Orp Spike and Tank

[PaulieReef]

Recently started doing Ozone and I am facing the weirdest problem I have ever faced when it comes to reef chemistry and honestly stumped. I went through all my settings to see what could be causing this issue and cant figure it out. Maybe someone has come across this before and can help answer it.

I setup Ozone about a week ago and ever since, my ORP goes up an hour and 5 minutes, and then tanks an hour and 5 minutes later (usually) occasionally there are some variations but essentially every hour it goes up and then down.

I checked my ozone generator and everything seems fine as in still has a green dot and no error codes (Poseidon 200), my Avast reactor is operating the same as before. Cleaned the ORP sensor, tried another ORP sensor.. and its the same activity.

Moved the ORP sensor to the display to see if it read differently.

Just kinda stumped and hoping someone can shed some light. Or maybe give me some ideas for what to look for.

Additional information: I have turned off my ATO, set my power heads to constant to stop any possible variables from happening.

Poseidon 200 is set to 7 as per Avast instructions. 375g tank, 100g sump.

Any suggestions will be helpful, im ripping my hair out. Trying to get orp a stable 350.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I suspect it is electrical interference of some sort.

Check to see what devices have wires near the power cord for the meter, or the ORP probe cord itself.

Is their an air conditioner nearby? Something else that cycles on and off?

It's not water input from an ATO?

 

[PaulieReef]

I suspect it is electrical interference of some sort.

Check to see what devices have wires near the power cord for the meter, or the ORP probe cord itself.

Is their an air conditioner nearby? Something else that cycles on and off?

It's not water input from an ATO?

Never thought of electrical interference. I attempted to nullify anything that would cycle in the tank. So ATO has been manually turned off, everything else is a standard current, even put my power heads on "constant" instead of the gyre mode they were on. I moved the ORP probe to the display tank to see if I still experience the spike and peak like I did in the sump, I do have a lot of electrical in the sump.. as I am mildly obsessed with tech for this hobby.

 

[PaulieReef]

Figured why not see what ChatGPT has to offer.. I do have high nitrates.. and a heavy bacteria load.. no idea.

 

[Lebowski_]

I can't wrap my head around how organic loads would cause ORP to crash then spike like that in such a short period, with that kind of consistency.

Could you hit breakers for big appliances, then remove all load from the tank's circuit, then see if it still crashes?

 

[PaulieReef]

I can't wrap my head around how organic loads would cause ORP to crash then spike like that.

Could you hit breakers for big appliances, then remove all load from the tank's circuit, then see if it still crashes?

Only reason I do not think it is an electrical issue is the tank is on its own circuit, I have 2x 20 amp circuits dedicated to the tank, half the tank is one and another is the other half the tank. Additionally, I have only noticed this spike and tank when using Ozone, If I do not use Ozone, my orp sits at a stable 275, with normal variances. All major appliances are not near the tank and looking at the output from the Apex, I am not seeing any weird currents or spikes im amps.

I switched the ozone off of the reactor onto a skimmer and seeing if I see the same activity. If I do not, then I can conclude its something with the reactor.

 

[Lebowski_]

Only reason I do not think it is an electrical issue is the tank is on its own circuit, I have 2x 20 amp circuits dedicated to the tank, half the tank is one and another is the other half the tank. Additionally, I have only noticed this spike and tank when using Ozone, If I do not use Ozone, my orp sits at a stable 275, with normal variances. All major appliances are not near the tank and looking at the output from the Apex, I am not seeing any weird currents or spikes im amps.

I switched the ozone off of the reactor onto a skimmer and seeing if I see the same activity. If I do not, then I can conclude its something with the reactor.

Now that you mention that you only see it with ozone on, I feel like you are on the right track. Will be following along to see what you find out.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Only reason I do not think it is an electrical issue is the tank is on its own circuit, I have 2x 20 amp circuits dedicated to the tank, half the tank is one and another is the other half the tank. Additionally, I have only noticed this spike and tank when using Ozone, If I do not use Ozone, my orp sits at a stable 275, with normal variances. All major appliances are not near the tank and looking at the output from the Apex, I am not seeing any weird currents or spikes im amps.

I switched the ozone off of the reactor onto a skimmer and seeing if I see the same activity. If I do not, then I can conclude its something with the reactor.

Electrical interference is common, and cords near each other are often the culprit, regardless of what circuits they are on.

There is no in tank processes, aside from timed additions of some sort, that impact ORP in this fashion. Thus, all ChatGPT ideas along those lines can be discarded as explanations.

 

[PaulieReef]

Electrical interference is common, and cords near each other are often the culprit, regardless of what circuits they are on.

There is no in tank processes, aside from timed additions of some sort, that impact ORP in this fashion. Thus, all ChatGPT ideas along those lines can be discarded as explanations.

Currently not experiencing the drop since I switched it to the skimmer. The arrow is where I switched it (red), the second dip is where I moved the ORP probe out of the display to the sump (orange).

So starting to think its somehow possibly the reactor.

 

[PaulieReef]

4:12pm switch off the skimmer back to the Avast reactor, current ORP chart. ORP was at 310. Once again, the red is where I put it on the skimmer and took it off the ozone reactor.

Lets see what the next few hours hold.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Just to be clear, the ozone generator is not on any sort of controller or timer? Just flat out "on"?

I still think electrical interference is the issue, especially with the moving change, but it might also overheat, shut itself down, then turn back on and cycle like that. I have no idea if your generator can do that, but it might explain the results.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

There's no AWC (water change) going in, right? Water changes can instantly drop ORP.

 

[PaulieReef]

So as of right now everything is “working”. I did a few steps and I am not sure which could have resulted in this being fixed.

1. Dosed some carbon read somewhere that ozone doesn’t have enough to feed off of could cause a collapse.

2. Adjusted the output of the ozone reactor to go into the next chamber of the sump instead of further on in the sump. My sump is divided into 3. Tanks separated by 1.5 inch pvc pipe. Instead of it going later in the second sump I routed the pipe to the 3rd tank.

3. Mounted the ozone reactor higher than the actual reactor.

I would love to replicate the issue and truly figure out what has caused it but as of last night before the lights went out. The water was insanely clear and I don’t want to jinx anything.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

1. Dosed some carbon read somewhere that ozone doesn’t have enough to feed off of could cause a collapse.

That explanation doesn't make any chemical sense, so discard that idea and don't continue to get chemical advice from wherever you saw that.

These articles have more:

ORP and the Reef Aquarium - Reefkeeping.com

Ozone and the Reef Aquarium, Part 1: Chemistry and Biochemistry by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

Ozone and the Reef Aquarium, Part 2: Equipment and Safety by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

Ozone and the Reef Aquarium, Part 3: Changes in a Reef Aquarium upon Initiating Ozone by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

 

[PaulieReef]

That explanation doesn't make any chemical sense, so discard that idea and don't continue to get chemical advice from wherever you saw that.

These articles have more:

ORP and the Reef Aquarium - Reefkeeping.com

Ozone and the Reef Aquarium, Part 1: Chemistry and Biochemistry by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

Ozone and the Reef Aquarium, Part 2: Equipment and Safety by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

Ozone and the Reef Aquarium, Part 3: Changes in a Reef Aquarium upon Initiating Ozone by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

Will read these today. Appreciate your time Randy!