ORP, What's up with that?

[Will Milberger]

As Jerry Seinfeld says. I have a RKL and it came with an ORP probe. So, it's hooked up and my tank is now on weeks two and I have an ORP of 347. Doing some research, it becomes cloudy. It says if it is too high (600+) nothing lives. Too low (<100), you have a gunked up tank.

The tank is cycling. I've added startup and feed a small pinch of fish food flakes every couple of days. My ph is a little low (7.8), Alk around 120. Nitrate and Nitrite is high right now (160ppm and 10.0 ppm, respectively)

I've got the brown stuff (diatoms) showing up on rocks and substrate, so something is growing in here. So, does this ORP mean anything, or do I do some water changes and not pay any attention to it?
Or, am I missing the big picture?

 

[Reeferdood]

ORP is used for a general guideline to possibly alert you if something is wrong. It stands for Oxidation Redox Potential and it is not a necessary piece of equipment to be successful at reef keeping. Randy wrote a very informative article about it a while back, it is an instant hit on google.

 

[Greybeard]

Eh.

ORP is one measurement I've never given much attention to.

To some, it is a useful signal that 'something' is wrong... if it varies outside of it's usual range, it's time to take a closer look. That's about all I know about it... it's a canary in the coal mine. An early warning that something is not right. Some people really like to monitor it. To me... it's pretty much useless :) IMHO, your Reefkeeper, and many other controllers, monitor ORP because it's easy, and cheap, to build that into the system. Adds perceived value, if nothing else.

I wouldn't worry about it too much :)

 

[jda]

This is a good read from 15 years ago, but still completely relevant:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-12/rhf/feature/index.php

This is pretty true about the whole thing...

ORP, at its heart, is very, very complicated.

 

[Flameback Pair]

ORP is VERY valuable when using Ozone. Necessary if you ask me. But... I don't know anybody who uses ozone anymore. A popular theory now is that ozone kills beneficial bacteria.

 

[Jinko]

It basically gives you an idea of how clean your water is. (Dissolved organics)
As long as you are between 300-400 you are fine.
Its not something you have to concern yourself with unless you are using ozone.

Ozone will only kill bacteria it comes in to contact with, it should never be in the tank water and cant really exist that way unless you are over dosing it as it will bond to the closest reducer.
Chances are you tank would be dead if it was impacting bacteria numbers.

That being said it will reduce bacteria that convert ammonia and nitrite as there will be less food for them, but increase bacteria that deal with phosphates and nitrate as there will be more food for them.

 

[Will Milberger]

ORP is used for a general guideline to possibly alert you if something is wrong. It stands for Oxidation Redox Potential and it is not a necessary piece of equipment to be successful at reef keeping. Randy wrote a very informative article about it a while back, it is an instant hit on google.

That's the article I read. My first paragraph sums up what I got out of it. Maybe there's something more to it? There's a lot of stuff in the article, though.

 

[Will Milberger]

Eh.

ORP is one measurement I've never given much attention to.

To some, it is a useful signal that 'something' is wrong... if it varies outside of it's usual range, it's time to take a closer look. That's about all I know about it... it's a canary in the coal mine. An early warning that something is not right. Some people really like to monitor it. To me... it's pretty much useless :) IMHO, your Reefkeeper, and many other controllers, monitor ORP because it's easy, and cheap, to build that into the system. Adds perceived value, if nothing else.

I wouldn't worry about it too much :)

Thanks!

 

[Reeferdood]

That's the article I read. My first paragraph sums up what I got out of it. Maybe there's something more to it? There's a lot of stuff in the article, though.

When Randy writes he leaves nothing out...[emoji51]