Ozone Help

[brick-brothers]

Hey guys I have some questions for all the ozone reefers. Im planing on using an ozotech with a skimmer. My question is can I get away with using this skimmer? I read that i need a carbon bag over the skimer water output but this skimmer doesnt have 1 like the Reef Octopus skimmers. Heres a pic of the skimz skimmer that I plan to use since It been in my closet for months.

 

[brick-brothers]

 

[FirstContact]

Need to figure out how to have the outlet of the skimmer flow over carbon and have the air that comes out of the top of the skimmer flow through carbon. The water flow exit for that skimmer is at the base

 

[brick-brothers]

i scrap this skimmer for a smaller build. I was able to get my hand on a reef octopus that has a water outlet that I can put a carbon bag over it. I wonder do I need to still run carbon through my TLF reactor?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

i scrap this skimmer for a smaller build. I was able to get my hand on a reef octopus that has a water outlet that I can put a carbon bag over it. I wonder do I need to still run carbon through my TLF reactor?

What you are doing is a mix that might not do either function of carbon perfectly, IMO.

Carbon in an ozone reactor breaks down ozone and ozone by products, but doesn't collect organics especially well (IMO) because the ozone keeps oxidizing them and making them more soluble.

Carbon in tank water binds organics, but the ozone byproducts have gone throughout the tank first (which is undesirable, IMO).

In your mixed use, how much of either of these you do depends on how well the skimmer water gets into contact with the GAC before being released to the tank.

That said, some people run ozone just to a skimmer and don't use GAC on the effluent. I would only do that for low level occasional ozone use, not 24/7 with lots of ozone.

 

[FirstContact]

Randy,

I was so proud of myself that I finally had carbon in a reactor. Since it's post ozone and I plan to run 24/7 how do I determine if I need a completely separate carbon reactor on another feed?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Randy,

I was so proud of myself that I finally had carbon in a reactor. Since it's post ozone and I plan to run 24/7 how do I determine if I need a completely separate carbon reactor on another feed?

IMO, if you can smell ozone, there is a possible human safety concern.

If you can measure anything substantial with a chlorine kit on the effluent, there is not good enough contact with the water.

Here's what I found in my setup (copy and paste):

In order to assess the GAC's impact on the water, the water can be tested for ozone and ozone byproducts (OPO's) before and after the GAC. Using my tubing reactor, with a water flow rate of about 0.5 gallons per minute, I found that the residual oxidant was 0.10 - 0.24 ppm chlorine equivalents before the activated carbon. After the activated carbon, the effluent had an oxidant level of 0.04 ppm chlorine equivalents or less.

When using the Coralife ozone reactor as the reaction chamber, the water flow rate was set to 0.44 gallons per minute, with an additional 0.05 gallons per minute of water in the air/water overflow. Both of these water streams were tested. I found 0.5 ppm chlorine equivalents in the air/water stream and 0.02 to 0.04 ppm chlorine equivalents in the primary water flow before the GAC. The combined flow therefore would have a level of about 0.09 ppm chlorine equivalents. After the activated carbon, no oxidant could be detected (<0.02 ppm chlorine equivalents).

Clearly, the GAC is doing a good job of reducing the highly oxidizing species present in the water. In some tests it was not perfect, but I believe that these levels (< 0.04 ppm chlorine equivalents) are acceptable. Interestingly, the GAC does not greatly lower the ORP. The ORP before the activated carbon was 680 mV after 5-15 hours of equilibration, and was 670 mV after 8 hours of equilibration in the post activated carbon effluent. Consequently, the effluent's ORP is not a suitable way to measure whether the activated carbon is effectively removing residual ozone and its byproducts.

 

[FirstContact]

That's good to know Randy. Thanks for the tips.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You're welcome.

Good luck. :)

 

[brick-brothers]

Randy are you suggesting to do away with the carbon bag on the water outlet of the skimmer? Also should I still keep a carbon in the skimmer cup to catch the ozone vapors?

 

[brick-brothers]

Also would it be best to have the water oultet of the skimmer facing the water intake of my regular skimmer?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Randy are you suggesting to do away with the carbon bag on the water outlet of the skimmer? Also should I still keep a carbon in the skimmer cup to catch the ozone vapors?

No, I'm indicating it will be less than perfect with such a flow rate.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Also would it be best to have the water oultet of the skimmer facing the water intake of my regular skimmer?

You are using two skimmers?

I'm not sure a second skimmer will have any impact on ozone produced oxidants. Ozone itself has likely already converted into compounds that can't be blown off to the air, but it certainly wouldn't hurt.

 

[brick-brothers]

You are using two skimmers?

I'm not sure a second skimmer will have any impact on ozone produced oxidants. Ozone itself has likely already converted into compounds that can't be blown off to the air, but it certainly wouldn't hurt.

I using 1 skimmer just for the ozone so I would have to buy a ozone reactor. And the 2nd skimmer is just for filtration which I have already before I got the ozone.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

OK, good luck and happy reefing. :)