Ozone Reactor

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

How many people track ORP in their tank?

not many as the actualy mumber has no meaning and rather the change of the number can indacate a trend. I think ORP is a toy for thoes who have everything else and think they need to watch it

Steve

[EmilyB]

It used to be a big thing with the oldies who didn't have sumps & skimmers and such to keep up the oxygen levels. Is that the jist of it? Can't really see much use for it now.

[Canadian Man]

I have heard Stephane talk about ORP. So i'm sure he has a moniter.

[MitchM]

Originally Posted by EmilyB

Is that the jist of it? Can't really see much use for it now.

It's basically a method of turbo-charging your skimmer. Not only do you remove DOC's via the mechanical method of skimming, but you also "burn off" organic compounds that don't make it up the skimmer cup.
Easy to over-do it, though. You pretty much HAVE to have a controller, IMO.

It was one method that allowed you to load up your system with living things. I think (or hope, anyways) that the trend these days is to NOT overstock a reef tank.

Mitch

[BCOrchidGuy]

Just out of curiosity, if there was a problem with the carbon scrubber and ozone did make it into the aquarium, wouldn't it burn the fishes gills and probably kill them as well. Ozone is an oxydizer, it breaks down rubber etc, and it will burn mucous membranes.

Doug

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Originally Posted by BCOrchidGuy

Just out of curiosity, if there was a problem with the carbon scrubber and ozone did make it into the aquarium, wouldn't it burn the fishes gills and probably kill them as well. Ozone is an oxydizer, it breaks down rubber etc, and it will burn mucous membranes.

Doug

Hobby units are not even close to strong enough to kill much in our tanks. I know people who use them without carbon at all. Even larger parasites running through ozone reactors can often survive. The exposure would have to be VERY long at high levels and ozone just doesn't last long enough in saltwater for this to be a real concern with the small units we use.

For ozone to be effective you need a contact time of at least 45 seconds (not likely with most reactors), much bigger ozonizer than most companies carry and a much bigger industrial air pump that get really expensive. Otherwise all your doing is making the water clear and not much else.

I used ozone for years and would never bother again. It really is a waste of money IMO....unless you can spend thousands to set it up properly and even then, its benefits in a reef aquarium really are not much.

In a North Sea system may years ago studies where done on ozonated seawater vs non-ozonated seawater. There is no doubt from this study that the use of Ozone did cause a decrease in bacteria population density but had no effect what so ever on parasites or other protozoans. They also gave no ozone concentrations in this study. In general there will be or can be a 10 % decrease in bacteria form 300-400 mV. But nothing really happens until you get to 600mV. And it takes 800 mV to cause complete sterilization. And contact times in all of these need to be somewhere between 30 - 60 sec. and we get nowhere near that in most reactors.

[phreezee]

I've got a Aquazone 200 Plus and only have an ORP in the 300s and have never hit 400.
Besides the clear water, I found it was the best Ich treatment out there. It also helped with algae. I just run it through my skimmer and I don't use carbon, and inverts, SPS, LPS, and fish are fine.

[MitchM]

Originally Posted by BCOrchidGuy

Just out of curiosity, if there was a problem..... wouldn't it burn the fishes gills and probably kill them as well.

Doug

Yes, that's right.

Pleasant, isn't it?

Mitch

[Buccaneer]

So I ended up building a new house and did not bother with the Ozone reactor project as I sold my tank with the old house ( could not get it out of the basement anyway ) and ended up selling the temp tank too that I took to the new house

So whats the current state for ozone use ?