Keno and Javon who have fairly large systems and they've been having great success with ozone reactors. Over the last year or so they've been proclaiming how great they are for organic breakdown and water clarity. The pessimist in me goes straight to all the negative stories I've read about them and found myself dismissing any necessary need for my tank. Yes, from time to time I would visit their tanks and comment on how clear the water was, it was as if the fish were floating in air. Don't get me wrong, when I look at the reactors something in the back of my mind forces me to dissect it to the basic concepts to full understand the process and because I do that, I think of ways to build one.
Every trip to those guys' house pushed me closer to making a reactor for myself. It wasn't until Bill sent me a text saying that he recently added an ozone generator and ran it through his skimmer that I started to think this might be a good time to make one. I mean come on, the weather is starting to cool off and it's time to start some projects in the shop!! I told Bill that I've read that larger systems don't benefit from just a generator pumping into a skimmer. I believe it has a lot to do with home safety, running it through a skimmer doesn't allow you to turn the ozone high enough or long enough to make a difference before you start to put you and your families health at risk [by emitting ozone into the house].
I discovered that in order to be beneficial to larger systems you need a reactor to increase contact time and a method to remove any excess O3 from leaking out of the effluent. Basically all the reaction is taking place inside the reactor and preventing any health concerns we may have by adding activated carbon to remove any ozone before it enters the tank.
I was passing that knowledge off to Bill, you know the larger systems requiring a reactor, and that I've been toying with the idea to make one. Make one, mostly because I see the price of reactors and know that I can easily cut that in half and have a nice looking finish product at the end. He insisted that I should make one for him as well. That was the nudge I needed to get the ball rolling.
The next day, I started to put together a rough list of materials needed. O3 is corrosive and can degrade certain plastics in no time. Material selection is critical when picking out the right equipment and parts. I started reading up and it turns out that many plastics we already use are naturally ozone resistant like silicone, acrylic, PVC, even the printed filament PETG. My research also pointed me to a plastic called kynar, which seems to be the one of the industry standards for machines that incorporate O3.
I'm also going to be looking at some of the ozone reactors that are on the market for inspiration, the 2 that always come to mind are the avast marine one and the one from geo.
With all this: I spent the last few days consolidating a list of materials, and I think I've ordered just about everything that I can think of. certain things I was able to get locally, like the acrylic cylinders and an assortment of the sch80 PVC plumping parts. The bulk of the stuff is coming from US plastics (kynar fittings and ozone resistant hose) and an online plumbing supply.
While parts start to trickle in, I'm going to be spending my time taking what's in my head and designing it on solidowrks. Stick around, this should be fun...
here's 3", 3.5", and 4.5" acrylic..
Every trip to those guys' house pushed me closer to making a reactor for myself. It wasn't until Bill sent me a text saying that he recently added an ozone generator and ran it through his skimmer that I started to think this might be a good time to make one. I mean come on, the weather is starting to cool off and it's time to start some projects in the shop!! I told Bill that I've read that larger systems don't benefit from just a generator pumping into a skimmer. I believe it has a lot to do with home safety, running it through a skimmer doesn't allow you to turn the ozone high enough or long enough to make a difference before you start to put you and your families health at risk [by emitting ozone into the house].
I discovered that in order to be beneficial to larger systems you need a reactor to increase contact time and a method to remove any excess O3 from leaking out of the effluent. Basically all the reaction is taking place inside the reactor and preventing any health concerns we may have by adding activated carbon to remove any ozone before it enters the tank.
I was passing that knowledge off to Bill, you know the larger systems requiring a reactor, and that I've been toying with the idea to make one. Make one, mostly because I see the price of reactors and know that I can easily cut that in half and have a nice looking finish product at the end. He insisted that I should make one for him as well. That was the nudge I needed to get the ball rolling.
The next day, I started to put together a rough list of materials needed. O3 is corrosive and can degrade certain plastics in no time. Material selection is critical when picking out the right equipment and parts. I started reading up and it turns out that many plastics we already use are naturally ozone resistant like silicone, acrylic, PVC, even the printed filament PETG. My research also pointed me to a plastic called kynar, which seems to be the one of the industry standards for machines that incorporate O3.
I'm also going to be looking at some of the ozone reactors that are on the market for inspiration, the 2 that always come to mind are the avast marine one and the one from geo.
With all this: I spent the last few days consolidating a list of materials, and I think I've ordered just about everything that I can think of. certain things I was able to get locally, like the acrylic cylinders and an assortment of the sch80 PVC plumping parts. The bulk of the stuff is coming from US plastics (kynar fittings and ozone resistant hose) and an online plumbing supply.
While parts start to trickle in, I'm going to be spending my time taking what's in my head and designing it on solidowrks. Stick around, this should be fun...
here's 3", 3.5", and 4.5" acrylic..
