what is ozone equipment?
- Thread starter mpdan
- Start date
wangotango
Active Member
An ozonizer adds ozone (o3) to the water to kill bacteria and stuff. Most people inject it into their skimmers.
Is it needed? No, and you can actually kill stuff if the levels get too high.
-Justin
Is it needed? No, and you can actually kill stuff if the levels get too high.
-Justin
scsinet
Active Member
I use ozone.
They can make a big difference with water clarity. The water on my tank is so clear that you can look through it the long way (6' of water) and think there is no water in the tank... just hovering fish...
The disadvantage is that you need to be careful with it, just like Wango said. Ozone is toxic, and overdoing it can wipe the whole system out. Plus, your skimmer has to be rated to handle ozone because it breaks down the plastics that many skimmers are made with.
To mitigate the risk of using ozone, it must be applied sparingly (I mix ozone with ambient air before injecting it), and an ORP controller to cut it off if things get too crazy is a must. Your filtration design is important too. Ozone is very unstable and breaks down quickly, so by designing your filtration properly, you can ensure that ozone does it's job but is almost always completely broken down before it gets back to the main tank. If you plan all these steps right, it can be used effectively and safely.
They can make a big difference with water clarity. The water on my tank is so clear that you can look through it the long way (6' of water) and think there is no water in the tank... just hovering fish...
The disadvantage is that you need to be careful with it, just like Wango said. Ozone is toxic, and overdoing it can wipe the whole system out. Plus, your skimmer has to be rated to handle ozone because it breaks down the plastics that many skimmers are made with.
To mitigate the risk of using ozone, it must be applied sparingly (I mix ozone with ambient air before injecting it), and an ORP controller to cut it off if things get too crazy is a must. Your filtration design is important too. Ozone is very unstable and breaks down quickly, so by designing your filtration properly, you can ensure that ozone does it's job but is almost always completely broken down before it gets back to the main tank. If you plan all these steps right, it can be used effectively and safely.
scsinet
Active Member
Originally Posted by mkzimms
http:///forum/post/2925372
i remember a article a few months back where an aquarium's orp controller went on the fritz over night and killed a whole tank of their sharks.
Yep. There are many stories about this type of thing happening. The difference is in how the ozone system is set up. IMO more ozone setups are designed wrong than right.
Lots of folks crank their ozone rate to the max then depend on the ORP controller to turn it off and on. If the system is set up to allow a huge injection of ozone and depends on the ORP controller to keep things in check, then you are asking for trouble.
However, if it's set up so that the ozone is injected in much lower concentrations and is allowed to break down before it returns to the main tank, then an ORP failure consitututes a failure of just one of the safegards that are in place.
In the end, ozone is one of many pieces of equipment that can fail and kill your fish. It would be no different in a heater stuck on or a pump failed in a system not designed with proper safeguards and/or redundancy.
http:///forum/post/2925372
i remember a article a few months back where an aquarium's orp controller went on the fritz over night and killed a whole tank of their sharks.
Yep. There are many stories about this type of thing happening. The difference is in how the ozone system is set up. IMO more ozone setups are designed wrong than right.
Lots of folks crank their ozone rate to the max then depend on the ORP controller to turn it off and on. If the system is set up to allow a huge injection of ozone and depends on the ORP controller to keep things in check, then you are asking for trouble.
However, if it's set up so that the ozone is injected in much lower concentrations and is allowed to break down before it returns to the main tank, then an ORP failure consitututes a failure of just one of the safegards that are in place.
In the end, ozone is one of many pieces of equipment that can fail and kill your fish. It would be no different in a heater stuck on or a pump failed in a system not designed with proper safeguards and/or redundancy.
egill
Member
Originally Posted by mkzimms
http:///forum/post/2925372
i remember a article a few months back where an aquarium's orp controller went on the fritz over night and killed a whole tank of their sharks.
Also just happened at the Indy zoo couple days ago.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28756763/
http:///forum/post/2925372
i remember a article a few months back where an aquarium's orp controller went on the fritz over night and killed a whole tank of their sharks.
Also just happened at the Indy zoo couple days ago.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28756763/
mkzimms
Member
Originally Posted by SCSInet
http:///forum/post/2925377
Yep. There are many stories about this type of thing happening. The difference is in how the ozone system is set up. IMO more ozone setups are designed wrong than right.
Lots of folks crank their ozone rate to the max then depend on the ORP controller to turn it off and on. If the system is set up to allow a huge injection of ozone and depends on the ORP controller to keep things in check, then you are asking for trouble.
However, if it's set up so that the ozone is injected in much lower concentrations and is allowed to break down before it returns to the main tank, then an ORP failure consitututes a failure of just one of the safegards that are in place.
In the end, ozone is one of many pieces of equipment that can fail and kill your fish. It would be no different in a heater stuck on or a pump failed in a system not designed with proper safeguards and/or redundancy.
what are some of the ways you can assure a breakdown of ozone through your setup?
http:///forum/post/2925377
Yep. There are many stories about this type of thing happening. The difference is in how the ozone system is set up. IMO more ozone setups are designed wrong than right.
Lots of folks crank their ozone rate to the max then depend on the ORP controller to turn it off and on. If the system is set up to allow a huge injection of ozone and depends on the ORP controller to keep things in check, then you are asking for trouble.
However, if it's set up so that the ozone is injected in much lower concentrations and is allowed to break down before it returns to the main tank, then an ORP failure consitututes a failure of just one of the safegards that are in place.
In the end, ozone is one of many pieces of equipment that can fail and kill your fish. It would be no different in a heater stuck on or a pump failed in a system not designed with proper safeguards and/or redundancy.
what are some of the ways you can assure a breakdown of ozone through your setup?
scsinet
Active Member
Originally Posted by tvoydan
http:///forum/post/2926153
I thought you had to run carbon to break down the ozone before it heads into the main tank?
Couldn't you just keep injecting it in small amounts or only run the ozone generator part-time with say the lights on/off timer?
Carbon may help, but ozone breaks down just fine on it's own.
I don't know why you'd want to use a timer. Most ozone generators allow you to adjust the amount of ozone they produce. You simply dial it back so things stay in check. The only way to properly do it is with something that reads ORP. Otherwise, you'd never know how much ozone you need.
http:///forum/post/2926153
I thought you had to run carbon to break down the ozone before it heads into the main tank?
Couldn't you just keep injecting it in small amounts or only run the ozone generator part-time with say the lights on/off timer?
Carbon may help, but ozone breaks down just fine on it's own.
I don't know why you'd want to use a timer. Most ozone generators allow you to adjust the amount of ozone they produce. You simply dial it back so things stay in check. The only way to properly do it is with something that reads ORP. Otherwise, you'd never know how much ozone you need.
scsinet
Active Member
Originally Posted by mkzimms
http:///forum/post/2926083
what are some of the ways you can assure a breakdown of ozone through your setup?
Sorry I missed your post earlier.
Ozone is an allotrope of oxygen. It's basically 3 oxygen atoms bonded together. In short, ozone is o3 rather than the usual o2. The atomic bond that forms ozone is very weak, and basically falls apart on it's own. When it does, you are left with regular oxygen or o2, which is obviously perfectly healthy to your livestock.
Ozone cannot persist in the environment for long. This why ozone must be generated at the point of use. It cannot be bottled or stored, it would break down by the time it was used.
All you have to do is increase the amount of time that passes before the water that has had ozone added to it reaches the DT. If you inject into your skimmer, if the skimmer dumps back into a sump before returning to the DT, it is entirely unlikely that much if any ozone will remain in the water by the time it gets to the DT. Agitation of water, such as what return pumps and inflows provide, will speed the breakdown. However, an HOB skimmer with ozone injection being performed is a different story, that would be a much riskier setup because the water is in the DT almost immediately after going through the skimmer.
Some ozone getting back to the DT is not going to hurt anything. You don't have to be assured of it being completely broken down, you just need to minimize it. Ozone is like Co2. Certain amounts have no health consequences, but high enough levels are toxic.
Again, it comes down to proper application. If you go crazy and introduce hoards of ozone, it may not all break down in time. If you introduce a proper dosage, you'll be fine. An ORP meter or controller is the only way to know if you are doing too little, too much, or not enough.
http:///forum/post/2926083
what are some of the ways you can assure a breakdown of ozone through your setup?
Sorry I missed your post earlier.
Ozone is an allotrope of oxygen. It's basically 3 oxygen atoms bonded together. In short, ozone is o3 rather than the usual o2. The atomic bond that forms ozone is very weak, and basically falls apart on it's own. When it does, you are left with regular oxygen or o2, which is obviously perfectly healthy to your livestock.
Ozone cannot persist in the environment for long. This why ozone must be generated at the point of use. It cannot be bottled or stored, it would break down by the time it was used.
All you have to do is increase the amount of time that passes before the water that has had ozone added to it reaches the DT. If you inject into your skimmer, if the skimmer dumps back into a sump before returning to the DT, it is entirely unlikely that much if any ozone will remain in the water by the time it gets to the DT. Agitation of water, such as what return pumps and inflows provide, will speed the breakdown. However, an HOB skimmer with ozone injection being performed is a different story, that would be a much riskier setup because the water is in the DT almost immediately after going through the skimmer.
Some ozone getting back to the DT is not going to hurt anything. You don't have to be assured of it being completely broken down, you just need to minimize it. Ozone is like Co2. Certain amounts have no health consequences, but high enough levels are toxic.
Again, it comes down to proper application. If you go crazy and introduce hoards of ozone, it may not all break down in time. If you introduce a proper dosage, you'll be fine. An ORP meter or controller is the only way to know if you are doing too little, too much, or not enough.