Sterilizing My Grow With Ozone

[palm eezy]

I've been sucking ozone through an activeaqua 18w pump for over 2 years straight. the manifold is showing some green/corrosion and the little filter foam ring literally turned to dust when i touched it.

Did the refrigerant leak out? Or you just can't stop the water from leaking

 

[ken dog]

It's the water tank inside of the chiller that started leaking... The tank itself started leaking in the bend of the plastic...looks like it's blowing water through a sponge.

 

[ken dog]

I suppose it's entirely possible that it was a coincidence, but I doubt it... Even though the chiller is many years old, why now?... And why this type of leak?
I say, ozone abuse.

 

[ken dog]

My chiller is coming today, and today is April Fool's Day... Coincidence?. LOL

 

[ken dog]

The new 1/2 horsepower chiller is here! :)

 

[ken dog]

So here it is... All set up.

Temp went up to 77 F, and I will bring it down slowly starting at 75 F.

ORP is higher than my set value... it is set to 350mV.

Yesterday, the addition of General Hydroponics pH Down raised my ORP significantly... Started at 275mV, and went up to 420mV... I added 40 milliliters of pH Down, bringing the PH down from 6.7 to 6.1.
At the moment, it is 389mV.

 

[palm eezy]

Nice... I had a Christmas in April day myself, with all 3 carriers bringing me multiple packages today lol. Finally attempting to implement fully sealed rooms. Analog autopilot co2 controller, Cap Hum-1 controller, couple of little dehueys, blower fans a la gettogro, float valves+bulkheads for my ultrasonic humidifier setup.

 

[timmur]

Lookin good in there Ken!

 

[ken dog]

Nice... I had a Christmas in April day myself, with all 3 carriers bringing me multiple packages today lol. Finally attempting to implement fully sealed rooms. Analog autopilot co2 controller, Cap Hum-1 controller, couple of little dehueys, blower fans a la gettogro, float valves+bulkheads for my ultrasonic humidifier setup.

Gotta love those high tech gadgets!

The more I get into this Hobby, the more that the high-tech gadgets keep me intellectually stimulated.
More gadgets and more knowledge go hand in hand.

 

[ken dog]

Quick update... ORP set to 300 mV.
Tied my clones down earlier today... picture taken just a moment ago.

 

[ken dog]

Update... My fogger got here, and this is what my grow looks like as I am putting my fogger to use... It has been 20% humidity and 79 degrees F... I think my plants will like their new addition.
After one half hour, the humidity has risen to 30%.

 

[ken dog]

Quick update... 5 hours later and I hit 60% humidity.
Planta seem happy enough.

 

[ken dog]

Another update... Moved my fogger inside the grow enclosure and installed a 5 gallon water bottle reservoir for it... RO water only.
ORP is holding at 260... Here's some roots.

 

[ken dog]

Another tedious update...Lol
Installed humidity control for the fogger.
Tied my plants down again... the yellowing in the picture is from one HPS.
Orp is working well... as is the reactor... No odor at all.

 

[ken dog]

I turned the HPS off so you could see what I was talking about.
Also, forgot to mention that I put the ORP probe ahead of the ozone reactor... in the center of the exit hole in the first set of buckets...
Included two pictures to show the orientation.

 

[ken dog]

My new float valve came in the mail today... The one that came with the current culture system is much too long to use with the net pot acting as an ozone reactor.

I had to drill a hole in the new float, and then I stuck it right on the current culture float valve assembly as far as it would go... it misses the net pot by about 3/4 of an inch.

 

[MGRox]

Looking good man! The system is coming along nicely!

I did some digging on this. Most generally, ORP treatments seem to range from suggestions of 650-750 for treatments. I remember treating Ich with potassium permanganate and using ORP's in those ranges also. Here the pathogens, in general, are considered to be oxidized by the "potential" rather than the oxidative product used. (e.g. similar orp levels required for differing chemicals).

Heres a couple papers that cover dosages and contact times for various pathogens.

http://alphatechpet.com/documents/lotus pro/ATP lotus PROSummaryPathogen 2012b.pdf

Here's a chart that compares ORP level with Ozone PPMs at lower concentrations.

Here is another for higher ranges.

Last is a paper that was specifically looking at ozone in nutrient solutions. It also looks potential nutrient loss from ozone (Fe, Mn).
http://wwwlib.teiep.gr/images/stories/acta/Acta 691/691_46.pdf

It seems that sterilization (not control) of most things (including pythium) is recommended as 2ppm of Ozone. However, I can not find ozone dosages for the specific pythium that we deal with in root rot and hydro (since there are 130 types). Though the last paper did note control of pythium at 3.5 ppm (lowest tested).

 

[ken dog]

Great info there MGRox... Excellent reading information as well.

Here's another update... Things are going well, so I decided to raise my ORP to 300mV, but less than 350mV.
Seawater is usually between 350 - 400mV.

Here's another update on the veg... Getting close to two weeks since they were introduced from the clone machine.
Still tying them down, and super cropping.
Here's a picture of a single plant and its roots.

 

[ken dog]

Another quick update... Both air conditioners are installed and running, now that the humidity is up and they are working...

ORP is holding at around 350mV with no issues.

Another picture of the roots.
EC 2-3...(180 ppm on the 700 scale)
Ph...5.8-6.2
Temp 76F...24.4C
Rh 55
Water temp 69F...20.5C
.

 

[ken dog]

Cultured Solutions and Raw Nutrients by NPK.
.