ORP rollar coaster!!

[MammothReefer]

I can't seem to get a stable ORP. I've been dosing OZONE for weeks now and it just doesn't want to rise.. When it finally did start to rise, it went hay wire so I cleaned my ORP probe and it was right back down.. basically I started at about 280 over the course of 2-3 weeks climbed to 325, and the poof it dropped back to 280 overnite. I'm trying to shoot for 360-400. I do water changes every week, and considering the volume of water I don't have that high of a bioload. I've got the ozone reactor cranked up to 100mg, and it's going threw a Coralife ozone reactor and then into a phosban reactor full of carbon..

My skimmate is black, and I run my skimmer very wet (since I have a undersized skimmer atm)

 

[Pyrrhus]

Water changes will knock down your ORP, try doing less water changes.

 

[jdieck]

There are many things that afect the ORP other than just water purity. As mentioned above some salt mixes (Like Tropic Marin) contain certain conditioners that will drop the ORP significantly. (In my case a 13 to 15% water change can drop the orp from 370 to 230 mv.
Other things that afect the orp is feeding, the night daily cycle, and cleaning the probe. After cleaning a probe might take up to a week to start getting a proper reading and some times it never does as the reading just keeps on increasing until you clean it again.

More on Ozone and ORP:

Ozone

Ozone and the Reef Aquarium, Part 1: Chemistry and Biochemistry
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-03/rhf/index.php

Ozone and the Reef Aquarium, Part 2: Equipment and Safety
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-04/rhf/index.php

Ozone and the Reef Aquarium, Part 3: Changes in a Reef Aquarium upon Initiating Ozone
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-05/rhf/index.php

ORP and the Reef Aquarium
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-...ature/index.htm

 

[benf]

interesting that the orp drops when changing water, i would have thought it would increase by offering fresh nutrients and removing old. Maybe i should decrease from weekly to bi-weekly water changes.

 

[MammothReefer]

I wish I could pull of the bi-weekly to montly water changes..but If I let things go that long I have nothing but problems, but yea thats exactly what my probe was doing the first time, it just started going up and up, and up to like 500mg and the ozone was set to shut off at 375 which is why I thought it was really odd that it kept climbing, I cleaned the probe and poof back down to 300orp.

 

[prop-frags]

There are many good threads on here about the use of O3, in addition to the ones listed; search if you can and you'll find a lot of good info.

IME, it is best to clean your ORP monitor probe frequently - I give mine a couple of strokes with a toothbrush every 2 or 3 days on average. I don't concern myself with the normal maintenance things that alter ORP. I use TM salt and see the temporary drop in ORP when I do water changes - it is an understood and expected effect so I don't change either my ORP controller settings, or my water change schedule. I turkey-baste my live rock and sand before each water change, so I figure the additional O3 that gets put into the system after each water change is OK to help restore water clarity.

 

[MammothReefer]

OH, don't get me wrong I've read the majority of threads, just annoyed that I can't seem to get my ORP up even though i've been dosing 100mg for 3 week straight 24/hours a day..

 

[RichConley]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8591942#post8591942 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jdieck
After cleaning a probe might take up to a week to start getting a proper reading and some times it never does as the reading just keeps on increasing until you clean it again.

Jdieck, IMO, and according to all the research I've read, its exactly the opposite.


Its only accurate for a couple of days after being cleaned. Deposits on the probe lead to false highs.

 

[RichConley]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8593467#post8593467 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MammothReefer
OH, don't get me wrong I've read the majority of threads, just annoyed that I can't seem to get my ORP up even though i've been dosing 100mg for 3 week straight 24/hours a day..

100mg is a LOT of ozone. I dosed 5mgs, and it was barely ever on, and kept my orp at 400.

How are you dosing.?

 

[jdieck]

Something I forgot to mention is that installing the probe before the return pump were the water is cleaner might help get better readings, also if you have a ground probe remove it to prevent ground loops, finally if you have other probes try to keep them away from it as far as you can.