the result astonishing me - with ozone!!!

[Bigair]

@Bigair

Do you know what your phosphates & nitrates are at?

almost are all zero, not detectable

 

[Bigair]

How was that confirmed?

If I leave some residual mixed saltwater in my transparent plastic container after each water change, I notice that after several days, it turns yellow and becomes slightly cloudy. If there were no organic compounds present, how would this phenomenon occur?

 

[Bigair]

Not really sure you can present anecdotal evidence such as this as conformation

I'm not stating this with absolute certainty, but I believe that algae growth cannot occur solely with inorganic compounds.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

If I leave some residual mixed saltwater in my transparent plastic container after each water change, I notice that after several days, it turns yellow and becomes slightly cloudy. If there were no organic compounds present, how would this phenomenon occur?

How would it happen if there were organic compounds present? They change from uncolored to colored? That’s a substantial stretch.

Inorganic compounds such as iron can also cause color. Iron, for example. And when it oxidizes from the form in salt mixes (likely ferrous iron) to ferric iron, the yellowish brown color intensifies significantly.

It might also be bacteria or algae growing.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I'm not stating this with absolute certainty, but I believe that algae growth cannot occur solely with inorganic compounds.

That is simply an incorrect fact. Algae do not need any organic compounds from the environment.

What organic material do you think they need?

 

[TonyTonga]

You also need to consider the possibility of better skimming from your protein skimmer and rolling mat, which is indeed occurring with me.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You also need to consider the possibility of better skimming from your protein skimmer and rolling mat, which is indeed occurring with me.

FWIW, some folks report improved skimming and some report decreased skimming with ozone.

 

[TinnysReef]

Just started my ozone 2 days ago on my 310 gallon and already noticed a difference in the water. Only running for 2 hours at night. I wanted it not only for water clarity but I've also read that the ozone will neutralize coral toxins and I want to have a bunch of big softies with my LPS. Leathers can release a lot of toxins and I think that's why I can't get any LPS to grow in my softie tank. I have GIANT leathers in there and when I've tried even a tank raised hardy LPSs that was gifted to me locally it died very quickly but did great in my other tanks.

 

[Treefer32]

I don't do more than 1-2 water changes a year if that on my 340 gallon mixed reef (Soft, LPS, and SPS corals) with around 25 fish, many large.
I run an algae turf scrubber (Chloroplast released by the algae discolors water) and probably coral warfare everyday.

I don't run carbon, I do run a reef mat 1200, a skimmer, algae turf scrubber, and a denitrator factory (a converted cannister filter filled with a lot of matrix rock and slow flow of water through the container - reduced nitrates from 70 to 10), and I run a 120 watt UV Sterilizer.

My phosphates are bordering on zero and dosing Benepets reef food twice a week to try to raise phosphates.

I have tons of organic matter. At the end of the day the water may be yellow, but it's still got a strong clarity to it.
Could it be clearer maybe? But 25 fish poop a lot. My hope is there's a lot of coral food to keep my numerous corals happy and the filtration takes care of the rest.

My corals grow despite any potential warfare going on and look colorful!

 

[slogan315]

I don't do more than 1-2 water changes a year if that on my 340 gallon mixed reef (Soft, LPS, and SPS corals) with around 25 fish, many large.
I run an algae turf scrubber (Chloroplast released by the algae discolors water) and probably coral warfare everyday.

I don't run carbon, I do run a reef mat 1200, a skimmer, algae turf scrubber, and a denitrator factory (a converted cannister filter filled with a lot of matrix rock and slow flow of water through the container - reduced nitrates from 70 to 10), and I run a 120 watt UV Sterilizer.

My phosphates are bordering on zero and dosing Benepets reef food twice a week to try to raise phosphates.

I have tons of organic matter. At the end of the day the water may be yellow, but it's still got a strong clarity to it.
Could it be clearer maybe? But 25 fish poop a lot. My hope is there's a lot of coral food to keep my numerous corals happy and the filtration takes care of the rest.

My corals grow despite any potential warfare going on and look colorful!

Doesn’t benepets actually lower phosphates?

 

[Treefer32]

Doesn’t benepets actually lower phosphates?

It's low phosphate (right on the label) it claims to have probiotics that feed bacteria that could lower phosphates and nitrates. It's one of those things that short term it may raise phosphates because it contains some, but in a few weeks of dosing the bacteria may be eating both phosphates and nitrates.

That said it makes my water cloudy for about 20 minutes, then it's perfectly clear again. And all my corals look amazing when I feed it, especially the SPS. The polyps open more and bigger at feeding time.

It's possible Benepets shifts the bacteria biome to consume more phosphates. I like the idea of having pre and pro biotics to keep bacteria healthy. The backbone of a reef.

Keep in mind I also feed 9 cubes of frozen food per day, 1 full sheet of nori daily, and I have an avast plank auto feeder that feeds freeze dried mysis, reef jerky, and pellets, twice a day for a total of 5 minutes.

With all that food, my phosphates remain .01 - .08 and nitrates at 10-15. Within 10 minutes of feeding the frozen food it's gone, there's not a speck seen. I have some big tangs and reef safe angel fish that eat a lot!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Some of the Benepet claims seem misguided to me and I’m skeptical of all the grand claims without evidence.

Example of a claim that seems weird and inaccurate to me:

Benereef doesn’t have a high protein content but rather a high carbohydrate content which is important because if you have a higher surplus of proteins and they are broken down you reach ammonia levels that are toxic to your system and reef inhabitants.

 

[Treefer32]

Some of the Benepet claims seem misguided to me and I’m skeptical of all the grand claims without evidence.

Example of a claim that seems weird and inaccurate to me:

Benereef doesn’t have a high protein content but rather a high carbohydrate content which is important because if you have a higher surplus of proteins and they are broken down you reach ammonia levels that are toxic to your system and reef inhabitants.

That's amazing given how much protein I feed my fish a day. Plus nori is protein rich as well. Seems like a silly claim. I could see the carbohydrates may help fuel bacteria. But silly use that proteins lead to ammonia so we don't use protein. Dumb. Of course proteins lead to ammonia which is why our tanks are cycled.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

I'm leaning towards the belief that ozone does indeed effectively remove organics, especially since it's become my last hope. I've come to learn that having a TDS reading of 0 doesn't necessarily mean that organics are undetectable or absent. So, I do believe that achieving a TDS reading of 0 can be somewhat deceptive, potentially serving as a significant source of organic input, which many people use for water top-ups.

I don't want to ignite any sort of debate or argument here and if it seems to work for you that's great, but from this short thread it you seem to make a lot of assumptions but know very little about how chemical reactions work so it seems far more likely that your TDS pen isn't good quality and far less likely ozone is reducing your RODI water TDS to 0. If I were you, I'd either research what ozone is and how it reacts with different compounds and molecules or just choose to not assume molecule X (ozone in this case...I do know what it is, the basics of its reactive properties, and because of that, would give simpler, cheaper, always available alternatives a shot first). There's one in particular that's extremely common which should come to mind...it will remove color in strong concentrations as well as oxidize many compounds like ozone will.