Skimmers with Ozone
- Thread starter piercy
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scsinet
Active Member
What most people don't realize is that oxygen in and of itself, in it's elemental form, cannot sustain life.
"Oxygen" as we commonly know it is two oxygen atoms bonded together, O2.
"Ozone" is just 3 oxygen atoms bonded together, O3.
All OXygen is an OXidizer. O3 is just 50% better at it than O2 (to put it simply). It's highly toxic so it is great at sterilizing aquarium water.
The reason it doesn't kill your fish is because it's applied outside the aquarium, usually in a skimmer in a sump. O3 is highly unstable and breaks down or leaves aquarium water readily, so by the time you get a few inches from the output of the skimmers, 99% of it has already done it's job and dissappeared.
As said above, O3 is not stable. Oxygen atoms don't like being stuck 3 together, so the bond that is created when ozone is generated falls apart rapidly. Therefore, ozone cannot be bottled or stored, it must be generated as needed by an Ozonizer, which comes in two flavors... UV lamp and High Voltage. The difference is that one sucks and the other doesn't. (UV method sucks).
You just hook it up to the air intake to your skimmer, set your rate, and you are done. You can control the rate either manually by adjusting the rate for your flow and size tank (which usually means erring on the safe side), or you can use an ORP (Oxygen Redox Potential) controller to turn your ozonizer on and off. This is the preferred method and usually an eventual upgrade for manual users since it lets you push the limits more and go to higher levels because the controller turns it off when things get out of hand.
"Oxygen" as we commonly know it is two oxygen atoms bonded together, O2.
"Ozone" is just 3 oxygen atoms bonded together, O3.
All OXygen is an OXidizer. O3 is just 50% better at it than O2 (to put it simply). It's highly toxic so it is great at sterilizing aquarium water.
The reason it doesn't kill your fish is because it's applied outside the aquarium, usually in a skimmer in a sump. O3 is highly unstable and breaks down or leaves aquarium water readily, so by the time you get a few inches from the output of the skimmers, 99% of it has already done it's job and dissappeared.
As said above, O3 is not stable. Oxygen atoms don't like being stuck 3 together, so the bond that is created when ozone is generated falls apart rapidly. Therefore, ozone cannot be bottled or stored, it must be generated as needed by an Ozonizer, which comes in two flavors... UV lamp and High Voltage. The difference is that one sucks and the other doesn't. (UV method sucks).
You just hook it up to the air intake to your skimmer, set your rate, and you are done. You can control the rate either manually by adjusting the rate for your flow and size tank (which usually means erring on the safe side), or you can use an ORP (Oxygen Redox Potential) controller to turn your ozonizer on and off. This is the preferred method and usually an eventual upgrade for manual users since it lets you push the limits more and go to higher levels because the controller turns it off when things get out of hand.
acrylic51
Active Member
Originally Posted by SCSInet
What most people don't realize is that oxygen in and of itself, in it's elemental form, cannot sustain life.
"Oxygen" as we commonly know it is two oxygen atoms bonded together, O2.
"Ozone" is just 3 oxygen atoms bonded together, O3.
All OXygen is an OXidizer. O3 is just 50% better at it than O2 (to put it simply). It's highly toxic so it is great at sterilizing aquarium water.
The reason it doesn't kill your fish is because it's applied outside the aquarium, usually in a skimmer in a sump. O3 is highly unstable and breaks down or leaves aquarium water readily, so by the time you get a few inches from the output of the skimmers, 99% of it has already done it's job and dissappeared.
As said above, O3 is not stable. Oxygen atoms don't like being stuck 3 together, so the bond that is created when ozone is generated falls apart rapidly. Therefore, ozone cannot be bottled or stored, it must be generated as needed by an Ozonizer, which comes in two flavors... UV lamp and High Voltage. The difference is that one sucks and the other doesn't. (UV method sucks).
You just hook it up to the air intake to your skimmer, set your rate, and you are done. You can control the rate either manually by adjusting the rate for your flow and size tank (which usually means erring on the safe side), or you can use an ORP (Oxygen Redox Potential) controller to turn your ozonizer on and off. This is the preferred method and usually an eventual upgrade for manual users since it lets you push the limits more and go to higher levels because the controller turns it off when things get out of hand.
What most people don't realize is that oxygen in and of itself, in it's elemental form, cannot sustain life.
"Oxygen" as we commonly know it is two oxygen atoms bonded together, O2.
"Ozone" is just 3 oxygen atoms bonded together, O3.
All OXygen is an OXidizer. O3 is just 50% better at it than O2 (to put it simply). It's highly toxic so it is great at sterilizing aquarium water.
The reason it doesn't kill your fish is because it's applied outside the aquarium, usually in a skimmer in a sump. O3 is highly unstable and breaks down or leaves aquarium water readily, so by the time you get a few inches from the output of the skimmers, 99% of it has already done it's job and dissappeared.
As said above, O3 is not stable. Oxygen atoms don't like being stuck 3 together, so the bond that is created when ozone is generated falls apart rapidly. Therefore, ozone cannot be bottled or stored, it must be generated as needed by an Ozonizer, which comes in two flavors... UV lamp and High Voltage. The difference is that one sucks and the other doesn't. (UV method sucks).
You just hook it up to the air intake to your skimmer, set your rate, and you are done. You can control the rate either manually by adjusting the rate for your flow and size tank (which usually means erring on the safe side), or you can use an ORP (Oxygen Redox Potential) controller to turn your ozonizer on and off. This is the preferred method and usually an eventual upgrade for manual users since it lets you push the limits more and go to higher levels because the controller turns it off when things get out of hand.
X
xoxox
Guest
My personal experience has been to use a seperate reactor for dosing. Since ozone effects the skimmers performance its better to use something else to introduce it to the water. It still effects the skimate but not directly to the skimmer, not to mention its easier to use carbon to control the output flow and any excaping air. A skimmer that does not control exiting air well will become a chimney for the O3.
fishman122
Member
important to note that ozone does make plastics brittle over time, so make sure skimmer is ozone resistant, use with ozone resistant tubing
joshd123
Member
Originally Posted by SCSInet
What most people don't realize is that oxygen in and of itself, in it's elemental form, cannot sustain life.
"Oxygen" as we commonly know it is two oxygen atoms bonded together, O2.
"Ozone" is just 3 oxygen atoms bonded together, O3.
All OXygen is an OXidizer. O3 is just 50% better at it than O2 (to put it simply). It's highly toxic so it is great at sterilizing aquarium water.
The reason it doesn't kill your fish is because it's applied outside the aquarium, usually in a skimmer in a sump. O3 is highly unstable and breaks down or leaves aquarium water readily, so by the time you get a few inches from the output of the skimmers, 99% of it has already done it's job and dissappeared.
As said above, O3 is not stable. Oxygen atoms don't like being stuck 3 together, so the bond that is created when ozone is generated falls apart rapidly. Therefore, ozone cannot be bottled or stored, it must be generated as needed by an Ozonizer, which comes in two flavors... UV lamp and High Voltage. The difference is that one sucks and the other doesn't. (UV method sucks).
You just hook it up to the air intake to your skimmer, set your rate, and you are done. You can control the rate either manually by adjusting the rate for your flow and size tank (which usually means erring on the safe side), or you can use an ORP (Oxygen Redox Potential) controller to turn your ozonizer on and off. This is the preferred method and usually an eventual upgrade for manual users since it lets you push the limits more and go to higher levels because the controller turns it off when things get out of hand.
Thank you very much!! I had no idea what any of that stuff was for. You have answered alot of questions but, I now have more. How does make the skimmer work better? More O2 in the water? More wast out?
What most people don't realize is that oxygen in and of itself, in it's elemental form, cannot sustain life.
"Oxygen" as we commonly know it is two oxygen atoms bonded together, O2.
"Ozone" is just 3 oxygen atoms bonded together, O3.
All OXygen is an OXidizer. O3 is just 50% better at it than O2 (to put it simply). It's highly toxic so it is great at sterilizing aquarium water.
The reason it doesn't kill your fish is because it's applied outside the aquarium, usually in a skimmer in a sump. O3 is highly unstable and breaks down or leaves aquarium water readily, so by the time you get a few inches from the output of the skimmers, 99% of it has already done it's job and dissappeared.
As said above, O3 is not stable. Oxygen atoms don't like being stuck 3 together, so the bond that is created when ozone is generated falls apart rapidly. Therefore, ozone cannot be bottled or stored, it must be generated as needed by an Ozonizer, which comes in two flavors... UV lamp and High Voltage. The difference is that one sucks and the other doesn't. (UV method sucks).
You just hook it up to the air intake to your skimmer, set your rate, and you are done. You can control the rate either manually by adjusting the rate for your flow and size tank (which usually means erring on the safe side), or you can use an ORP (Oxygen Redox Potential) controller to turn your ozonizer on and off. This is the preferred method and usually an eventual upgrade for manual users since it lets you push the limits more and go to higher levels because the controller turns it off when things get out of hand.
Thank you very much!! I had no idea what any of that stuff was for. You have answered alot of questions but, I now have more. How does make the skimmer work better? More O2 in the water? More wast out?
scsinet
Active Member
Originally Posted by Joshd123
Thank you very much!! I had no idea what any of that stuff was for. You have answered alot of questions but, I now have more. How does make the skimmer work better? More O2 in the water? More wast out?
It's got something to do with the way that ozone rich water tends to separate out (foam fractionate) better.
Whatever it does, once you see the difference between tanks that run them and tanks that don't, it'll be obvious. If you think your water is clear now, wait till you add ozone (properly).
Thank you very much!! I had no idea what any of that stuff was for. You have answered alot of questions but, I now have more. How does make the skimmer work better? More O2 in the water? More wast out?
It's got something to do with the way that ozone rich water tends to separate out (foam fractionate) better.
Whatever it does, once you see the difference between tanks that run them and tanks that don't, it'll be obvious. If you think your water is clear now, wait till you add ozone (properly).