Ozone, carbon & Discus?

[fullmonti]

I am changing over my 180gal saltwater reef to a planted Discus tank. I currently have a full ozone system running. I think it would help with water quality to use it on the Discus tank. BUT I keep see threads that talk about not running activated carbon full time on a Discus tank, just to remove medication etc. Why do some say this? Is it so? I have read here, some do use ozone & AC to remove the ozone before the water goes back into the system. So it must be OK? Also I run a ozone safe airline with needle valve to regulate pressure in ozone reactor, to air intake of my skimmer now. I wont have a skimmer to do this with the freshwater system. I tried running that line out side before, but there is a little water with the air/gas & it froze in the line in winter. How are you doing the bleed off of that little bit of pressure? Looking forward to hearing opinions & experiences.

Thanks
Jim

[jimg]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with using carbon with discus. The main reason that many do not use it is because of the amount of wc done.

[Maria Ashton]

You probably know this but if you use Carbon in your filters and you have to medicate you need to remove the carbon whilst the meds are active, but then carbon is very useful for removing the last traces of medicine. To be honest you will probably not treat a display tank, more likely a hospital tank so its not really an issue.

I am thinking about getting the Philips aquarium purifier for my freshwater display tank, it works on ozone. Just waiting to read more opinions on it, I would be interested to know what you thought of using ozone in your saltwater tank.
Maria

[Darrell Ward]

I know that one or two people on the forum that use ozone to cut down on water changes I guess. I prefer to keep things simple as possible. It's always worked for me. Back years ago, some people used to believe carbon use could lead to HITH, but I think that has pretty much been proven to be BS over time.

[fullmonti]

Malga

Ozone on my saltwater tank is great. Water clearer, nutrients lower & skimmer skims more.

If I didn't already have the system I wouldn't go out & buy one for the freshwater. But since I wouldn't get that much for my used system might just as well use it.

Hopefully one of the ones using ozone will see this & say if & how they bleed excess air/gas pressure off the reactor.

Thanks for input!
Jim

[Maria Ashton]

Thanks, I am thinking about one as I have such a nightmare with my tank, there are small particles of floating debris - probably from the beef heart mix, and some cyanobacteria or BGA as some call it. I do large water changes at least twice a week, usually more and wipe down all the wood, glass sides and plants but it only stays clear for a day or two. The philips purifier is supposed to give you crystal clear water and help break down organic matter - sounds perfect to me. I still intend to do frequent water changes but perhaps not 50 - 75% each time, I am going to overhaul my tank anyway and remove most of the plants, change substrate to fine sand and keep things simple. There are a few on here who are reef keepers or ex, so I am sure you should get some answers but you might want to post the last line as a separate thread: how do you belled excess air/gas pressure off of an ozone reactor - or something like that.
Hope you get some answers
Maria