OZONE.........

[WetWhistle]

At one time the corona discharge ozone generator was the most popular. A basic way of describing it is you pass dried, oxygen-containing gas through an electrical field. You will need an air dryer if your Ozone generator doesn't come with one, Ozone resistant air tubing, rechargeable dryer media, controller like an Apex with a ORP probe, or a pin point ORP controller to help control the amount released and some form of carbon to remove any Ozone from the water. You can hook it up through your skimmer or run it in its own reactor. Reef octopus makes a Ozone reactor. Keep in mind Ozone is toxic to humans so if to much is released into the air it can effect the health of your family. If you keep your carbon changed and it calibrated you cant cut down on these risks.

I at one time used to run mine 24/7 and like Randy I started having problems with my fish getting sick very easily. I think it had something to do with the environment being to clean so they had a reduced resistance to disease with a short life span. So if I added any new fish even after the new fish being quarantined, all the fish in the tank got sick within a few days. Mind you by now the new units would be more accurate and easy to control so I would think you would have a lower chance of that happening nowadays. If you have a really heavy bio load Ozone is a good way to keep things clean. I myself don't run it anymore because I found other less dangerous ways of keeping my tank clean. But Ozone does work very well.

 

[reefkeeper2]

I'm very pleased with the results I see in my tank and happy with the ease of the new setup. I swap out the carbon pad every 3 weeks and it takes no time at all. The tank water is very very clear. I don't think you need a lot of ozone or have to run it all the time to get the effect you want. Actually, I would advise against it. It's just not necessary. Just a few hours a day appears to be enough (even without an air dryer, I don't use one) to clear the water completely. I don't care about the ORP levels at all. The apex monitors it just so there isn't an overdose but I don't think that is possible with the system size I have (about 500gal ) and an ozonizer that puts out 200mg/hr. If anyone asked my opinion, I would advise buying a unit smaller than recommended so it could not overdose your tank even if it was stuck on. Forget about the air dryer and ORP values. Use a controller as a failsafe to prevent accidental overdose which could happen with smaller tanks. Then run it just a few hours a day. Use your skimmer or reactor and run the water over a carbon pad or activated carbon whichever you find easiest.

 

[tigé21v]

I thought I read somewhere that pretty much the same benefits of using ozone are seen if you run GAC? Is this true?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I thought I read somewhere that pretty much the same benefits of using ozone are seen if you run GAC? Is this true?

The benefits are similar, but somewhat different.

Ozone can often make the water less yellow, even when already using GAC. The effect can be quite significant, even if you think the water is already pretty clear using GAC.

GAC, OTOH, can help export things like metals bound to organics that bind to the GAC. Whether that is good or bad depends on your situation, but it doesn't happen with ozone.

Ozone also generally does not reduce the organic levels in the water very much. It just makes them not absorb light as well. GAC actually exports them. Again, which is better may depend on the situation.

 

[Newb73]

Tangs are more sensitive. I once used some kind of fluval phosphate removal that immediately gave a hippo tang HLLE. I have looked at ozone off and on over the years and sticking to a 10 to 14 day refresh of GAC in the media reactor appears to be a preferred method of keeping the water clear.

Then again, I currently average around 410 on the ORP readings. When I increase my water changes ill see it get up as high as 440. I know ORP is really only for people running Ozone but I do kind of use it to gauge when to change GAC more and when to increase water changes...it does after all, indicate an increase amount of organics when its on the rise.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Then again, I currently average around 410 on the ORP readings. When I increase my water changes ill see it get up as high as 440. I know ORP is really only for people running Ozone but I do kind of use it to gauge when to change GAC more and when to increase water changes...it does after all, indicate an increase amount of organics when its on the rise.

So you see a rise in ORP when you change the GAC?

 

[Newb73]

So you see a rise in ORP when you change the GAC?

Not at all. It's more like I see a fall in ORP when I go long periods of time and neglect the reactors and water changes, in those circumstances the skimmer could be past due emptying as well. I assumed that all these things lead to increased organics in the water which skew the ORP lower.

Have I misinterpreted?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Not at all. It's more like I see a fall in ORP when I go long periods of time and neglect the reactors and water changes, in those circumstances the skimmer could be past due emptying as well. I assumed that all these things lead to increased organics in the water which skew the ORP lower.

Have I misinterpreted?

That makes sense. I'd just not heard of folks seeing an ORP rise when changing GAC so I was interested.

 

[tigé21v]

That makes sense. I'd just not heard of folks seeing an ORP rise when changing GAC so I was interested.

Now that I have an Apex, (and all the nifty data logging ) and hooked my existing ORP probe to the unit, I noticed an increase in ORP when I changed my GAC (lignite). Nothing too dramatic, a rise of about 10-20, but a rise nonetheless. Lasted for about 72 hours. I wonder if the slow fall back to previous levels means the GAC is exhausted?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Now that I have an Apex, (and all the nifty data logging ) and hooked my existing ORP probe to the unit, I noticed an increase in ORP when I changed my GAC (lignite). Nothing too dramatic, a rise of about 10-20, but a rise nonetheless. Lasted for about 72 hours. I wonder if the slow fall back to previous levels means the GAC is exhausted?

Interesting.

I'd guess that the levels bounce around too much to see when you drop back 10 mV, but let us know what you find.

 

[007Bond]

Yes interesting,...I need to get a apex

 

[Newb73]

The salt brand is a variable also.

When using RC I would get a 20 to 30 point drop with return to baseline in a few hours.

Yesterday I user HW marine and it dropped by 70.

It's 28 hours later and it's only recovered about 25 points towards basline.

We are talking about 8g of water changed in a 250g total volume system.

The only other variable was that I change the gac last night and it probably got .75 gal of extra RO water via the reactor.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

FWIW, salt mixes probably drop ORP during water changes due to the mix of reduced vs oxidized trace metals in them. Things like ferrous vs ferric iron and the various oxidation states of manganese, both of which are thought to be important determinants of the redox properties of seawater. Since the reduced forms, such as ferrous iron or Mn++, are often more soluble than the oxidized forms (ferric iron and MnO2), that may be how they are added to salt mixes and be why ORP drops when changing water.

 

[Newb73]

HW marine has added trace elements/minerals per their marketing so this makes sense.

 

[tigé21v]

I tried to get a screenshot of the ORP graph.
The GAC was changed on the evening of the24th. The ORP readings prior to the change looked pretty much as they do from the 30th of Oct. onward. the 25-27 look very similar, except each of the three days was a bit weaker than the day prior (the 25th was a bit "stronger" than the 26th, and the 26th was a bit "stronger" than the 27th.)
The trend seems to continue with the 28th and 29th, though more markedly declining, and by the 30th back to what was "normal" readings prior to the GAC change. I don't know if it means anything or not- it probably doesn't. But it is interesting to see (at least for me.)
(Sorry I can't get the days before the GAC change in this screenshot- still trying to learn the ways of the Apex).

 

[Beuchat Verified Sponsor]

Hi, I would like to recover this threat because I am interested about the ozone capacity to destroy bacteria present in the tablas water. In Randy,s articles it is explained that, at the doses we usually use the ozone in our reef tanks three is no efect of bacteria reduction but I hace experienced in two differents tanks a complete destruction of two plagues of ostreopsis and prorocentrum lima after using oZone for 4 days at ORP around 450 mv. I checked with the microscope some samples of the sand before and after ozone administración and the dinofagellates were completly killed. So this makes me reconsider the statement than ozone does not reduce the bacteria count in the aqurium water. Any ideas or experiences?

 

[Newb73]

Hi, I would like to recover this threat because I am interested about the ozone capacity to destroy bacteria present in the tablas water. In Randy,s articles it is explained that, at the doses we usually use the ozone in our reef tanks three is no efect of bacteria reduction but I hace experienced in two differents tanks a complete destruction of two plagues of ostreopsis and prorocentrum lima after using oZone for 4 days at ORP around 450 mv. I checked with the microscope some samples of the sand before and after ozone administración and the dinofagellates were completly killed. So this makes me reconsider the statement than ozone does not reduce the bacteria count in the aqurium water. Any ideas or experiences?

Would love to see if this can be replicated.

I run 350 to 360 on my ORP probe. (My tank has matured and doesn't register as clean as it used to be).

I also have observed skin problems on my 90g on a bicolar angel with ozone and have found that i can only run max 2 hours per day on that tank but have seen no such issues in my 250.

I can however say that when a newly added achilles tang got ich (99.9% a death sentence), i simply turned my posidon ozone generator to 10 and kept the ozone reactor going 24/7. I had zero dz a week later. That was months ago. Havent seen any fish dz since and had zero fatalities.

Since the achilles tang is thought to be highly susceptible to fish dz and virtually untreatable in a display aquaria...i have to figure the ozone played a role.

True, we are talking about a large volume reactor with close to 200 gallons per hour being hit with the maximum amount of ozone the generator can produce and under 7 or 8 psi of pressure but still...

I wish we had more data on this from people with large reactors and ozone generators.

Lately i only run the ozone about 8 hours per day at a setting of 7, and i dont run it at all when im out of town which is about 8 or 9 days a month.

 

[Dogtown]

It would seem like a good idea to exhaust the air from an ozone reactor outside of ones home. In fact I seem to recall that one of RandyFs articles mentioned the practice. Can anyone comment on if there is a drawback to doing that?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I did it and I can't think of any drawback.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Hi, I would like to recover this threat because I am interested about the ozone capacity to destroy bacteria present in the tablas water. In Randy,s articles it is explained that, at the doses we usually use the ozone in our reef tanks three is no efect of bacteria reduction but I hace experienced in two differents tanks a complete destruction of two plagues of ostreopsis and prorocentrum lima after using oZone for 4 days at ORP around 450 mv. I checked with the microscope some samples of the sand before and after ozone administración and the dinofagellates were completly killed. So this makes me reconsider the statement than ozone does not reduce the bacteria count in the aqurium water. Any ideas or experiences?

FWIW, those aren't bacteria, but dinos have been treated by adding oxidizers such as bleach and hydrogen peroxide to the water, and the effect you observe may be similar if you are adding enough.

It could also be the you reduced organics or other nutrients that the dinos consumed by using ozone. I'm not actually sure how oxidizers get rid of dinos.