water treatment--Ozone ?

[wethead]

I don't know if anyone noticed an item in The Phila. Inquirer the other morning that a few water treatment plants in N.J. are using Ozone instead of Chloramine for bacteria control.
What does this mean for the aquarist ? Any thoughts anyone ?.....Rich

 

[catfishmike]

not too much as water supplyers still add chlorine,but ozone is nice and and has no toxic effects on a customer level.ozone can be toxic if used at home but that is neither here nor there.ozone treated is perfectly safe for your tank.

 

[wethead]

Would an aquarist have to further treat the water someway ?
.....Rich

 

[wayne at home]

Depends on what else is in the water, and what you want to do with it - chloramine is just one more thing that may render your tapwater useless for delicate fish. If your tapwater contains tons of nitrate or phosphate for example you'll be prone to algae, chloramine or ozone or whatever

 

[wethead]

I meant, do you have to do anything to the water because it was treated with ozone ?....Rich

 

[catfishmike]

all you need is to add some de-chlor an you should be fine.no other treatment is needed

 

[wayne]

Sorry , misunderstood. No. Ozone is unstable and will have broken down to a 'normal ' level by the time it reaches you. There is alway a trace amount.

 

[wethead]

Hey Mike, if the water company is using ozone instead of chloramine, why do i have to add de-chlor ?

 

[catfishmike]

because they may still add chlorine which is less stable than chloramine but does the same job.where i live,las vegas we use ozone and chlorine.odds are you water supplyer still has to ensure that the water is safe from bacterial infection after it leaves the treatment plant.

 

[wethead]

Thanks for an answer Mike, i know water companys will never go back to just simply putting chlorine in the water but i wish they would. Our whole hobby was SO much simpler then, just aerating the water to let it de-gas & not have a need for ANY chem's at all. As you can tell, i've been keeping fish as a hobby for a VERY long time (45yrs ).....Rich

 

[catfishmike]

i don't know about where you live but our water district is one of the top water prossecing stations in the world and water quality is pretty good.chlorine levels were supposed to go down but then the whole 9-11 thing happened and the water district bumped up the chlorine for safety reasons.ozone is very safe on a consumer level but from what i have read if you try to use ozone on a hobbyist level it can be leathal if the ozone leaks into the general air in you house.uv is still more user friendly on a hobbyist level.i agree though i wish i didn't have to worry about who knows what being in my water.

 

[depthC]

I found this article at fishprofiles.com . Its about using ozone in marine and fw tanks, check it out.

http://fishprofiles.com/articles/general/ozone.asp

- depthC