Ozone in tank? Ozonizers? Your thought!
 

Hello, I want to get an ozonizer for my tank, I dont know if its worth the time, effort and money in researching in extreme depth and getting one. It would be really helpful if fellow canreefers whom had experience or knowledge about ozone to come forth and enlighten me :) I know that it does make water clearer and destorys pathogens, however at the same time if used recklessly can destroy tanks and lessen skimmate amounts?. How about some opinions?

Thank you
Stanley,

Tagging along..I'm curious about ozone also.

Yes definitely worth it. Can be helpful on startup of new tanks. I run ozone in seasoned tanks and it doesn't hurt anything. My skim is less. LPS and SPS's seem to like it. You must use a controller.

I used ozone for about a year or so in my 90 gallon tank. I bought a 50mg unit which is pretty undersized for my tank (I believe 250 or something is "more appropriate". At the time I wasn't using it to max out the bioload in my tank nor was I using it against disease. I was looking for something that would make the water crystal clear. At approximately 27mg it got the job done. Even at full dose for the unit I couldn't do any damage to my tank. I did have it hooked up to an ozone monitor (which to be honest I never fully understood, it had a low alarm but no high one). My tank hovered around 430 or so for ORP and I had to clean the probe weekly or it would give faulty readings.

Ozone will reduce your skimmate regardless of the amount you use. Ozone breaks down organic particles in the water, increasing clarity, however those organic particles are no longer removed by the skimmer because a good portion of them simply aren't there anymore, they've been oxidized. With the use of ozone, my skimmate was reduced to about 50% of the normal production rate. The clarity of the water was unbelieveable.

Some reading:

Ozone and the Reef Aquarium Part I by Randy Holmes-Farley
Ozone and the Reef Aquarium Part II: Equipment and Safety by Randy Holmes-Farley
Ozone and the Reef Aquarium Part III: Changes in a Reef Aquarium Upon Initiating Ozone by Randy Holmes-Farley

I've been using an ozonizer for about a month with an ORP controller. I have a 135 gallon reef with a 70 gallon sump. I am using a 100 mg unit. In two days, I had the clearest water I have ever had by far.

It definitely dropped my skimmer production - it's about 1/2 of what it used to be, but the tank is definitely cleaner and clearer. I had always run carbon in a fluidized reactor, but always had that slight yellow tinge that I could not seem to get rid of. It's all gone now.

I have seen no negatives so far, and it's relatively maintenance free (except for the air dryer). I would definitely recommend it.

I quickly glimsped through most of the readings by Randy farely Homes, they are very intresting read. I was planning on aiming for water clarity above all and I was looking at the 50 mg for my 100+ cube. Don't the ozonizers already have controllers built in?

My unit is a 200mg / hr unit in a 72g with a 33g sump...It hangs around the 380 mark. Christy is right you do have to clean the electrode once in a while.

I have been using it for 3+ years and I will continue using it. I've been using the Enaly ozone generators which works great with an ORP controller. In the beginning when you start, you may achieve your desired mV during the day but it will drop at nights. In time and this is happening to me now, it actually increases at nights to about 450-465 mV and during the days, I maintain the level at 410-425 mV.

Some do, some don't. I think most/some of the Red Sea models do. Mine is a Sander brand and didn't have one built in.

I was thinking about this one http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/s...ct_ID=OZ-RS050
Its affordable, however it is missing the ORP controller, is the Orp controller that crucial? or can I do without it?

There was a thread a while back where people opened their controlled ozone generators and found the controls weren’t even hooked to anything.

I don’t remember the brand or what forum I saw it, but with control like that, and for the price of an ORP controller, I think it is an inexpensive piece of mind, especially when using such a potentially dangerous item as ozone.

You could do without. You can have it running during the night and off in the day or you can run it with timer say every 2 hours. You still need a redox meter to find out what level you are at.

I guess, A ORP controller wouldnt be a bad idea since I have so much money in that tank. It would definitely give me piece of mind. Where could I get an ORP controller? and How much do they go for?

If you wait for a bit the odd one pops up for sale on the board. You will also need an air drier and a reactor chamber

Doesn't the red sea ozonizer, have the air dryer built in? Do I need those pieces as well or can i skip those cause my sump area isn't that big and I still need to fit another reactor in there.

Drier is attached to the ozone unit. You can feed your ozone through your skimmer but you should run carbon to destroy the escaping ozone. Mind you 50mg/hr is small. I have a 300 and 100 mg/hr units