To Ozone or Not to Ozone (Part II)
Raj Shingadia5 days ago
So I left you hanging in Part I, but promised to get into the health risks and how to choose an ozone generator. So let’s dive into that a bit. Ozone has a crisp and almost sweet smell. It’s hard to describe, but it smells clean with a bite. In the short term, adults can experience headaches, breathing problems, chest pain, coughing, and eye, nose and throat irritation. It can also worsen asthma symptoms for asthmatics and worsen symptoms in people with heart disease. For children, they could suffer permanent lung damage or even worse. I have read of cases where fertility can be affected, so in homes with expectant mothers or young children, it’s best to avoid using ozone due to the potential of harmful exposure which is known but not quantified.
Dogs and cats are highly susceptible to ozone issues. Being heavier than air, ozone will sink and accumulate near the ground. And unlike other gases,due to its low vapor pressure, it won’t fill the room evenly, leaving our low laying friends breathing high ozone levels. Remember, anything that can oxidize, will. Including the animals outside of the aquarium, exposure to ozone can kill your fish too. I have a client who went too heavy on the ozone and killed the entire tank overnight. It was devastating on many levels, but that action is what led them to me and now they don’t have to worry about that happening again.
It’s important to note that both OSHA and the EPA have set zone exposure limits. These limits are based on exposure throughout the day (8 hours for OSHA). Think of it as getting doused by a bucket of water. You’d be drenched and quite unhappy at the moment it happened, but if no more water is poured on you for the rest of the day, you’ll be completely dry by the end of the day (maybe not happy, though). With ozone exposure, you could be exposed to a high level of ozone for a minute, and then either none or very little for the rest of the day and if the average is below 0.1 ppm, OHSA says you’re okay. Does that make you feel better? Yeah, me neither.
For the whole Part II article, please go:
To Ozone or Not to Ozone (Part II) | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog
How to choose an ozone generator for your aquarium. Health hazards of using ozone.
reefbuilders.com
For the Part I article, please go:
To Ozone or Not to Ozone
To Ozone or Not to Ozone Raj Shingadia 53 minutes ago I deal with all manners of aquarium filtration equipment at my side gig at MRC. Over the years, there have been many introductions to the market that I’ve disliked and refused to implement. But there’s one, that I actually like, but I...
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