Ozone use with an ETSS 800 - Ozone Smell

[jkapit]

I just purchased a 100mg/hr ozone unit to use with my ETSS800.

I have a small air pump hooked up to the ozone unit then I have an airline from the ozone unit inserted into one of the air injectors.

My belief is that the ETSS sucks in a lot more air than the air pump hooked up to the ozone unit can pump so I think the skimmer is ingesting all of the ozone and not escaping out the air injector.

I also have fresh carbon in a container on the outlet vent of the waste container to prevent ozone gas from escaping.

I do not have any carbon on the outlet of the skimmer into the sump since I've read in many posts that this is really not necessary.

I've only had the ozone setting at 25-50% and if I run this setup overnight the next morning there is a bit of an odor in the tank stand and in the tank room.

At this point I am not running the ozone until I build a carbon canister to hook up to the output of the skimmer.

If any one else has used ozone with an ETSS please provide any other recommendations you have.

The other idea was to snake an air stone down one of the downdraft tubes and up through the air injector to administer the ozone. I'm just wondering if that is a better way to insure no ozone escapes out the air injectors.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,


Joel

[Bugger]

tag

[jkapit]

fYI, just an update,

I originally set up my ETSS 800 skimmer with ozone, but smelled ozone in the room so I ordered the coralife reactor. After playing with the Coralife reactor for a couple days I decided to try to get the ETSS working with ozone. Now that I am focusing on using the ETSS I've done some more work to reduce/eliminate the ozone smell.

The first mod to the skimmer was to replace one of the air injector elbows with a speed-fit fitting for 1/4" tube. I connect the ozone generator with no air pump to the speed-fit fitting and am let the skimmer draw the ozone in from the ozonizer in one of the downdraft towers. Thus, eliminating the need to use the air pump.

I built a new carbon air filter out of 3" PCV which attaches to my waste container. The one that came with the unit only had an inch of carbon on the top of the container and I though maybe it was not catching all the ozone. So the one I made forces the air output of the skimmer to go through a 6" tall tube of carbon which has seemed to help.

To insure I have no residual ozone returning to the tank I actually have 3 1-liter filter cartridges from Lifereef that I have filled with carbon. I am using a Quite One 900GPH pump to process the water at the far side of the sump so virtually all the water that the ETSS is expelling will get treated with a trip through the carbon.

I tried to make a large cannister filter on the outlet of the skimmer, but it created way too much back-pressure and the skimmer was leaking water out the air injectors. Not a pretty event!

The last mod I plan to make for this setup is to cover the small section in my sump where the water exits the skimmer. ETSS skimmers produce some micro bubbles and they rise to the surface in the area so I am going to make a cover and put a vent on it with carbon just to make sure the microbubbles are not expelling ozone into the air.

So basically, since I am pushing 900 gph through the skimmer which creates a thick white foam I figure I am getting much more out of the ozone than the smaller reactor which is processing 100GPH.

Right now I've been running it for 24 hours and no ozone fumes! I'll keep you posted on further progress.

[Bugger]

What is a speed injector fitting. I don't really understand what you did. How come you only run 900 gallons through your skimmer? I run that amount on a 500.

[jkapit]

The speed injector fitting is a standard 1/4" line fitting that you push the airline into and it holds it in place with an O ring and a male NPTF fitting on the opposite side.

This is a good picture of one of these, but Home depot has it in the exact size to screw into the side of the downdraft tower where the white Elbow injector goes. That way, as the skimmer sucks in air it is drawing in from the ozone unit.

http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=RO5117

I'm probably running between 900 and 1000 GPH through the skimmer since that is what the Iwaki pump is rated at. Actually, I have to restrict the air on my skimmer a little bit otherwise the skimmer would overflow running the pump wide open.

I am using the ETS sump and I guess the water level in the sump creates enough back pressure on the skimmer so that I cannot run the pump full open and air full open.

But anyway, I still am getting an ozone smell even with the new air-cartridge filter I built. My guess is that so many micro-bubbles are released in the sump and also the speed at which the water enters and exits the skimmer is forcing ozone into the sump.

So at this point I have just disconnected the ozone until I find a better way to use it.