Ozone in your pond

Ozone sounds familiar to most people. Either owing to the ozone layer or the odour that is released by some printers. However, many people do not know that ozone can also be used very well to clean water. Ozone has been applied for years to treat drinking water in replacement of chlorine. Also in swimming pools ozone is more and more applied, because chloride may cause irritation of skin and bronchial tubes.

The past few years ozone is more and more used in hatcheries, zoological gardens and koi ponds.
Using ozone is a very good supplement to your existing filter system. An ozone equipment will never be able to be a match for the capacity of a main filter, for this reason a proper biological filter will always remain necessary.

What is ozone?

Ozone is composed of 3 oxygen atoms (O3) and is made from oxygen. Oxygen is composed of 2 oxygen atoms (O2). Conversion of oxygen into ozone can be realized in 2 ways, namely by UV-light with a low wavelength or by means of high tension. The last option is the most used method, because the maximum ozone concentration that can be reached is much higher than when applying UV and besides also the power consumption per gram of ozone produced is far lower.
It is quite instable and wants to get rid of 1 oxygen atom as soon as possible so as to return to normal oxygen.

Ozone in koi ponds

Ozone is used to remove substances from water that are difficult to separate from it. You might think for example of colourings, nitrite, residues of medicines and pheromones. However, it will also kill bacteria, parasites and viruses and it will do this much more effectively than a UV lamp. It is just reacting, however, with substances, parasites, bacteria, etc. which are passing through the reaction vessel. Reason why the good bacteria which are contained in your filter will not be attacked. After the ozone will have carried out its work, merely pure oxygen will remain! The use of ozone will reduce the parasite and bacterial pressure and thus decrease the chance of illness.

Please remember, however, that an ozone equipment can never be considered as a filter in itself. A proper biological filter will always be necessary. The use of ozone is just a proper extension of the existing filter capacity.

Attention! If improperly used, ozone will be dangerous (both for you and for your fish), therefore seek expert advice before you are going to purchase an ozone equipment!