How to increase ORP

Dalmerjd

Premium Member
Premium Member
Is there anything I can do to increae the ORP of my freshly mixed salt water?
 
The freshly mixed salt water is RO/DI water. I thought ozone only worked on breaking down organics? Organics in this water should already be extremely low.
 
Is there anything I can do to increae the ORP of my freshly mixed salt water?

This is an old thread but what was the ORP of your freshly mixed saltwater? My tank is just cycling now and my ORP is 240. Does not seem to go higher.
 
The lower ORP might be due to issues with the probe or the increased organic load that seems fairly common with tanks that have a lot of decay occurring. How has the probe been calibrated?
 
The lower ORP might be due to issues with the probe or the increased organic load that seems fairly common with tanks that have a lot of decay occurring. How has the probe been calibrated?



You're not suppose to calibrate ORP probes according to BRS and Apex


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How long has the probe been in use? It often takes a few days to a week or so for the reading to climb after placement in the tank.Some probes require calibration;the hobby grade types I've seen including mine don't have a clcibration feature.

Low ORP is likely an indicator of high organic content in the water and/ or high pH. I'd wait unitl the probe has been in the waer for a week or so and the cycle is complete before attempting to interpret the reading though.
 
ORP probes can be calibrated using an appropriate solution, or at least checked, depending on your definition of calibration. I personally wouldn't trust an uncalibrated probe all that much as far as the value it's showing, but it could still spot trends. Personally, I'd ignore the ORP until the tank is more stable. Lots of processes can lower the ORP while the tank is cycling.
 
Yes I do check mine with a calibrated solution from time to time.
 
Yes the tank is still cycling. I'll leave it be for now. My ORP is up to about 245 now so it's creeping up slowly. I have very little organics in the water and not too much live rock. We will see.


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One sure fire way to raise ORP is to add bleach. I hope that serves to illustrate how useless the ORP number is by itself.
 
Could also raise it with sodium nitrate, I suspect ;but why?

I monitor ORP for trends and some clue to increased organics. I got a monitor/controller years ago when I was thinking abut dosing ozone but decided against the ozone and the potential toxicity of OPOs;since, I have the monitor I use it and log the readings but honestly it doesn't give me much if any actionable data.

I don't think treating newly mixed salt water with ozone is practical or useful and is more likely to be harmful overall. I also doubt the orp alone in newly mixed salt water makes a positive difference to the aquarium. The ozone only lasts a few seconds and would be gone by the time the new water was added to the tank, but the potentially toxic ozone produced oxidants will likely last longer in the surrounding air and the water.

... the ozone reacts with many different chemicals in the seawater including organics, ammonia, iron and other metals, bromide and iodide. It may also interact with viruses, bacteria and other organisms drawn into the chamber. The ozone itself survives for only a few seconds in seawater, but it leaves other reactive oxidizers (called ozone produced oxidants, OPO; for example, hypobromous acid, BrOH) in its wake. These can further react with organics and other materials and are also potentially toxic, so they should be removed before the water is released to the aquarium. Much of ozone's benefits happen in this chamber, where, for example, the water is made "clearer" as certain pigments in dissolved and particulate organic molecules are destroyed.

Water leaving the reactor is optimally passed over an amount of activated carbon sufficient to remove the remaining ozone produced oxidants. The carbon catalytically (and also noncatalytically) breaks down these oxidants before they enter the aquarium. The air passing out of the reactor also contains ozone, and is also best passed over activated carbon to reduce the aquarist's concern for airborne ozone's toxicity....


from this article:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-03/rhf/index.php

This article on ORP may also be of interest:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-12/rhf/feature/index.htm
 
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