Thinking about ozone and need advice

[Cabinetman]

The water cooled lighting is an idea I thought of doing many times lol but right now my tank stays pretty much at 25c all the time with no heaters running...I was thinking of trying to capture the heat to heat my tank. Anyway. I'm thinking I will run it into my skimmer and install a cap on my skimmer cover to be vented outside...2 things that will cure..skimmer stink and residual ozone vented outside. Then my sump will be also covered and also vented and I'll fill the area with a few hundred pounds of rock rubble which I hope will be enough to absorb any residual. I also hate carbon. So I hope to get away without using it. Or I may make a large reaction chamber with a skimmer pump and feed it thru a reactor with carbon. And vent the reactor outside. I sure hope this is all worth it!

 

[Cabinetman]

Just thinkin.. does bulk reef have a better choice of ozonator for my big tank?

 

[FirstContact]

A great ozone generator is a Sanders. You can get them on websites in Germany, and they ship to the US.

 

[Cabinetman]

A great ozone generator is a Sanders. You can get them on websites in Germany, and they ship to the US.

You know how much they cost?

 

[FirstContact]

You know how much they cost?

Somewhere between $200 and $300 depending on the model. Shipping is around $30 if I remember correctly. I have a 200mg/hr model. Listed prices include European VAT tax, but you get that back at check out when shipping to the US. I think one site is sewatec.de.

Hope that helps.

 

[Paul B]

I don't think you will have to vent anything outside on your tank and not with that ozonizer. If all is well, all the Ozone will be used up way before any escapes. I never smell ozone and I only have a 100 gallon tank

 

[Dogtown]

Paul B, between your comments about how to burn off the ozone, and rkpeterson's comments about the same, I am going to hold off on that ozone reactor purchase for now. I'll make similar changes and see if they do the trick. Thanks!

 

[Cabinetman]

I got a few big external skimmers I'm buying today used that I may fuse together to make one huge reaction chamber. It's so easy for me to vent this to the outside I might as well. I also think I'll run the efluient over carbon. I should get skimmers today once I build my unit I will update.

 

[Blue Spot Octopus]

FirstContact did Seawatec charge anymore fees other than the express shipping charge? I was looking for an impeller and they wanted 30 bucks just for shipping.

 

[Cabinetman]

I got it made. I was lucky to have a piece of acrylic tube the exact same size as the skimmer body so I just chopped the top off and made some rings that were routed out to fit over the two pieces and welded it together. Skimmer stands 53" tall now. Not quite as pretty as yours Paul but hopefully it will work

 

[Cabinetman]

And I realize I need to extend the return higher so it 90's at the same spot on the cone.

 

[Cabinetman]

I hope this works!! If not I got the other stock skimmer i will use. It's still quite high

 

[Paul B]

Looks good to me.

 

[FirstContact]

FirstContact did Seawatec charge anymore fees other than the express shipping charge? I was looking for an impeller and they wanted 30 bucks just for shipping.

I never bought from them. A relative brought my ozone generator over when they went to visit Europe. 30 bucks sounds about right. It’s coming from Europe. You can buy Tunze powerheads for less than they sell here.

 

[Cabinetman]

Well it's set up on my system and works better than I expected. Pump seams to draw air the same even with the extra height. I'll upload a video later. It's going to make a sweet ozone chamber I think. 45" of 8" acrylic should be plenty I'd think. Can't wait for the ozone stuff to show up!

 

[Cabinetman]

 

[Dogtown]

That’s a nice looking skimmer setup. Should do the trick and then some.

 

[Cabinetman]

That’s a nice looking skimmer setup. Should do the trick and then some.

Thanks, got about a cup full of skim mate last night and that's with salinity at 1.012. I'm pretty impressed

 

[Cabinetman]

Well got the ozone all set up. My orp was crazy low at only 107. Tonight it has risen to 121 and continues to rise. Water clarity is the best I've ever seen even after only 24 hrs. My skimmer is working way better too. Foam is basically just rolling over the cup. I didn't take any chances and vented the skimmer to the outside. Basically running the ozotech 220 wide open. I'm hoping it will eventually catch up and not have to run full time. If not I will get a bigger one. I wonder if these cheap eBay ones are any good?
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/AC110V-600mg...%3A41a8aa4f15f0a8654331961efffbe8fb%7Ciid%3A1

 

[Dogtown]

Congrats again on that DIY ozone reactor/Skimmer you made. IMO, the skimmer makes more skimmate initially when ozone is first introduced and that's because the water is being "cleaned up" if you will. After a week or so you may notice that skimmate production drops back to normal and maybe even less than before. From what I understand on the theory here, that happens because you've essentially cleaned up your water so well that there isn't as much gunk to pull out of the system on an ongoing basis so that's a good thing. Look forward to that.
The other thought that comes to mind is that your ORP reading sounds too low. From your video, your tank looks clean so that low of an ORP number seems strange. When I started using an ORP probe, it needed a significant amount of re calibration before it was accurate. It was something like 80 off. It read about 180 but was closer to 250 once properly calibrated. I used calibration fluid that came with the probe to fix that. I had the controller and orp probe for a few months before getting the ozone generator. Before introducing ozone, ORP reading was always around 230-260. Currently the controller keeps the ORP reading to around 325. Be careful to insure your calibration is correct! You have a large tank so you are probably safe running a 200 at full blast 24/7 but don't risk overdoing it. If you go much above 400 in real ORP, a good thing becomes a bad thing fast. At least that is what I have read. That 600mg ozone generator is cheap enough but it may not be necessary, may be loud, and may be junk. Did you say you have a controller?