Trip down Ozone road

[Jay Z]

Because I have mental issues which force me to keep buying new equipment when Im bored, I thought Id see where everyone else is at on the ozone subject and share my thoughts on my setup.

2 months ago I started entertaining the idea of running ozone. I did my norm, research, research, research. Read possible benefits and negatives. Ozone leakage and how to control it was my "don't get it" concern, but me being me, I knew someone had a answer for this.

I came across Avast's Mutiny v2 ozone reactor, problem solved.

I ordered the mutiny, carbon reactor to go with it and Poseidon 200. Avast said you may or may not need a air dryer.

Not going to lie, was a little taken back when I opened the mutiny box, hoses and barbs everywhere. After 5 minutes of looking it over, I had a grasp on how she works.

Mutiny came with a sicce 1.5 to recirculate the water/ozone mix. Also a sicce .5 for water return. Plus a small air pump and ozone safe tubing. Extremely well put together package.

Hooked everything up and ran 24 hours with ozone off per avasts directions (10 years ago I would have just started it off the get go)

My normal orp is around 300-325, my target was 400. 2 days of struggling and I wasn't getting over 335, no benefits observed. Had the point of sale 200 set at 10 and max air flow, set output flow to 35 gph as recommended, So I started researching when a air dryer was needed. Best info I found is 30% humidity is the magic point. Im at 40-45% in my basement so I ordered a BRS large silica air dryer. Excellent heavy duty unit, was impressed. ORP instantly shot up. After I crested 400, I turned on the apex orp control on that outlet. I set it for 400 low and 415 high. After the air dryer, I'm now set at 1/4 air flow and 2 on the point of sale and 35 gph on the return pump.

Setup was mutiny in the sump, carbon reactor is just in front of the sump for now, return line runs to my nyos skimmer water intake (just in front of it, to suck the air bubbles up) then a vent hose out the top of the skimmer to my air exhaust box (that was already installed, hate the smell)

After a month of a solid 400 ORP setting I can say I like the results.

Non beneficial results I noticed are water clarity, reduced brown/red algae, normal tank smell gone.

Beneficial results were all my LPS and softies almost doubled in size for how big they open. Had one mushroom split then another move away from the new split, crawled onto a little rock, i took him out and relocated him in my other tank, had wanted to do that forever. Clam extension was noticeably bigger. Skimmer produces stuff like I've never seen before

I am extremely happy with the results over the last month.


If you run ozone too, what are you target numbers and what if anything have you noticed?
Positive, negative, nothing, etc?

 

[Jay Z]

 

[blstravler]

I've run Ozone in all of my past tanks and will do so on my new tank. Had similar benefit as you mention above.
The Avast ozone reactor looks nice - just very pricey. I've always pushed ozone directly into my Skimmer in the past.

 

[Jay Z]

1 month update for the ozone trip. WARNING INCLUDED

Softies have never been bigger, torches and zoas noticeably extended. Copepods have exploded in number since I started running it (noticeably tigers). Water is crystal clear. Parameter have maintained stable, skimmer produces weird slime stuff like i've never seen before, filter socks get dirtier way quicker. BTA and inverts thriving.

My tigers are so big now I see them carrying pellet food around my sump at night.

WARNING!

Says carbon should be changed in the post reactor every 3 months. 2 days ago I woke up with a soar (irritated) throat and sore lungs (minor) I read all the precautions for ozone leakage and recognized the symptoms. Checked all fittings and seals, every thing was good. Turned off the ozone, symptoms went away in about 15 minutes. Started it back up and they returned (hour or so) Left off for the night and repeated the next day, same thing. Thought about it before I went to bed, I can't smell ozone, no leaks, must be the carbon is used up. Shut it down again and changed the carbon out in the post reactor. Started it back up, no symptoms present now (2 days)

I could not "smell any ozone" and I do have a excellent sniffer so it must have been hanging in the water. Which I noticed my water had the smell start to change about 5 days ago that I couldn't put my finger on, not ozone, but not my normal reef water either. Really hardtop describe, it was not offensive, but not great. It did go away after I changed the carbon and back to my normal relaxing smell.

So use discretion on when to change out your post carbon, looks like mileage will very on the carbon life. I got 32 days out of my post filter, luckily the avast carbon replacements are dirt cheap.

 

[Jay Z]

If you have a apex this is how data looks when the post carbon was done. Left is the normal pattern, right is after failure pattern. ORP continued to climb on its own after ozone was shut off. I think that happened because the water from the return still had ozone in it and saturated the tank water with it, which it should not be in.

 

[Retro Reefer]

WARNING!

Says carbon should be changed in the post reactor every 3 months. 2 days ago I woke up with a soar (irritated) throat and sore lungs (minor) I read all the precautions for ozone leakage and recognized the symptoms. Checked all fittings and seals, every thing was good. Turned off the ozone, symptoms went away in about 15 minutes. Started it back up and they returned (hour or so) Left off for the night and repeated the next day, same thing. Thought about it before I went to bed, I can't smell ozone, no leaks, must be the carbon is used up. Shut it down again and changed the carbon out in the post reactor. Started it back up, no symptoms present now (2 days)

I ran one for years but stopped using it for this exact reason, with two young kids in the house at the time it wasn’t worth the risk to my family’s health.

 

[Jay Z]

I ran one for years but stopped using it for this exact reason, with two young kids in the house at the time it wasn’t worth the risk to my family’s health.

I completely understand that, can open up all sorts of respiratory issues and even the start of asthma.

Just wanted others to know what to look out for if you do choose to run it, or are trying to modify a skimmer to run it. I was running the recommended 35 gph out put into the skimmer intake as recommended, measured at 1.5 cups per 10 seconds. Ozone set low (2 out of 10) so I was tip toeing on the ozone, not going full bore. Little goes a long ways.

 

[Darrell Brady]

notice you have the reactor in the sump it didn't want to float? I have been thinking going ozone for a while now,how long is the dryer lasting?

 

[Jay Z]

notice you have the reactor in the sump it didn't want to float? I have been thinking going ozone for a while now,how long is the dryer lasting?

Its heavy enough that it doesn't want to move at all. The brs dryer has been on a little over a month, 1/3rd used on it per color change, so looking like 3 months over the summer, probably another month or 2 in the winter, humidity around 30-35 in the winter. My humidity in the basement has been holding steady at 50%.

After seeing the quality of the avast products, I will be buying more from them. Some of the nicest pieces Ive seen so far.

 

[saltwaterpicaso]

I used to run mine on full blast and kept the orp up at 400 and your right I had mushrooms that would open up to 8 inches in diameter they were monsters. after a year the water became to clean and the corals started to fade in color that was with 2 pellet feedings a day threw the autofeeder, 2 cubes at night mixed with selcon and plolypbooster and coral frenzy and a sheet of nori lol. I took it offline orp went down to 325 to 350 now and overall better coral health. even with carbon there was an odor, I did notice the tank smell was gone I still have the ozotech 220 if I was to run it again I would have it run at night for a few hours just to break up some left over organics in the water. I do run UV as well that I will always run.

 

[Jay Z]

I used to run mine on full blast and kept the orp up at 400 and your right I had mushrooms that would open up to 8 inches in diameter they were monsters. after a year the water became to clean and the corals started to fade in color that was with 2 pellet feedings a day threw the autofeeder, 2 cubes at night mixed with selcon and plolypbooster and coral frenzy and a sheet of nori lol. I took it offline orp went down to 325 to 350 now and overall better coral health. even with carbon there was an odor, I did notice the tank smell was gone I still have the ozotech 220 if I was to run it again I would have it run at night for a few hours just to break up some left over organics in the water. I do run UV as well that I will always run.

I also tried a uv with the ozone, corals were not happy. Put the uv on my salt mix tank to prolong the cleanings on it.

 

[Jay Z]

My $20 Duncan frag. He closed up with the uv off and came back full force after it was back on for a couple hours!

He might get kicked out of the 6 already. Never had a frag open to 3+ inch off the get go.

 

[Jay Z]

Once were stable at 400 I will be changing the orp set point every week to see what reacts and how. Will go from 400 to 410, then 390, the 420, 380 and so on.
Running 2 orp probes and controllers (Apex and Milwaukee)

Will report back with updates and issues.

 

[Jon Fishman]

If anyone wants a review on the efficacy of this unit, and a review that is much better than I can provide, here is a little interaction I had when I got mine:

After 3-4 days of having my Avast Mutiny V2 setup, my girlfriend told me she was amazed at how clear the water was, and told me that she honestly expected ME to be the only one who would notice!

So yeah, she has grown accustomed to my obsessing over the tank, and OCD about what I do/should do to make this a little cleaner, that a little better, this open more, that grow better etc....... but this was an honest “average person’s” reaction to the effects of adding ozone to my tank.

My skimmer is absolutely running 100 times better now too..... thick brown skim at an alarming rate to the point where I upgraded the BM Curve 5 Elite to a Curve 9 elite rated at 400 gallons for my 150g system