UV on when Ozone on

Mikeltee · May 6, 2024

I'm always looking for new ways to increase my luck with my reef rank. Over the past 6 months, I've stalked the classifieds looking for a deal on an ozone reactor. That all ended the day I read Paul's posts on the subject. I went out and bought the $40 generator, hooked it up to the second nipple on my skimmer, and pushed it with a 10gal Tetra air pump. I turned it on to 20% and within an hour my water was crystal clear and I also noticed a better skim flowing into my Skimmate Locker. I'm sold on ozone...

I also purchased a $20 ORP probe that has good reviews here. ORP didn't budge and it's quite low, so I ordered some calibration fluid just to see how far it's off. I've read that it's best not to calibrate so I am just going to use the difference as an offset if it is indeed off.

I have an oversized UV plumbed inline through my return, but I can't grow algae in my ATS with it on so I turned it off. I want to be cautious with the ozone. I plan to run it 4 hours at night. Would it be best to turn the UV on at this time?

volitan85 · May 7, 2024

Hello, ı always wonder this. I mean using ozone and uv together at the same time. So here is my experience:
For years ı am usıng uv and ozone together. As you said, after starting ozone on skimmer, the room smells like, ı am like near a sea shore. İt smells like algae. And water becomes more clear. Using uv alone not like that. I cant see any difference on water clearness when using ozone. But together they are useful. On fish health and disease treatment. Yellow water treatment. And ı can say after ozone incoming, corals seems more happy like more open.

Mikeltee · May 7, 2024

volitan85 said:
Hello, ı always wonder this. I mean using ozone and uv together at the same time. So here is my experience:
For years ı am usıng uv and ozone together. As you said, after starting ozone on skimmer, the room smells like, ı am like near a sea shore. İt smells like algae. And water becomes more clear. Using uv alone not like that. I cant see any difference on water clearness when using ozone. But together they are useful. On fish health and disease treatment. Yellow water treatment. And ı can say after ozone incoming, corals seems more happy like more open.

Thanks for your observations. Even with fresh mixed Saltwater, I can see a high concentration of tiny organics when viewing a sample. It is even easier to see when you add flow. I no longer see these organics with ozone. Last night, I ran 4 hours of ozone with my UV triggered on when the ozone is on. Nothing was dead this morning and I didn't smell ozone. I am highly familiar with the smell and if aren't, I suggest turning on your generator and giving it a sniff. A little isn't going to hurt you. That way you know what it smells like if you have a leak or if you want to see if your generator is still working. "The smell of the ocean" is what Google says it smells like and to me, it smells nothing like the smell of the ocean or "right before it rains" which I'd another Google term for the smell of ozone. To me, ozone smells like ozone and nothing else smells that way.

I guess going forward, the goal will be to observe the tank for a concentration of organics. Let's say I start getting them back an hour after feeding. I will know that I need to add a certain amount of ozone X amount of time after feeding. I don't see the point in ozone other than to get rid of organics and to get rid of the stank. IMO, 24x7 is an unnecessary risk so I will develope a schedule and post my notes here. The goal will be to never observe organics, never smell my tank, and continue to grow Algae in my ATS. If Output Ozone = ON, Then UV = ON.

Mikeltee · May 7, 2024

I just realized that I had a significant bump in my ORP trend last night. I'm looking forward to the calibration solution to see how far its off. Its a sterile tank that was cycled in Nov from Dr Tims, Microbacter7, and lifesource. I added my first corals only a few days ago. It's stocked pretty heavy and I feed heavy. The rock is Phosphate bound as well. With 50% recommended GFO, I try to maintain .1/10. I harvest from the ATS bi-weekly. I have a little cyano going on. I'll hit it with the Microbacter7 and coral snow trick on Friday and that will take care of it.

I think that I'll bring it down to 2 hours at night. That dropoff at 4am is insane! I'd appreciate any comments towards this trend. Is this a bad thing?

taricha · May 8, 2024

Can you show what the ORP does when no ozone is running for a few hours, then what it does while running ozone for hours?
If it doesn't budge - I'm wondering if it's actually making relevant amounts of ozone at all?

Randy Holmes-Farley · May 8, 2024

If you pass the ozone water over GAC before it gets to the tank, there should be no interaction of note with a uv. If you do not, I’m not sure exactly what effect the uv will have on the ozone produced oxidants in the ozone water.

volitan85 · May 8, 2024

taricha said:
Can you show what the ORP does when no ozone is running for a few hours, then what it does while running ozone for hours?
If it doesn't budge - I'm wondering if it's actually making relevant amounts of ozone at all?

The ozone level in water does not rise quickly. This can only happen if you turn the ozone machine setting too high. but this would be very dangerous. for both aquarium and human health. I tried it many years ago. There is no value at very large intervals

taricha · May 8, 2024

volitan85 said:
The ozone level in water does not rise quickly. This can only happen if you turn the ozone machine setting too high. but this would be very dangerous. for both aquarium and human health. I tried it many years ago. There is no value at very large intervals

Many people who run ozone (without UV) use the ORP rise to monitor the ozone level in the water, and dial their Ozone dose. It's likely the entire reason ORP probes exist in the hobby. They measure basically nothing of interest in aquarium water otherwise.
So that's the direction where my question is coming from.

Randy Holmes-Farley · May 8, 2024

Which is a good question. While I used ozone 24/7, I don’t think that is necessary for reducing yellowing of the water, which IMO is the main use of it.

Mikeltee · May 8, 2024

I never noticed yellow water. It's the tiny particles that I notice and what I am trying to get rid of. I killed a Tang with GAC. I don't plan to ever use it again unless I need it. I have a jug of rox .8 and was successful for a decade running it. Then one day my buddy died. It was my fault. I had too much in a qt tank. Regardless, it turned me off on the use of it so it's there for emergencies.

Here's my trend since I hooked up the probe. I've read that they take a week to settle in. I noticed some particles in my tank this evening so now I have a 2 hour on time at midnight and noon. My skimmer went nuts for some reason while I was at work. Luckily the prox sensor in the skimmate locker shut her down. The skimmate was unlike anything I've thrown down the toilet before. It was almost gel like. Weird... The skimmate definitely smelled like skimmate. My wife hasn't complained about the smell of the tank since I started running the ozone so that makes me happy.

X-37B · May 8, 2024

My tanks 3 weeks old. I have run ozone since day two. Orp was 200 with fresh salt water. It is 3 weeks old now and at 320. It dropped to 150 when the live rock was added.
My system will always have particulate in the water because its bare bottom with high flow.
It takes time to see a rise in orp. It has helped process the 150lbs of live rock and any die off that occured.
It definately helps the skimmer as the skim is like you said something different.
The smell is on par with a sewer and thats being nice.
You cant smell it in the sump but take off the lid and well its bad.
I run my ozone reactor 24/7 with no air dryer.
Im looking for an orp of 400 which is the current shut off point.
So far im happy with it. Its the first time I have ran it through a reactor.
Time will tell as to how efective it will be to the overall health of my system.

gbroadbridge · May 8, 2024

Mikeltee said:
I never noticed yellow water. It's the tiny particles that I notice and what I am trying to get rid of. I killed a Tang with GAC. I don't plan to ever use it again unless I need it. I have a jug of rox .8 and was successful for a decade running it. Then one day my buddy died. It was my fault. I had too much in a qt tank. Regardless, it turned me off on the use of it so it's there for emergencies.

Here's my trend since I hooked up the probe. I've read that they take a week to settle in. I noticed some particles in my tank this evening so now I have a 2 hour on time at midnight and noon. My skimmer went nuts for some reason while I was at work. Luckily the prox sensor in the skimmate locker shut her down. The skimmate was unlike anything I've thrown down the toilet before. It was almost gel like. Weird... The skimmate definitely smelled like skimmate. My wife hasn't complained about the smell of the tank since I started running the ozone so that makes me happy.

Ozone does not remove particulate matter, you remove that with mechanical filtration.