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scarab

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    Attention to Ozone users

    in General Reefkeeping_

    Posted

    Thanks Scarab for the info.

    With the current situation of lesser seniors wanting to contribute, really appreciate your kind and honest contributions.

    ;) I no senior in reefing lah ....... other than my age, that is. :lol:

    Well, I'm willing to share experiences and listen to advices unless sarcarstic remarks and unnecessary posting start to surface. :angry::angry:

    Let's reef on....... :yeah:

    Attention to Ozone users

    in General Reefkeeping_

    Posted

    maybe injecting lesser ozone, but for a longer period of time, to reach my target redox value will not affect skimmer performance.  but large amounts of ozone for a short period of time to reach the target redox value might 'snuff' the skimmer.  if that doesn't work, then maybe a high redox value is not condusive to skimming.

    Bro you hit the nail on the head. I think that is the way ozone should be used. ;)

    Excessively high redox value doesn't mean it's good. Water with redox level of 375-400 mV is deemed to be excellent in reefkeeping terms, so excessively high redox level is .......well unnecessary..... I guess. :lol: The manner you achieve that level is also important. Remember, use in moderation.... :nc:

    However, you shouldn't reduce water change just because you are using ozone. Water change has different merits like replenishing trace elements, removing unwanted toxins that escaped your ozone/carbon/phosphate remover, etc etc.

    I still advocate water changes to complement your ozone usage.

    Attention to Ozone users

    in General Reefkeeping_

    Posted

    tayhonglee,

    Like I say, it's a rule of thumb. So don't rely 100% on it but use it as a gauge.

    monsterz is right on the reaction taking place only in the skimmer. Hence I don't even know if the thoery holds true for bigger tank you must dose more. Since reaction takes place in your skimmer, the parameter in check here should be the size of your skimmer and the skimmer pump output. The bigger the pump may allow you to dose more ozone as more water comes in contact with the ozone.

    That's purely my personal opinion. The best check is to monitor your skimmer. If it is not skimming as it used to you would need to adjust your ozone dosage. If your tank organics is oxidized to particles that are not skimmable, hence reduction in skimmer production, ozone might do more harm than good to your reef.

    However, I'm not too sure about the ich theory though. Used to run UV for the longest time but it never really got rid of my ich. Have stopped using since 6 months ago coz the bulb blew.

    Attention to Ozone users

    in General Reefkeeping_

    Posted

    Hi Scarab,

    do you use carbon at the output of the skimmer ? Is it nec ?

    According to Julian Sprung's book pg 131 ( don't know has it been proven wrong yet)

    "Ozone was originally suggested to increase skimmer efficiency, but when larger amount is used, many of the organics usually extracted become oxidized into other forms that are more resistant to removal. Common symptoms of excessive ozone use are a dramatic drop in skimmer output, much lighter coloured effluent."

    Hey huanjie,

    Thanks for the extract. That is exactly what I'm getting coz in order to boost my redox to 420mV (don't know for what also..... :paiseh: ) I actually tune my ozoniser up to 150mg/hr. Think I was really overdosing the ozone.

    I have since cut my ozone to 75 mg/hr and limit my ORP controller to 380mV. And guess what, my skimmer is back in action..... :yeah::yeah:

    Also read in RC the rule of thumb for ozone dosage is 0.3 to 0.5 mg/hr/gal. So for my 100 gal tank, I should only dose 50mg/hr. Since I not using air dryer I up it to 75 mg/hr to compensate for the drop in ozoniser performance.

    So guys/gals with 200mg/hr non-controllable units, be careful with the dosage. Think the only way to control a non-controllable unt is to run on a timer and limit the usage per day.

    And yes, I place carbon at the outlet of my skimmer as a precaution.

    Congrats to danano

    in General Reefkeeping_

    Posted

    Daniel, heartiest congratulations on the arrival of your new baby.

    All the best to you and May May on this new journey in your lives.

    Happy changing diapers but still must spend some time on your tank eh? Cannot let standard drop ha. :lol::lol::lol:

    Attention to Ozone users

    in General Reefkeeping_

    Posted

    the other reason could of course be that the ozone is breaking the 'bad stuff' into unskimmable 'bad stuff', in which case, my tank will be worse off.

    This is what I'm worried about. :P

    The dissolved organics must go somewhere. After they are oxidise (due to ozone) do they disappear??? :huh:

    Attention to Ozone users

    in General Reefkeeping_

    Posted

    actually, the same thing happened to me.  lots of skimmate the first few days, then almost nothing.  after i started to skim very wet, i had lots of sugar cane juice (to paraphrase the memorable words of jefnbl).  in fact, the only time i can see bubbles breaking all the way to the tip of collection cup is right after feeding.  not sure why also, or whether its a good sign or not. 

    my 1.5 cube now has 6 chromis, 1 large mandarin, 1 tiny regal tang, 1 yellow wrasse, 2 firefish, 4 skunk cleaners, 1 fire shrimp, 1 red linkia, 1 sand shifter, and 4 cerith snails (snails are expensive man).  i feed twice a day, mixture of homemade food, brine shrimp and flakes.  water parameters are still quite good.  can't detect any ammonia, nitrite or nitrates.  i dose kalk twice a week, so calcium is about 400++ (a little low, but don't think its due to ozone).  no phosphate test kit yet, so can't tell what phosphate levels are.  however, there aren't any diatoms or algae at all.  sad to say, i haven't change any water yet.  will do it tomorrow...  :heh:

    i keep the controller set at 390mv.  it jumps to about 400mv at night, and drops to about 360mv after i feed.  takes about 5 minutes to bring it up again.  also, i use desiccants to dry the air first.  but i can't tell if it helps or not. 

    henry

    Thanks for your input Henry. I guess we are the only 2 reefers who is experiencing this skimmate issue with ozone. :lol::lol:

    I'm trying what ozy suggested, to reduce the ORP level substantially and see if the skimmate increases. Maybe you might want to try and post if it has any effect.

    It seems that too much ozone in the skimmer affects the creation of bubbles (foam) in the skimmer causing it to skim less.

    Thanks.

    Attention to Ozone users

    in General Reefkeeping_

    Posted

    Hi Bro,

    WHich Ozoniser did you use ?

    Does it take a week to increase from 340 to 360 ?

    How do you install it ?

    Did you inject it to the beckett nozzle housing ?

    I just got myself one as well.

    Still learning about this ozone thing.

    Thanks

    Hi sugi,

    Using Sander 200mg (controllable). Actually it took only 1 day to increase the 20mV but I kept it at that level for a week before increasing, afraid it might alter the water chemistry too much too quickly.

    Injected into the Beckett housing. The picture is below. Should actually use ozone safe tube for the portion after the T entering into the housing (turned brown already). Just wanted to see the effect of the ozone, will change out soon.

    post-7-1122128180.jpg

    Attention to Ozone users

    in General Reefkeeping_

    Posted

    Need to seek opinion and experience from ozone users here.

    Been running ozone for a month and during the 1st week the skimmer went crazy and pull out a lot of gunk. Redox level went from 340mV (before ozone) to 360mV (after 1 week)

    I up the ORP controller to 380mV the following week and see the redox level slowly increase, then I see the skimmate begin to reduce. After 4 weeks (I'm running my ORP controller at 420mV now) I'm only getting about 50% of the skimmate I get before I started on ozone.

    Is this normal? Or is ozone converting the dissolved organics to something that is not skimmable? :o There'a a thread on in RC discussing this but I trying to find out 1st hand experience from ozone users here.

    The water looks great though, super clear......Reef is doing fine as well. Just a bit puzzled with the amount of skimmate I'm getting. Where did the dissolved organics go to????

    Appreciate any input... :thanks:

    Where to place active carbons

    in Product Reviews

    Posted

    The idea of FR is to prevent channelling from forming hence reducing the reducing the efficiency of the media.

    You can use FR but provided the flow thru the FR is slow, that's the point you're missing.

    That is why if you put the GAC in a mesh bag, you're supposed to knead it daily to prevent channelling.

    Bro I thought FR is used to fluidised to media( hence the name Fluidised Reactor :) ) keeping it in suspension to have full surface contact of the GAC with the water??? As long as it is fluidised, no chanelling will take place what.

    So the flow should be high enough the keep the media in suspension.

    The same thing for GAC in mesh bag. If placed in low flow area, chanelling will take place like what you said

    or

    with the flow only on the surface of the mesh bag (low flow unable to penetrate into the media deep inside the bag) the only GAC in contact with the water are those on the outer surface. The GAC inside will not be efficiently used.

    Of course kneading the GAC will help but I think higher flow will also do the job. And we are trying very hard not to stick our hand into the water if we can right?? :lol:

    Anyway that was my understanding and I found it to be logical.

    On top of this, GAC should be changed every 10 days, max 14 days as it loses it absorption capability after that. Then it become something like bio ball or glass rings :sick: ........but I'm not going into that....... :P:P:lol:

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