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Ozone is a most wonderful substance, provided you're not a really small
living organism. It is the second strongest oxidising agent known. This means in
a nutshell that ozone rushes around like a mad thing, finds something it can
attach itself so and oxidises it. By oxidise I mean react with, but in a
specific fashion. Ozone can thus be used to supplement existing filter systems
in Koi ponds to varying effect. This is great news. Ozone thus has the potential to wipe out any free floating
algae, viruses, pathogens, free swimming bacteria and so forth, reducing itself
to beneficial dissolved oxygen in the process! Is this too good to be true?Well, yes and no. Yes, if you run too much ozone in the pond, so much that it
starts getting into your biofilter before being completely broken down - under
these circumstances I would think that most of your Koi would already be dead
(oxidised!). No, if you run it in appropriate quantities. This is yet another
reason why it is important to know exactly your Koi pond volume...Too little ozone won't do any harm. It just won't do much good either. As with
all things there is a balance. To all intents and purposes Ozone is not measured, it is the Oxidising Reduction Potential of the water which is measured in
milliVolts - the more ozone there is, the higher the mV reading. The table below
serves as an illustration. I sourced it from
http://www.ozoneapplications.com
0-150 mV ... No practical use
150-250 mV ... Aquaculture
250-350 mV ... Cooling Towers400-475 mV
Swimming pools450-600 mV
Hot Tubs600 mV
Water Disinfection
*800 mV ... Water Sterilization
In water, ozone's half life is remarkably short - from the same site:
Dissolved in Water (pH 7) Temp (C) half-life is 15 degrees ...
30-minutes 20 degrees ...
20-minutes 25 degrees ...
15-minutes 30 degrees ...
12-minutes 35 degrees ...
A half life is the time taken for the concentration to halve. So at 15C, the concentration of ozone after one hour is a quarter of what it was at the start.
I am aware of some thoughts made public on the internet of how people would not use Ozone because of fish "falling apart" when you stop using it or the fish are moved into a system that does not incorporate ozone in its system. This would suggest that ozone destroys the fish's natural immune system by keeping it in a sterile environment - I would not say that this is untrue BUT a.) if it was a sterile environment then your fish would already be dead as sterile water cannot support life of any form and b.) from a human point of view, if you have to go to hospital and you are cared for in an ITU which operates in a "sterile" manner, does this mean when you go home you are more susceptible to disease / illness?I believe that this thought may have derived from someone who used ozone on their system and stopped, if the filter system is not performing appropriately then a build up of pathogenic bacteria will occur and will attack . Ozone is not the be all and end all of koi filtration but a very useful add on tool if used correctly.
living organism. It is the second strongest oxidising agent known. This means in
a nutshell that ozone rushes around like a mad thing, finds something it can
attach itself so and oxidises it. By oxidise I mean react with, but in a
specific fashion. Ozone can thus be used to supplement existing filter systems
in Koi ponds to varying effect. This is great news. Ozone thus has the potential to wipe out any free floating
algae, viruses, pathogens, free swimming bacteria and so forth, reducing itself
to beneficial dissolved oxygen in the process! Is this too good to be true?Well, yes and no. Yes, if you run too much ozone in the pond, so much that it
starts getting into your biofilter before being completely broken down - under
these circumstances I would think that most of your Koi would already be dead
(oxidised!). No, if you run it in appropriate quantities. This is yet another
reason why it is important to know exactly your Koi pond volume...Too little ozone won't do any harm. It just won't do much good either. As with
all things there is a balance. To all intents and purposes Ozone is not measured, it is the Oxidising Reduction Potential of the water which is measured in
milliVolts - the more ozone there is, the higher the mV reading. The table below
serves as an illustration. I sourced it from
http://www.ozoneapplications.com
0-150 mV ... No practical use
150-250 mV ... Aquaculture
250-350 mV ... Cooling Towers400-475 mV
Swimming pools450-600 mV
Hot Tubs600 mV
Water Disinfection
*800 mV ... Water Sterilization
In water, ozone's half life is remarkably short - from the same site:
Dissolved in Water (pH 7) Temp (C) half-life is 15 degrees ...
30-minutes 20 degrees ...
20-minutes 25 degrees ...
15-minutes 30 degrees ...
12-minutes 35 degrees ...
A half life is the time taken for the concentration to halve. So at 15C, the concentration of ozone after one hour is a quarter of what it was at the start.
I am aware of some thoughts made public on the internet of how people would not use Ozone because of fish "falling apart" when you stop using it or the fish are moved into a system that does not incorporate ozone in its system. This would suggest that ozone destroys the fish's natural immune system by keeping it in a sterile environment - I would not say that this is untrue BUT a.) if it was a sterile environment then your fish would already be dead as sterile water cannot support life of any form and b.) from a human point of view, if you have to go to hospital and you are cared for in an ITU which operates in a "sterile" manner, does this mean when you go home you are more susceptible to disease / illness?I believe that this thought may have derived from someone who used ozone on their system and stopped, if the filter system is not performing appropriately then a build up of pathogenic bacteria will occur and will attack . Ozone is not the be all and end all of koi filtration but a very useful add on tool if used correctly.
