Diatom earth charged micron filter raises ORP?

[TheReeferer]

To fight ich in an overcrowded tank I’ve added a commercial micron cartridge filter to my system. It’s the Inland Nu Clear filter, I stacked 3 together so it’s running three 25 micron pleat filters. And it’s charged with about 15 cups of DE. I’m using a 900gph high pressure iwaki pump to push water through it. The system is around 75gal total. So very “over filtered”.

Everything is running well and after 2 weeks, the ich became visual gone from all fish. But something I noticed is the ORP is increasing slowly over this time. It was always around 300 and now climbed to 460. Does this seem right or something else is going on like bad probe?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I suspect that 460 is not accurate unless you are adding oxidizers somehow.

I do not doubt that removing organic particulates might raise ORP, but not that high.

As an aside, why are you using this filtration?

 

[TheReeferer]

I suspect that 460 is not accurate unless you are adding oxidizers somehow.

I do not doubt that removing organic particulates might raise ORP, but not that high.

As an aside, why are you using this filtration?

Thanks Randy. I’m using it for ich management. It has done wonders in just 2 weeks. Ich is no longer visually noticeable on all fish!
The DE is dusty and a pain to charge but it’s worth it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thanks Randy. I’m using it for ich management. It has done wonders in just 2 weeks. Ich is no longer visually noticeable on all fish!
The DE is dusty and a pain to charge but it’s worth it.

OK, thanks. :)

 

[rishma]

What’s the theory for why it helps ich?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I presume the claim is to filter out suspended life stages, but I do not know if it is effective.

 

[reely989]

I'll be honest, those ORP probes that we buy in the hobby seem like they change pretty abruptly with just about any change to equipment/flow direction/etc in the tank. I really only use it to notice trends once it has stayed stable for a bit.

 

[TheReeferer]

What’s the theory for why it helps ich?

The DE coats the micron filter and takes it from 25 micron to I believe around 1 micron. It filters out certain stage of ich that’s bigger than 1 micron or so.

Theory is if sized correctly against tank volume it can significantly reduce viral load without employing UV.

I guess side affect is higher ORP, not sure if that’s good or bad yet as it’s indiscriminately filtering out everything bigger than a certain size.