Ozone controlling parasites in a marine aquarium.

The benefits of using an ozoniser in a marine aquarium were never high priorities on my list of required gear for a great result in an aquarium, that’s all changed now!

Many times I would dream of being able to afford an auto feeder for the aquarium and at the same time a way to help keep parasites, to some degree, at bay and have little to no affects on inverts.

To achieve this and improve the quality of the aquarium water seemed a bit too hard to afford.

From what I have seen of the result in Marks tank with the ozonisers production of chlorine at tolerable levels, used correctly I would never recommend that a hobbyist do with out this form of mechanical filtration.

It is mainly designed for the removal of micro organisms in the area of water that it passes through.
This has no affect on the parasites on the fish.

Most use this in the protein skimmer on the air intake as it can run its course in there and be dissipated into the water collum as it does its job.
Ozone produced with moist or humid air contains elevated levels or nitric acid. An air dryer can be used to reduce or eliminate this effect as well as improve the quantity of ozone produced by the Corona discharge method. Ultraviolet light and Cold plasma are 2 other types of ozone generators.

Storage of ozone is not possible, as it decays into diatomic oxygen. It is commonly recommended that activated carbon be used in association with ozone treatment as a chemical remover.

I found the following descriptions on measurement easiest to understand rather than use my own messy words.
Common Methods for Measuring Dissolved Ozone

ORP or "Redox" A two-electrode ORP (oxidation-reduction potential) or "redox" meter measures the oxidizing capacity in the water. It is not selective between different oxidizing agents such as chlorine or ozone, but for destroying bacteria and other things that distinction isn't always important. ORP meters are inexpensive but require local calibration based on local water chemistries and the probes should be maintained frequently. ORP meters don't need temperature compensation.

Electrochemical The ozone migrates through a permeable membrane and then is converted to oxygen. The relative quantity of oxygen is measured by an electrochemical cell. Electrochemical instruments are usually configured for on-line use. The probes are expensive, easily damaged, and require regular maintenance, but these instruments are much more ozone selective than ORP meters, and are widely used in larger systems.

Wet Chemistries and Test Kits Wet chemistries in use mainly are titrations of iodine solutions and indigo trisulfonate (ITS) test kits. With the test kits, the blue indigo is bleached with ozone and the color difference is usually measured by a digital colorimeter. The indigo reagent is purchased in one-time use glass ampules. These test kits are very specific for ozone and are relatively inexpensive if not too many ampules are regularly consumed. They are fairly intricate to use, however, and the reagents lose their calibration if they have been stored for a long time.

Ultraviolet (UV) Absorption The ozone is removed or "stripped" from the water and the ozone is measured in air by a UV absorption analyzer. This method is very specific to ozone, is capable of high accuracy, and many concentration ranges can be accommodated.
High concentrations can also be measured by UV absorption directly in the water. The equipment cost tends to be out of range for small systems however.

Of the above the Oxidation Reduction Potential is the most common way to control ozone dosing in the aquarium. Remember it doesn't measure ozone just the effect it's having by means of regular testing of ORP. ORP is a measure of waters capacity to gain or release electrons. As an electron is gained the ORP level drops, where as an electron lost results in a higher ORP reading.

ORP levels in aquariums regularly range from 200mv to 450mv, with a healthy normally being between mid 300's to early mid 400 mv.
The following relates to probes and measure.

ORP is measured in units of millivolts (mV), or Eh (1 Eh = 1mV). The standard hydrogen electrode (SHE) is the reference from which all standard redox potentials are determined, and has been assigned an arbitrary half cell potential of 0.0mV.
However the SHE is fragile and impractical for routine laboratory and field use. Therefore Ag/AgCl and saturated calomel reference voltages are commonly used.
The voltages of the different reference electrodes can be interrelated with respect to the SHE reference electrode, as per below:
TPS 90FLMV add 199 to your reading
In-Situ MP TROLL 9500: add 200 to your reading
Hanna ORP and combination meters - add 204mV to your reading

So if using the 90FLMV, and your ORP reading is -150mV, this becomes 49mV in terms of the SHE.

The affects of this form of micro organism control is not with out it’s draw backs in that you need to remove the chemicals that result from this form of mechanical filtration.

Personally I would use a substantial form of algae scrubbing for this or if the money is available as stated earlier, by the use of activated carbons.

Affects from chlorine in water as the lower part of the bag has been affected.




Twin machines on marks 5 by 5 tank.