Critique This Ozone Setup

Adamc13o3

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I have been wanting to try Ozone for a while. I would like to have crystal clear water and furthermore not have to use carbon to achieve that goal. The reason I want to stay away from carbon this go around is because I want to keep the tank stable as possible. On my prior tanks carbon worked great, however it would work for a few days / weeks and then need to be changed. Every time I would change it the light penetration would change drastically increasing the PAR to the tank. My understanding is that with Ozone being dosed once a day combined with an ORP range I can keep the water at the same clarity all of the time.

The tank is 36 x 36 x 20 high. It’s roughly 115 gallons with the sump volume. I got a Poseidon ozone reactor. I also purchased a Tunze 9004 skimmer to use just with Ozone. The skimmer really doesn’t work for this application. I got it because it’s super small and ozone ready. I thought it would be a great solution. However, it’s too small and is specifically designed with “flash skimming” to specifically have a shorter dwell time for the water than other skimmer designs. I should have really read Randy’s 3-part articles on Ozone and ORP. After recently reading it, I now understand that one of the best methods of running ozone would be in a reactor with longer dwell times and most of all having the effluent pass over carbon. The Avast Mutiny Reactor seems to check all of those boxes. My issue is that if I go with that setup, I will not have room for a refugium. One of the challenges with cube tanks is space under the stands. My main protein skimmer is made by Ultra Reef. My skimmers air intake comes from the outside of my house which really helps with PH. I decided to just run a T push for fitting and see if I can have it also pull air from the ozone reactor. I then also put in a ball valve on the air intake that goes to the outside. I wanted to see the skimmers performance if I were to completely close the valve and have it get air from the reactor only. I figured that if it worked fine then I can always swap the ball valve for a solenoid valve and automate something with my apex for when the Ozone setup is running. It doesn’t work because as soon as I close the valve the skimmer doesn’t pull enough air through the ozone generator (and that’s running it without an air dryer). I even tried using an air pump into the generator and then to the skimmer, but with the valve to the exterior air closed which is essentially how the skimmer runs without any air restrictions weather from the exterior or not, the ozone generator is too restrictive. Will the way I have it setup work at all? It’s mixing the Air from the Ozone generator with the fresh air, and everything is totally open without and check valves or anything. See the picture below.


Thanks,


Adam

IMG_1186.jpeg
 

YOYOYOReefer

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I would get rid of that tee . Mine has the outside line going to separator( like used for air compressors, then an air dryer then the ozone generator then the skimmer, my outside line has a bypass for the super cold days ..

If you don’t have an air dryer I would suggest Getting that unit way befor investing in a reactor. Like an IQ20 or iq40. The ozone generator output is greatly dictated by how much moisture is in the air in the line that feeds it
 

Boreas_SA

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How do you plan to filter the air and water out from the skimmer through carbon? That is the most important part to make sure the ozone is used safely for the tank inhabitants, as well as yourself and your lungs when you work in the sump.
 

YOYOYOReefer

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How do you plan to filter the air and water out from the skimmer through carbon? That is the most important part to make sure the ozone is used safely for the tank inhabitants, as well as yourself and your lungs when you work in the sump.
my skimmer production goes to a skimmate locker that has the carbon on top.
 
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Adamc13o3

Adamc13o3

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I have an air dryer, I just wasn’t using it when testing. Every time I put the air dryer on the skimmer overflowed because it would act as if it wasn’t getting any air as the air dryer creates too much head pressure for the airline. @YOYOYOReefer do you have the exterior air going through your dryer as well? I wouldn’t be able to do that. I live in Florida the air is humid, the media would get exhausted in a week or maybe even days.
 

YOYOYOReefer

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I’m not sure why your skimmer doesn’t pull the air thru the dryer, that seem odd. i have ozone set up on 4 tanks, all have air dryers feeding the ozone unit, feeding straight to the skimmer

is there any airflow / water adjustments on the skimmer? The point of the air dryer is it heats up and refreshes the media , should not be going thru media in weeks or months, , I really never have done any media changes that I can remember ,and mine are easily 20 year units. For Florida you would just need to have the heat cycle on more often in the air dryer ran in a northern climate..
 
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YOYOYOReefer

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Just had a thought If your problem is the airline is pinching in and choking the flow, try switchping to hard vs soft tubing
 
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Adamc13o3

Adamc13o3

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Nothing is pinched at the moment at all. There’s a silencer that I attached the airline to. I may bypass it and see if that does the trick. Regarding the air dryer, I don’t have the electric type. I am using the regular ones that pull through an RO looking canister with the media inside. I would upgrade though if I saw that I got this working right with good results.
 

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I can’t imagine owning an ozone unit without a heated dryer unit. Ozotech makes them. So do lots of other companies if you open your search to units made for air compressors that don’t have the aquarium grade markup.

ya maybe the silencer is restricting the air flow, something has to be
 

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