Kermit Posted April 13, 2005 Report Share Posted April 13, 2005 Hi all again, just wanting to pick your brains of knowledgable on the topic of Negative ions over Ozone, is/has this been tried instead of Ozone in the aquarium hobby?, if so does anyone know of any topics/results of it?(any links to aquarium results/trials would be great) If it hasn't been tried in the aquarium hobby is there any reason why not? I would have thought Negative ions to be pritty safe compared to Ozone from what i've read, for us humans anyways. Looking forward to your replies. Kermit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted April 13, 2005 Report Share Posted April 13, 2005 Just don't use DI water, you'll have all the ions you could want. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lduncan Posted April 13, 2005 Report Share Posted April 13, 2005 What do you mean by "negative ions" do you mean like those air purifier type device sold as "negative ion" generators? If so, i think (not 100%) they are nothing more than a low powered choronal discharge ozone generator. It created a high electric field which produces ozone (and some other nasty stuff, like various nitrogen oxides) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kermit Posted April 13, 2005 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2005 Your onto it Layton, They sell them as an air purifire that sits on your desk or in some cases large office buildings have a unit built into the Air con, they make you more alert and allow your boss to get a well work 40 hours out of you . As for Ozone, some of the things i've read scare the c&*p out of me but there are people out there using it and finding it to be a great success in their thanks, as for negative ions i haven't read enything bad, but i haven't found anything that comments on the use in aquariums either. Thats the reason for this post, if anyone knows or has any info/topics on the use of negative ions in an aquarium please reply. Kermit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lduncan Posted April 13, 2005 Report Share Posted April 13, 2005 Ozone and "negative ion generators" are for all intents an purposes the same thing. They use high electric fields to break molecular bonds to produce ozone (and other oxides) as well as potentially giving any free floating particles a static charge. Ozone has it's uses, but can be nasty. Compared with a lot of other oxidisers it has a short half life, which is good. Layton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Control Posted April 13, 2005 Report Share Posted April 13, 2005 Most Negative Ion reactors create ozone as well to remove smells Using Negative Ions would not increase the Redox Potential in the water. A Negative Ion unit that removes smells would, because it will have a UV tube in it, which creates ozone. Most would be a nightmare to try and hock up. You must remember that the most important reason for using Ozone is to alter the structure of the oxygen in the tank. The process of making ozone adds an extra atom to oxygen, that extra atom then leaves the oxygen when it makes contact with pollutants and helps lift it out of the water thus making even Deltec skimmers more efficiant than they already are, and enabling the water in the tank to hold a higher saturation of oxygen like a real reef has. Negative Ions will not do this. You can use UV water Sterilizers but the problem with them is that you are using UV and ozone at the same time and that is just to much for a reef because most of them would have to run for far to long. However Ozone units that use UV tubes to create ozone are fine. I use an old Red Sea with a built in controller, which died on me. I have bypassed the control internally so my AquaController 2 can control it. The Red Sea units use an electrical arc which is powered by what is known as a step-up transformer the primary is 220v 50HZ the secondary is 5000VAC 10mA. Basically a small lightening generator. I haven't used the UV tube type of ozone generators, so I can comment on which is best. If any of you that haven’t used ozone before decide to try these things, please ask one of us that have about setting them up, you must understand what they do and why to be able to get the best from them. Ozone can cause headaches and eye problems. Humans can smell ozone at 1 ppm. If you can smell ozone it doesn't mean that you have any in your tank water, smell the top of your tank. you will no it if it is there. Always use an o3 test kit !!! It should always read 0 ppm You must vent the top of your skimmer outside or through dry carbon. it is rare but if you use carbon it can get hot and ignite I just vent mine outside. The skimmer water output must go through carbon before it goe's anywhere else, the amount depends on the amount of ozone that the tank require. If you detect 0.05 ppm it is not a problem, don't panic, turn the unit off and check the condition of the carbon if it looks like its disintergrating then it should have been changed along time ago. The Ozone leaves the tank very quickly. Aaron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lduncan Posted April 14, 2005 Report Share Posted April 14, 2005 I fired up my new ozone generator today : Might have to turn the power down a bit. It's starting to interfere with the tv. (it's a 5kW Tesla coil in case you were wondering. same principle as coronal discharge ozone generators, larger scale though ) Layton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Control Posted April 14, 2005 Report Share Posted April 14, 2005 Seweeeet Aaron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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