Ozone Build

[Bowzer]

Hi all! I am designing an ultra low maintenence Ozone system and would love anyone's input.

Purpose: To design an Ozone chamber to provide Ozone to my 60g reef aquarium (in process) with the goal of water clarity and intermittent breakdown of organic wastes. In my design I am attempting to produce an ultra low maintenence system that doesn't require constant ORP monitoring 24/7 and does not require changing carbon filters.

Design:
Ozone generator - Poseidon 200
Air Pump - AL-6SA In-Line Vaccum Air Pump
Reaction Chamber - Reef Octopus BR-110
Reaction Chamber Media - BRS polypropylene bioballs
Ozone exhaust chamber - Reef Octopus BR-110
Exhaust chamber Media - ARM coarse aragonite media
Pump - SICCE Syncra 0.5

Key Points:
1. Dry air pulled into Poseidon from suction from the SICCE pump
2. Ozone fills the BR110 chamber #1
3. Water is pulled over the bioballs to increase contact time
4. Ozonated water is pulled up the center of BR110 chamber #1
5. Water is pumped down the center of BR110 chamber #1
6. ARM media allows increased contact time for ozone to exit water
7. Water overflows BR110 back into tank
8. Air that enters chamber #2 is exhausted to the outside
9. System is only ran at night for 3-4 hours

Questions:
1. Will the suction from the SICCE pump be strong enough to pull water up into Chamber #1 (after being primed), or do I need a second to feed the system? Or should I just move the pump to before Chamber #1? I didn't want to do this because then it would create a positive pressure chamber that could (theoretically) backup into the ozone generator and I would then need an air pump
2. Will the suction from the SICCE pump be strong enough to pull air through the Poseidon, or do I need an air pump
3. Will the second chamber need to be filled with carbon or does the ARM provide enough contact surface to allow the Ozone to exit by the time it reaches the top of chamber #2 (or is this theory completely bogus)
4. Since I don't care about ORP in the tank, my main goal is the breakdown of the organic molecules for both water clarity and for east of my denitrifying bacteria to uptake the broken up organics, but do I need to monitor ORP anyway?
5. Since I am exhausting the second chamber outside, I shouldn't need a carbon filter on the exhaust airline, but is there a reason to put one anyway?
6. Do I need a carbon filter on the water return side? This seems to be a highly debated topic...

Anyways, I will be putting this system together to test in the next couple of weeks. I will be using this on a Red Sea 300 XL system that will have both fish and LPS/Softies.

Thanks again for anyone's input!!

 

[Sean Clark]

Personally I think that you are over complicating the entire system. You stated that your goal was an ultra low maintenence Ozone system. A small air pump and the Ozotech unit connected to your skimmer and an orp controller (Milwaukee) is all you need.
Yes you do need to monitor orp. Too high and you can hurt your livestock.
You can spend extra money on a dryer if you like but it is generally not needed and is an added consumable cost.
Just my thoughts. I have been running Ozone for almost a decade.

Edit: my Ozone setup is zero maintenance.

 

[Bowzer]

You bring up a very good point! I do tend to overcomplicate everything!

I do not plan on running a skimmer, so I am looking for a system that injects the ozone into the water and then allows gas to vent to the outside. I have the Avast Marine ozone reactor which acts just like the first chamber in my design, but the second chamber is where the difference lies. For the Avast Marine ozone system, the water is then dripped over carbon to remove it from the water before pumping back into the tank. I would like to replace this chamber with a chamber that fills from the bottom and then vents the bubbles (excess ozone) to the outside of the house and then the water overflows back into the tank. This in theory would eliminate the need for carbon for both the air exhaust and for the water. I have an ozone detector, so we will see if this is enough to vent the ozone or if there is no way around putting carbon after the reactor.

I do plan on using an ORP controller, so you bring up a great point that I do not want the ORP to raise too high to hurt the livestock. I wonder if the ORP will really get high enough given I am only running it for a couple hours at night instead of 24/7, but I won't really know that until I start using the system.

I debated drying the air, both to increase the quality of the ozone and to extend the life of the ozone generator. I currently only have the dryer media instead of the auto dryer, so it will be interesting to find out how long that is going to last me before I have to "recharge" it in the oven. I plan on pulling air from a room away from the tank, so I'm hoping the media will not be consumed quickly. If so, I may just get the auto dryer.

Thank you for the reply!!! =D I appreciate all thoughts on this. I'm just attempting to improve on an already proven method of nutrient breakdown.