factors...

M

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Yes and no. Much like a UV sterilizer, only what comes into contact with Ozone will react with it. Flow through a skimmer or reactor and the amount of ozone injected can all be limiting factors...

M

Almost no hobby reefer uses enough ozone to sterilize the water contacting it. That takes time and pressures not attained without a special reactor. But de-yellowing water is easy.

 

[Newb73]

I have used it continually from about 1980 or so till today and I still use it. I forgot about it as I never do anything to it, there is no maintenance, no trouble, no rusting, no controlling, no mitigating risks, no complicated mysteries, no wife feeling nauseous, No air drier, no carbon, no controller, no costly components, and cheaper than a few test kits, which I also don't have.
The people with all those problems and concerns don't use it correctly.

If it was that bad, me and my family would have croaked and my reef would not be 46 years old with no problems at all. I have so few problems that I can't even make up problems. I run the thing at full power 24/7. But you have to know how to do it or you will disintegrate pictures of your Mother N Law.

This.

I have been using it for a while now and its one if the lowest maintenance things, along with my nitrate reactor...on my entire system.

Right now a single generator is serving two tanks as i find i dont need it on 24/7 on both tanks though.

Its pretty easy to move that air hose from one systems skimmer to the next and back again.

 

[Newb73]

IMO, the benefit is less yellow water. I don’t think most hobbyists use it in a way to get any other significant benefits. FWIW, the ozone reacts with colored compounds to reduce yellowing without actually removing the organic from the water.

I used it for years, but had some HLLE-like issues that went away when I stopped it and stopped using Marineland Black Diamond GAC and switched to ROX 0.8. The actual cause could have been either or both the GAC and the ozone.

And on this advice, (ive seen skin issues w black diamond plus o3 as well.....especially w Regal tang and bi color angels), i added UV recently so i could run ozone a bit less.

GAC reactor is also off line in my main display now.

 

[Newb73]

Almost no hobby reefer uses enough ozone to sterilize the water contacting it. That takes time and pressures not attained without a special reactor. But de-yellowing water is easy.

When i did this with a large geo-reef reactor and a high pressure pump it worked.

It also managed to crystallize the "ozone resistant" o ring on the reactor lid every 3 months no matter how hard i tightened the srews...and eventually the pressure caused all sorts of manner of corrosion and desruction inside the ozone reactor itself.

Perhaps it was user error but i switched to a passive system of air draw to a skimmer intake via UV bulb generation and the water has stayed clear and its been zero maintenance....albeit it isnt sterilizing any thing now either.

 

[Paul B]

I built my 5' skimmer out of all PVC and acrylic. In the 25 or so years it has had Ozone going through it constantly, I have had no problems. But that's why I build things myself. I know what it's made out of.

 

[ryanuy]

Does anyone here use ozone to help remove toxins that the corals release from the aquarium? Im considering using it in my tank for that purpose. I have a tank full of photosynthetic gorgs and some aussie LPS. They are spaced well and are definitely not close to each other but I think the gorgs are releasing some toxins that are affecting the LPS. I have checked all other parameters with ICP and its all fine.

 

[Newb73]

I run o3.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Does anyone here use ozone to help remove toxins that the corals release from the aquarium? Im considering using it in my tank for that purpose. I have a tank full of photosynthetic gorgs and some aussie LPS. They are spaced well and are definitely not close to each other but I think the gorgs are releasing some toxins that are affecting the LPS. I have checked all other parameters with ICP and its all fine.

Does anyone here use ozone to help remove toxins that the corals release from the aquarium? Im considering using it in my tank for that purpose. I have a tank full of photosynthetic gorgs and some aussie LPS. They are spaced well and are definitely not close to each other but I think the gorgs are releasing some toxins that are affecting the LPS. I have checked all other parameters with ICP and its all fine.

From what I understand, it will break most anything down yes, but I’m told that purigen is THE go to for coral toxins.

 

[ryanuy]

From what I understand, it will break most anything down yes, but I’m told that purigen is THE go to for coral toxins.

Hi Salty!

Have you tried purigen on your tank for coral toxins? Will give both a shot!

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

I’ve been wanting to implement ozone for a while now but can’t figure out a good method of delivery. The only purpose built reactor I can find for sale is Geo, and its a little more than I’m wanting to spend. I’m not convinced a skimmer is the most efficient means of reaction, skimmer aren’t easy to pass all air and water effluent over carbon, and I’m not really looking to replace my skimmer at the moment anyway.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Hi Salty!

Have you tried purigen on your tank for coral toxins? Will give both a shot!

My self no. I only have a couple gorgs that secrete much in my 55. I do think I’m having an issue in the 30 with too many acros (weird right?) and have been researching. I also recently attended a talk about coral allepothy and toxins, the discussion did include ozone and purigen. Purigen was highly reccomended. I was told “Backin the day”, when most all corals were wild caught , it was a huge problem and purigen at the time was the miracle cure.
Appearantly many corals lose a lot the toxins the further the generation is from the ocean.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I’ve been wanting to implement ozone for a while now but can’t figure out a good method of delivery. The only purpose built reactor I can find for sale is Geo, and its a little more than I’m wanting to spend. I’m not convinced a skimmer is the most efficient means of reaction, skimmer aren’t easy to pass all air and water effluent over carbon, and I’m not really looking to replace my skimmer at the moment anyway.

As I understand it , you need the skimmer in conjunction with ozone , like peroxide , ozone blasts apart the origanics and you need the skimmer (and mech filters), to remove them. Otherwise it all stays in the tank

 

[Chuk]

I chose against it due to the potential hazards of it going wrong. The fact it could cause respiratory issues in my family if the generator fails isn’t worth it to me.

 

[rkpetersen]

I use ozone. It keeps the water clean, pale blue, and smelling fresh. Livestock also seem to like it, if one can determine that to any real degree. I have the Ozotech generator from BRS, set to nominal output of 80 mg/hr, controlled by Apex and calibrated ORP probe. Air pumped in through a silica air dryer, O3 resistant tubing after the ozonizer, feeds into its own port on my skimmer silencer. There's a bag of carbon hanging directly in the path of skimmer water outflow, and a large carbon-filled cap sitting on top of the skimmer to filter its effluent air. At first when this tank was new, I ozonized aggressively, but with time the amount of ozone needed to maintain an ORP of just under 400 has dropped to around 2 hrs total per day, and I no longer directly couple O3 generation to ORP level, but am using a timer now instead.

Ozone makes some people nervous due to potential human toxicity, but there are a few things to mitigate that concern. First, O3 tends to stay where it forms and decays quickly. Second, it has the odd feature that it degrades even faster when it has to pass through narrow openings. Meaning, closed cabinet doors are exceptionally good at killing it. Third, meters are available that will constantly read the ambient O3 level; sort of like the CO (carbon monoxide) meter you may already have. 6' away from my aquarium, mine has never read more than the first green bar. Although if you put it in the sump while the ozone is on, remove the skimmer carbon cap, and close the cabinet door, it reaches maximum red within minutes.

 

[Want2BS8ed]

I have always been a proponent of Ozone and regretted giving it up when moving to the Triton method. Based on this thread, I reimplemented it, but hit the easy button and elected to inject through my skimmer.

MRC Orca Pro uses a 3/8" input. Was able to pick-up 3/8" x 1/4" Kynar Tee and 1/4" Kynar Stem to Barb from freshwatersystems.com. Inserted just before the Venturi, there was still enough draw to pull air through a BRS jumbo dryer and Ozotech Poseidon on its lowest setting without an air pump.

Because Ozone is being drawn through the Tee, the main 3/8" line is still connected to a jumbo BRS CO2 scrubber.

pH stays rock steady between my set points of 8.25 to 8.2 on the Apex, and ORP hovers right at the cutoff point of 450mV.

This was all part of a replumb suggested in a thread by d2mini. The intake of the CO2 scrubber was moved to the top of the skimmer's collection cup to draw moist air. Between that and a bypass valve suggested by BRS in one of their videos, I'm several weeks into the change and have yet to see even a hint of color change in the soda lime media.

Next step is to figure out how to extend the life of the silicate dryer media. I tried a Neptune 1/4" valve to shutoff flow unless the ozone generator was on, but the valve proved to be to restrictive. Still on the hunt for an inexpensive, 24v actuated, 1/4" ball valve.

In the end it really is amazing how much clearer the water is when using Ozone.

M

EDIT: forgot to mention, I'm not using carbon either.

 

[Paul B]

Ozone is not going to hurt anyone. I don't know where that came from. It won't fill your house with gas, won't cause respiratory failure, mononucleosis, Heart attack, the heartbreak of psorisis or anything else. Maybe if you put the tube up your nose but then if you are that worried , maybe you should collect stamps or those tags that say "Do not remove under penalty of the law".
You will smell it right away and if the generator fails, it stops producing Ozone, it won't mistakenly generate radioactive waste, plutonium 235, radon or chicken soup. I pull the hose off all the time when I am cleaning my skimmer cup. It clears my nose and cures acne. Not that I have any of that. an aquarium ozonator won't even kill an ich parasite but it may upset their stomach. I think too many people are too worried about too many silly things.
Instead worry about fashion trends, will handlebar mustaches come back in style, what about culottes, or DA hair styles.

 

[Scrubber_steve]

The GBR Aquarium at Townville uses ozone on their coral reef exhibit. Its about 3 million litres.
They use ozone to clear the water for the viewers, but are careful not to remove too much out of the water for the benifit of the corals.

One issue with using ozone, apparently is chlorine increase -

"Chlorine is measured via a DPD test, and is used as an approximate indication of all residual oxidants in the tank.
Typical residual chlorine is around 0.03 mg.L-1, however it can increase if the ozone input into the protein skimmers increases.
As a guideline, ozone input is reduced if chlorine levels increase to 0.06 mg.L-1 or greater."

 

[becks]

I’ve used low dosage of oZone around 25mg/he 24/7 never smelt anything nor do I use a controller,