Yugang (Horizontal) Ozone Reactor?

[RickyV]

My 350 gallon tank has recently been having issues with water clarity, I think due to the big blackworm culture connected to my tank. I decided on using ozone and have been doing research on how reefers do it. Most reefers inject ozone into their protein skimmer to use as a reaction chamber for the ozone, some get dedicated reactors for the ozone. These reactors are typically vertical trickle chambers that are pressurized. Randy Holmes Farley from reef2reef uses a 100ft coil of 3/4" tubing as his reactor (essentially a horizontal reactor). I already had parts from my previous Yugang CO2 reactor so I decided to rebuild it for ozone. The reactor is 2" in diameter tubing, about 9 ft in length. I added 200 ft of 1/2" tubing after the main reactor to increase contact time. After the 200ft of tubing the water goes into a carbon chamber to filter out any remaining ozone/oxidants. Though I plan on replacing the carbon with a UV sterilizer as this can also break down ozone, and add additional water clarity. @Yugang what is your opinion on this application of your reactor? Anyone here use ozone on freshwater tanks? Still trying to figure out the optimal air flow and water flow.

 

[Yugang]

@Yugang what is your opinion on this application of your reactor?

I have no knowledge of the application of ozone in planted tanks.

The physics of the horizontal reactor works for any pure gas that sits in a pocket above a water flow. The gas will diffuse into the water, and some gases will diffuse back into the gas pocket. All gases aim for an equilibrium of partial pressures between the gas pocket, and dissolved in the water as per Henry's law.

I would just caution to not overdose ozone, as the horizontal reactor generally is more powerful than vertical bubble reactors that I see are used in the reef hobby. Ozone has a solubility of more than 100 ppm in water, while if I am correctly informed applications for ozone in reef aquaria are at less than 1% of that. When enough ozone gets injected into the reactor, it seems very well possible to inject far more than 1 ppm into the water, and I have no idea what that would do the the inhabitants of the tank.

 

[RickyV]

I have no knowledge of the application of ozone in planted tanks.

The physics of the horizontal reactor works for any pure gas that sits in a pocket above a water flow. The gas will diffuse into the water, and some gases will diffuse back into the gas pocket. All gases aim for an equilibrium of partial pressures between the gas pocket, and dissolved in the water as per Henry's law.

I would just caution to not overdose ozone, as the horizontal reactor generally is more powerful than vertical bubble reactors that I see are used in the reef hobby. Ozone has a solubility of more than 100 ppm in water, while if I am correctly informed applications for ozone in reef aquaria are at less than 1% of that. When enough ozone gets injected into the reactor, it seems very well possible to inject far more than 1 ppm into the water, and I have no idea what that would do the the inhabitants of the tank.

Thank you. The vertical bubble reactors used in reef tanks actually get completely full of air because of the low solubility of the ozone enriched air, so they essentially become trickle filters with a plastic media added to them. I am curious how the surface area of the water in one of these trickle reactors compares to that in the horizontal reactor. So far I am not leaking any ozone from the reactor since I cannot smell anything. I am passing the ozone effluent through a UV sterilizer and carbon reactor which should keep any ozone and it's oxidants from entering the tank. Here is my tank right before the addition of ozone/UV. I will update once I dial this in and see improvement.

 

[RickyV]

I am curious how the surface area of the water in one of these trickle reactors compares to that in the horizontal reactor.

Well according this aquarium science article 8.6.3. Trickle Aquarium Filters. "The surface area of fast-moving water/air interface in a trickle filter with one cubic foot of bioballs will be roughly fifty square feet, or ten times the surface area of a typical 100-gallon aquarium." But I suppose the trade off for this high surface area is less water volume reacting with the ozone and less contact time.

 

[RickyV]

Cloudiness fixed with Yugang ozone reactor! I could probably boost the clarity even more with a filter sock but I really don't like changing/cleaning them.