Yet another Ozone question

I will try to help you, even though I have only been running my ozone for about three months now.

1. work up slowly, set controller at 300, once there stay for a week and then move to 350 and then 370-380 over the next couple of weeks.

2. answered above

3.I don't see any problem running a 50mg/hr at 100%, I have the 100mg red sea plus and mine is set at 80% and my system is only about 80 gallons.

4.Set your controller at intervals and work your way up over the next couple of weeks,

You will find that once you get to 300 and above , it is harder to maintain it at higher levels. For instance, mine climbs up above 300 with the lights out and by morning I'm around 340-350, but once the lights come on and ph starts rising , it starts falling and by evening it is around 300. Plus , when I feed my fish, it drops even more to about 280.  Then starts working it's way back up.

For cleaning your probe. I clean mine once a week with a solution from red sea that I bought from Drs. Foster & Smith. It's like 5.99 a bottle and you just soak your probe for an hour . Very easy and no mixing vinegar & water.

And one other thing, dry your beads in your air-dryer at least once a week. Your ozoniser will work a lot more efficient with dry-air.(Just ask Jon)

Hope this helps a little. I know others will chime in also. If you have more Q's  let me know.

Brad

Edited by tileman

1. I also started out slow and brought my levels up over 2 weeks. I started out at about 175.

2. about 25 - 50 per

3. I run my ozone at 50% and my controller at 350

4. Not sure how much it really matters. I figured less ozone over more time was more stable, but...

I clean my probe w/ vinegar... Forget the type. I can look at home tonight. I don't dilute mine... Am I supposed to dilute this?

Everything said above is great advice - the only addition I'll make is that I clean my probe weekly with a 50/50 RO-Vinegar solution. In the research I did full strength vinegar can greatly decrease the life of the probe. Plus, the diluted solution seems to clean it just fine.

Thanks everyone...

Immediate changes... My anemone closed up, a mushroom shrank, Torch
closed, skimmer stopped skimming.

That's when I decided it would be best to get on here and find out what to
do.

My orp was at 300 this morning, and my controller was set at 280. wierd.
I have noticed a clarity increse all ready, but then again, I put in plenty of
fresh carbon, and did a 20% water change

I can't imagine it getting any better (clarity) But I'd love to see some polyp
extension.

Corey y ou need to find someone who doesn't have ozone, get a PAR
reading, before and after they add it. I wonder what kind of effect it
might have (the increased clarity that is)

I'd also like to see a PAR reading before and after a water change (carbon
change) Before and after a salt creap cleaning of your UV glass on a
pendant etc.

Just a few chores.

xacttech wrote: My orp was at 300 this morning, and my controller was set at 280. wierd. I have noticed a clarity increse all ready, but then again, I put in plenty of fresh carbon, and did a 20% water change

I'm worried about you. You are doing too much too fast. If you are able to change water like that and to add a lot of carbon, what other changes are you making that could affect the tank? Was the water change necessary? Were N coumpounds too high? Are you testing Alk, Ca and Nitrates? What are those readings?

Playing with ozone is like playing with fire, literally. It should be considered VERY dangerous to coral and treated VERY carefully. It will kill. If it already exceeded the setting of 280, better to turn it down than risk damaging the entire tank. The coral are already responding negatively. Your tank is not that old, these kinds of changes can have significant, immediate, disasterous effects. I'd be very careful and take it a lot slower than you seem to be doing. Tanks do very well without ozone. If I recall correctly, SMatney bleached and killed a lot of coral, eventually getting rid of the ozone, because of the problems it caused.

BTW, JFinch's tank is one of the most beautiful around, fully packed with large SPS colonies grown from frags just in the last year, and he's the chemistry guru of this website, and yet he is just thinking of "trying" ozone. Does this help explain my position/concerns?

Edited by Mark Peterson

Mark, I agree 100% with your opinion. I would never run ozone without a controller, and that is why I do such a high maintenance on my tank/ cleaning the probe once a week to make sure it reads accurate. I would be concerned also if I set my controller at 280 and my reading got up to 300. I have watched my tank when it got to the setpoint , the generator shut off and it immediately started dropping back down. So I know mine works . Randy had tried talking me into using ozone over a year ago, but I had no idea how it worked, so I never even considered it untill I did a lot more research on it. That is what I would advise.

As for Ca, Alk, N, I'm not sure what you mean... I don't test for anything but Salinity, should I be testing for more???

Nope, that is fine.  In fact you may be testing for too much already.

Adam