Coming soon: affordable ozone reactor!

[Avast Justin]

Here's a sneak peek of what we're up to beyond making Swabbies and other useful devices.

This is the primary reaction chamber of our new ozone reactor due out soon:

Featuring 1/2" thick flanges to prevent any unwanted ozone explosions. Note the lack of a pressure gauge- it won't need one because it's designed to work at 2-3psi with common aquarium equipment. This saves you money without compromising the efficacy of the unit. Also, no valves to adjust. A simple design that doesn't require a degree in hydrodynamics to operate!

Stay tuned for more details.

 

[JBanks]

Any updates on this product.. Very interested.

 

[AVAST Marine]

Yes, will post update pics very soon.....

 

[reefervet]

Updates on this?

 

[pmoneyt]

yes updates please

 

[AVAST Marine]

I promise a picture tomorrow Really. Until then, here is the quick "what's up":

The design changed quite a bit from that original picture, the unit is now a board mount reactor that can be attached to the wall, the carbon post filter, ozone generator, air pump and all tubing/check valves etc are attached to the board as well making it a very sleek and user friendly design. We have several units in long term testing now. The reaction chamber of the first unit we plan to release is 4.5" OD x 18" tall. This size unit I am running on my personal tank (600g) with 200mg/hr ozone and has performed very nicely and is pretty much ready for release. The same size reactor would work perfectly on smaller tanks with lower ozone input. It requires a moderate pressure pump (8' head) in the 500-600gph range to feed it (eheim 1260, mag7, etc.). With this dedicated pump the normal operating pressure is 3psi. All of the back pressure is created with engineered plumbing rather than valves, making the design easy to use as well as cheaper to own, the down side of this is it has taken far longer to get out of the beta stage than we would like. Justin runs a 14" OD x 60" reactor of the same design in the greenhouse and has had similar great results. We are manufacturing our own "bio-bale" type media and can cram 3x more volume of media into the same space of the "other" manufactures media. This results in more fine droplets dripping through the reactor, which results in more efficient use of the ozone/gram.

Both Justin and I have been working on ozone calculations and reactor design for over two years. There has been a lot of thought put into our design as well as how exactly a reactor should be appropriately sized for an aquarium. We plan to share a lot of those calculations in the coming months since there is very little documentation on the subject.

So how close is it? Don't rush art, you get bad art

The reactor running on my personal tank is coming offline tomorrow (since I promised a pic) and will not be going back on. Next step is to build 5-10 production units for customers who have been waiting a long time for these. After packing, shipping, instruction manuals are done we will go into production for the AVAST built (expect preorders to start around Halloween). Once we have a handle on the production and inventory we can then release the YOU built units (think decorated pine trees and colored lights). Typically we like to build a few hundred in the shop before we kit any item, this really helps us (and you) with troubleshooting and build support. It also allows us to negotiate better prices with our suppliers and pass the savings along on the kits.

Hope that answered a few questions, if anyone has further comments/questions please feel free to join into the conversation.

Dan

 

[Redstag]

How much for the reactor? Btw, do you make a carbon reactor to run with the ozone?

 

[AVAST Marine]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/71492635@N00/4973299910/

 

[AVAST Marine]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/71492635@N00/4973304698/

 

[MattL22]

What does the ozone reactor do?. I've never heard of one b4

 

[Avast Justin]

What does the ozone reactor do?. I've never heard of one b4

Matt,

An ozone reactor is used to purify aquarium water with ozone in a controlled environment. Ozone is a very strong oxidizer, which means it will break down just about any organic molecule it contacts. The result is less yellowing of the tank water (due to tannins and other organic molecules that color the water) and less free-floating bacteria and algae.

Having a dedicated reactor for the ozone vs. simply bubbling it in a skimmer allows you to control the smell of the escaping air (ozone has a distinctive smell and can be dangerous in high concentrations) as well as effluent water by means of a carbon filter that both the air and water are forced through on exiting the reactor. Also, some skimmers are not made of ozone-safe materials and will degrade. Some skimmers work less efficiently with ozone. Ozone by-products in the water can be harmful to fish & corals if not neutralized with a carbon postfilter.

An ozone reactor is also more efficient at purifying the water with less ozone needed per gallon since it allows greater water surface area to contact the ozone-rich air. Water droplets are passed through the ozonated air rather than the opposite in a skimmer, where ozonated air bubbles are passed through water. This greater surface area and contact time means more organic molecules are broken down per unit of ozone generated.

Hope this helps!

Justin

 

[underwaterforest]

Great talking with you the other day Dan. I am starting to get things together for the ozone setup and after reading your thread I started to wonder what air pump and water pump I need. I was thinking of using the coralife luft pump with a mag 7 like I mentioned. Would this setup work or should I size up the water pump (maybe a mag 9) or down the air pump to get the reactor to feed properly? I just want to make sure I get the right stuff.

Thanks

Alex

 

[AVAST Marine]

Hey Alex this is a salt water forum! JK Welcome to R2R!

Mag7 and Luft pump is the perfect combo for this reactor. More water pump and you get less contact time. Less air pump and it can't overcome the back pressure of the water pump. As Justin mentioned in the first post of this thread, we designed this so you don't need to overthink it. Just plug it in and let it sterilize and polish your water.

 

[underwaterforest]

I won't worry so much about the pump/air setup if it is pretty much foolproof.

Hey Alex this is a salt water forum!

Who knows I might get the saltwater bug I always admired a well setup reef aquarium and now with all the cultured frag corals being sold it can be pretty environmental too.

Thanks

Alex

 

[fullmonti]

If these are for sale, a price & specs of final/latest design would really help.
I've been looking into a ozone system, & this looks interesting. But need more info.

 

[Joost's reef]

Interested in more details too, these will sell as a kit?

 

[AVAST Marine]

Interested in more details too, these will sell as a kit?

Part of the reason we are taking our time with this is to make sure both kit and prebuilt are offered, both in multiple sizes with basic to advanced options available. It will be a very complete line and certainly worth the wait. We are making a big bump in media reactor size offerings over the next few weeks (the media reactors will be the "base" of the o3 unit) in preparation for the ozone reactor offering.

 

[DFason]

Any updates?

-Dave

 

[Avast Justin]

Any updates?

-Dave

Sent you email Dave.

We've refined the design some more to take advantage of our media reactor line. This means more common parts therefore lower prices. We're working hard on this but taking our time because it is a complex piece of equipment that needs a lot of design thought in order to maintain functionality while being priced affordably. If you've ever heard the phrase "Quality, Cost, Speed, pick any two" (or some permutation thereof) you'll know we chose the first two.

 

[pencil3]

Any update on this?