Reef Octopus Ozone Reactor

My Nitrate level has risen from about 1 ppm (normal) to about 16 ppm (too high for mixed reef) since getting my ozone generator and Reef Octopus OR150 reactor "dialed in." I believe the Nitrate rise is probably because of the bio-balls in the reactor "degassing" chamber that supposedly optimizes the ozone mix with the water. As we all know by now, trickle-down filters with bio-balls are nitrate factories. However, the O3 reactor manufacturer (Coralvue) assured me that the nitrifying bacteria would not grow in the chamber because of the proximity to the ozone gas. My theory is that for about a month my ozone generator and air pump pushing the ozone into the reactor were shutting on and off to keep the ORP between about 380-390 based on my apex program, which worked perfectly to do that. During the "OFF" periods, since no ozone was running, the degassing chamber with the bio-balls was effectively a trickle-down filter. Since then I've tweaked the generator and airflow to keep the ORP below the 390 cap so it will stay on all the time, theoretically keeping the nitrifying bacteria in the chamber at bay. Yet so far it seems that the Nitrates are still rising. Does anyone have any personal experience with this? My gut reaction is to just take out the offending bio-balls, or return the reactor to my LFS supplier and just run the ozone through the skimmer. FYI my system is a 300 gallon mixed reef, filtered with a well-stocked refugium, bio-pellet reactor, Purigen instead of GAC, UV, skimmer, and 100-micron filter socks. I dose Red Sea NOPOX to supplement the bio-pellets for Nitrate/Phosphate control, and that had been working fine. Temp 77-78 F; Ca 400-425 ppm; Mg 1380-1400 ppm; Alk 9-10 dKH; salt 35ppt; pH 8.3; PO4 .02 - .04 ppm. So everything is spot on except the Nitrates, which I believe are causing cyan to bloom on the sand bed. Please ONLY if you have expertise with these ozone reactors I would appreciate your thoughts. Thanks![emoji41]


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I would tend to agree with the manufacturer of the reactor that the inside of your reactor would be a very unhospitable place for any nitrifying bacteria and there are a couple of other possibilities you may want to consider:

1. If you're using a corona discharge ozone generator and not passing the input air through a dryer, you may be introducing nitric acid to your setup. Ozone is such a strong oxidizer it can react with relatively inert nitrogen (and water vapor) in the air to form nitric acid. Nitric acid itself is an oxidizing agent and will form metal and organic nitrates under the right conditions.
2. Ozone reacts with ammonia to form nitrate.
3. Ozone further oxidizes nitrite into nitrate.