Ozone kills my skimmer performance

[fryman]

I have a Simplicity 240DC that normally works very well and pulls plenty of skimmate under normal operation.

However, if I turn on my ozone generator, the bubble column collapses into this dirty-looking foam that never reaches the cup, and crud starts building up on the inside body of the skimmer. Very little skimmate is pulled to the cup, and this persists awhile after turning off the generator. I only need to run the ozone for a few hours per day, but the skimmer seems hamstrung for the rest of the day if I do. The only way to get my skimmer to skim properly again is by cleaning out the whole body/neck, which is a hassle.

I love the water clarity from ozone but it looks like running ozone through this skimmer doesn't work well.

I'm debating between trying another skimmer or some sort of reactor instead.

Do other people have similar issues getting a skimmer to work well with ozone? I've been considering switching to life reef, but it's pricey. But available ozone reactors are also really expensive. Maybe I could just build something with PVC or RO tubing?

TY for any suggestions.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Some folks claim that ozone hurts their skimming and some say it improves it.

It’s a somewhat complicated situation as there may be less to skim anyway.

Ozone and the Reef Aquarium, Part 1: Chemistry and Biochemistry by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

Ozone and the Reef Aquarium, Part 2: Equipment and Safety by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

Ozone and the Reef Aquarium, Part 3: Changes in a Reef Aquarium upon Initiating Ozone by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

From the first one:

Skimming is a complex process that has many subtleties. The previous sections have discussed how ozonation modifies organic molecules , and we can then extrapolate how those processes impact skimming. Years ago it was widely claimed that ozone use increased skimming, and I claimed then that I didn't see how that could happen directly. Most organic compounds likely to be found in significant quantities in a reef aquarium will become more polar and likely less skimmable after it reacts with ozone. Figure 3, for example, shows how oleic acid (readily skimmed) gets converted into more polar compounds that will not be so readily skimmed as they will not be as strongly attracted to an air water interface.

A small portion of organic molecules in reef aquarium water may become more skimmable if, for example, they become more hydrophobic after reaction with ozone. They may also become more skimmable if they were totally hydrophobic before ozone and were transformed into molecules with polar and nonpolar parts (called amphiphilic) which more readily absorb onto an air water interface and are skimmed out.

Are there other ways that skimming might be increased besides these two processes? I hypothesized in a previous article that it was due to the growth of bacteria (either in the water itself, or bound to surfaces), and possibly also the release of new organic molecules as they grew, that caused the effects some aquarists observed.

It seems as if the tide of opinion has turned, however, and most aquarists now claim that the amount of skimmate is reduced significantly when using ozone. Many claim that the collection of skimmate has nearly stopped in their aquaria when starting ozone. Why the difference compared to past opinion? That's hard to say, and may depend on the types and qualities of the skimmers available now compared to years ago, as well as changes in other husbandry practices. In any case, the overriding experience of many aquarists today is that skimming is reduced, and the presumed reason is that the organics are being made chemically less skimmable by ozone. The remaining organics would then be removed more by bacterial processes than before the initiation of ozone in the same aquarium.

 

[Pistondog]

I have a Simplicity 240DC that normally works very well and pulls plenty of skimmate under normal operation.

However, if I turn on my ozone generator, the bubble column collapses into this dirty-looking foam that never reaches the cup, and crud starts building up on the inside body of the skimmer. Very little skimmate is pulled to the cup, and this persists awhile after turning off the generator. I only need to run the ozone for a few hours per day, but the skimmer seems hamstrung for the rest of the day if I do. The only way to get my skimmer to skim properly again is by cleaning out the whole body/neck, which is a hassle.

I love the water clarity from ozone but it looks like running ozone through this skimmer doesn't work well.

I'm debating between trying another skimmer or some sort of reactor instead.

Do other people have similar issues getting a skimmer to work well with ozone? I've been considering switching to life reef, but it's pricey. But available ozone reactors are also really expensive. Maybe I could just build something with PVC or RO tubing?

TY for any suggestions.

Have not noticed what you describe, but i only run ozone once a week for 90 minutes.