Ozone reactor advice

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kissarmy39

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 24, 2009
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South Orange, NJ
Hey all,

Was thinking about adding this device to my sump when i finally set up my tank and refugium sump, this would not be my main skimming source, just would use it to hook up ozone with and I read on other sites ozone works best with a skimmer and uv loop, this also lets me add carbon easily to the filter catridges to remove free floating carbon. Overall I feel this would have everything i need to use the ozone generator to the best ability.

http://www.discountedpetproducts.ne...LTI-SKIMMER_II_with_UV_STERILIZER-P69636.html

Any thoughts on using this basically as a reactor?
 
Skip the UV if you run O3, it's a waste of money. Skip the carbon as well. Ozone is a great tool to use if you run it correctly. There are a few threads about it if you have some time to search.
 
Hey Canuck,

Long time no talk, how is everything? Hows that eel treatin ya? That thread is a long one, its there an exact page or link on that thread you were thinking I should look at. I'll be honest, most DIY projects are not up my alley, not the most handy guy really. Do you have any experience or information with ozone and/or the hob skim filter with uv light i provided? It's rated for about 200gph so its a bit fast and small for a true effective uv, but any bit helps ,plus that with the carbon, skimmer, and possible ozone add-in I feel it would help with Redox and overall water quality and clarity.

Thanks again.
 
Thanks zoodiver just saw ur post,

I will definitely do some searches on this forum, however, on every other site like reef central everyone says to put carbon at the water outputs and where ozone air escapes. This is to curb free floating ozone in the water and air so you dont harm yourself or any of your tank inhabitants. As for the uv, I also read mixed thoughts on this such that it is like combining RO/DI to make and RODI unit, its not necessary but it just improves breaking down organics and sterlizing the water.
 
With a reef i would put in against both UV and O3, UV doesnt do much in large systems any way, and O3 kills all the micro foods that corals need. 1+ for theCanucks post, scrubber all the way, a cheap and easy DIY. If its not a reef, I would still say against, just less so haha.
 
Kevin,

From my understanding, coral farms and major commercial commercial stores and aquariums use ozone systems. Obviously they have different parameters and needs than an average reef keeping aquarist but as long as you keep the ORP measurements 400 or lower (375 max to be safe) and over 300 the main benefit is a slight increase in sterlization, and a large increase in water clarity and less dissolved organic material which then allows an increase in light reaching your corals.

However, any of these benefits can be supplemented i guess with a fuge, decent lighting, and powerful skimming, but hey if I can increase my orp and offset the possible toxic effects then i'll take any increase I can get.

I havent even ordered my first piece yet and I plan on saving up a boatload for this process so I may change my mind when im actually ordering all the equipment like tanks, stand, LR, LS, mud, skimmer, fuge/sump, pumps, powerheads, uv sterlizer, lighting, heater, timer, testing kits, refractometers, necessary bacterial and vitamin supplements, food, rodi water maker, auto top off / auto fill. THAN i would look into the ozone generator, controller, probe, and the unit mentioned above for a reactor equivalent. and that all is not including macro algae, sand stirrers, clean up crew and deitrius stirrers for sand bed and algae, then copepod/amphipod/brine shrimp mats for breeding in fuge for tank nutrients, and zoo &phyto plankton. Then I get the special inverts and reef safe fish, anemone, corals. Overall looking at a nice chunk of change and a long process of minimum of 8 months.

I also already have 2 fluval 305's (1 with surface skimmer) I am going to throw in the system as well with crushed coral, bio media, and carbon, phosphate/nitrate removers. I am overall looking for a large water volume and flow system with best filtration as possible. Any thoughts? BTW its going to be a 125 bow front reef tank with an ADHI 90 sump refugium set up with an in-sump main skimmer.
 
Oh I understand what they do and how they work its basic chem, I'm just a big fan of creating a "natural" reef not a sterile pristien system that most people insist on having. I'm not trying to start an argument, to each their own, what ever works for you is good and keep doing it. Personaly I think a good algea scrubber and proper biofiltration (as in proper DSB as live rock barely counts when taking surface area into acount) is all a tank needs, no skimmer, no ozone, no UV, no Wet/Dry, no carbon, no GFO, etc, with a bit of knowhow a reef can be set up almost equiptment free (when i say a bit i mean alot of knowhow, as i have done sooo much research on it that it astounds me).

Set up right, a tank with a scrubber will "always" read zero on nitrates and phosphates any one that says otherwise didn't do it right haha, I suppose if there is a day where there is an ammonia spike from a fish dieing or way over feeding then you mite get some readings but even then unless that dead fish stayes in the tank a long time it shouldn't be a problem.

What I strive for is natural nutrient export, via diversity such as algeas, micro inverts like pods, phytoplanctons, worms, true live sand, detravores etc, litteraly a little chunk of reef, yes the water wont be perfectly clear why you ask? because it will be full of things that my corals can feed on without me having to go out and buy them and dose my tank with.

In my opinion the only reasons they use ozone are, one because they are so huge its not cost effective to create a stable biome due to massive stocking etc, so the easiest/cheapest methods for neutrient export are chemical and mechanical vs bio, hence the ozone. Two ozone will keep it perisite free (usualy), and in a commercial application a coral pest will devistate the crop costing up to tens of thousands of dollars in loss.

But again to each their own w/e works for you.
 
Kevin,

No arguments here man, I respect all your sentiments, I am a newb to this hobby and have much to learn ( I have yet to set up a Reef SW tank!), I just know my limitations, I am severely handicapped in terms of being handy so any type of DIY scrubber I immediately feel disabled. Could you explain what type of particles the ozone and uv and skimmer would remove that I would have to supply manually to keep my corals and other filter feeders happy? Don't get me wrong, pristine water is one thing, but if it means i'll have to repeatedly spend money on supplements and excess food than I guess the costs of supplements and food will just increase over time and my set up would not be as pristine as possible.

Would an ozone skimmer and uv before a fuge be absolutely pointless and remove the nutrients that most fuges thrive on? My main initial goal is to have a natural healthy fuge with macro, plank, pods, and mini stars in a dsb with some LR. Is this still possible to UV and Ozone, or would this actually over filter the water before the fuge and leave it with bare bones nutrients and actually starve my fuge algae and organisms?
 
Haha I'm not exactly "old" when it comes to the hobby I only started a few years ago, but I dedicate alot of my time to reading/research on the hobby, so I've learned alot of the things by reading that others took years of tial and error to perfect haha. So don't worry I wont harp on you for being new haha.

SO from my understanding UV wont alter the nutrients in a system in any way (they just kill parasites bacteria and some good stuff as well) so it wont harm marco growth in that sence, therefor will not in general effect pod developent as their main source of food (ie. the macros) will still be growing, BUT on the other hand UVs will likely kill any pods that survive the whole trip through your tank so it likely wont exterminate them but it may or may not keep there populations a little low (assuming you want to get rid of regular live pod dosing to your tank as a food source). So in my books, not the end all obviously, the only place to put a UV is in a quarentine tank to help get rid of any free floating parasits that come with your new fish.

So Ozone that is a bit more complicated. Nessisary? Absolutely not. Benifits? Yes and no. Now I'm not going to claim I know everything about Ozone, because frankly I don't haha, also you have to realize that the effects of it in aquariums are actualy largely unknown, there are a number of things that yes you can directly attribute to Ozone, but at the same time, there are things happening that are still being studied and may or may not be a problem. One thing you should avoid is combining Ozone and UV, as UV can/does produce small amounts of Ozone (little known fact as its usualy tiny ammounts in water but more in air) likely never to be an issue, but you never know.

The Ozone can only last in water for a very short time, so its reactions have to happen quick, but they react with things you dont want them to touch, such as various salts that are in the water (such as Bromide compounds) and when they react they can create toxic compoints, with proper use of activated carbon these should be rendered inert, no garenties though. And it may or may not destroy the nutrients that you want for your macros. But any excess Ozone that makes it through would go straight to your fuge, and could cause some toxisity problems which will likely harm your fuge critters.

Anyway, I really don't want to explain the whole process, haha as there is sooo much going on there, suffice to say, yes ozone will break down large organics, and kill bacteria/viruses, and yes it will likely clear the water up a bit (by distroying colour molecules).

BUT what they don't tell you is that;

A) its unnessisary haha.

B) breaking down large organics doesnt help get them out, infact it makes them harder for your skimmer to remove.

C) it will turn reasonably harmless things like Vit C (which could be used by some good life in your tank) into toxic compounds faster because they are "cut appart" by the ozone which makes it easier for your biofilteration to eat them and produce nitrites, nitrates and the like.

D) ORP isn't as important as they are trying to tell you it is.

Finaly
E) ozone is toxic, end of story, it will kill things like pods, and phyoplanton, which in a reef you want, as your corals suck those things up, and I'm talking all corals, SPS LPS softies sponges you get the picture, contrary to popular believe no coral gets all its needs from light, they all eat.

So with Ozone or/and UV you will have to dose with those things much more often then without.

I'm sure someone will disagree with me, and again to each their own, but in my books Ozone is costly dangerous (to you as well) and completely unessisary.

For a reef, as my friend theCanuck said a scrubber (again my opinion) when set up properly is the best way to go, as it gets rid of many things you don't want like nitrates and phosphates to name a few, also pods thrive in the scrubber, so much so that you should rinse with RO water weekly after scrapping to keep the population from geting to high haha. Which is free food for your corals and any fish that decide to pick at them, I even plan to try to grow macros on my scrubber for use as tang food (I feed almost exclusively live to my as I have a ton of time on my hands to culture them haha). I think you would find setting up a scrubber isn't that difficult eather, and worst case you mess up, its a few dollars to start again, unlike if you break an ozone machine haha.

Sorry for rambling on haha, if you want me to rephrase or clearify anything I wrote, feel free to ask as I wont be surprized. Haha, and again this is all just my opinion based off what I've experienced/read and if someone out there knows more feel free to chip in and tell me I'm wrong because I am sometime haha.
 
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