Trident/Apex Help

Scoobetta · Mar 24, 2023

Hi!

I'm new to the Apex world - about 2 months in. I thought this would help me better avoid disasters, but I think it's making me neurotic, quite frankly.

I'm experiencing 2 issues, hoping someone can give me an idea what's going on.

For reference, I have a 75-gallon tank, with about a 20-gallon sump, for a total water volume of around 95 gallons. It's a mixed reef tank with about half SPS and the other half LPS. I have a clam, a handful of soft corals, and so many anemones (they keep multiplying!)

Issue 1: ORP
From the first set up, ORP was barely at 200. Then I read to wait a few weeks for the probe to break in. The highest it's ever been in the past 2 months is 220, but hovering right around 200 seems to be pretty normal. Any time I do a water change, it drops to 175-180ish and takes a few weeks to get back into the 200s. The Apex person helping me suggested a low ORP meant something died? But...everything seems to be alive and kicking? Any idea what might be happening here?

Issue 2: Calcium
First setting up the Trident, calcium was so low it wouldn't even register. Over about a month got calcium to 450. Then, without dosing anymore, Calcium continued to rise. Now I'm in this weird cycle where in the span of 24 hours it'll go up to 480 and back down to 440, then back up to 480 the next day? I have a hard time believing that without me adding calcium to the tank it can go up 40 points in a day? In the same vein, I have a hard time believing my tank is sucking up 40 points of calcium in 24 hours? The person from Apex said this was normal....but.... is it?

Side note I did a manual test with a Salifert kit and an API kit and I'm getting about 410/420 for calcium....

Any help or suggestions are appreciated! Thank you thank you!

blaxsun · Mar 24, 2023

ORP is kind of a "general" reading of this variable in your tank and a low(er) value doesn't necessarily mean anything is amiss. The more flow (including supplemental from wavemakers) you have in your tank generally leads to higher ORP readings.

My ORP ranges from the low 300s to the high 300s on a daily basis, but there are a lot of factors that can influence it. Dosing NOPOX always drops my ORP, and other supplements can behave similarly. Seeing a drop in ORP after a water change is fairly normal. If you don't have any wavemakers in your tank this is something you can add or augment (as one option to try).

rtparty · Mar 24, 2023

Unless you are dosing ozone, ORP is all but pointless to monitor and worry about. Even Randy admits in his article it is a VERY complex topic and we aren't even sure it means anything useful.

As for the Trident, have you calibrated it? Are you dosing calcium?

areefer01 · Mar 24, 2023

Scoobetta said:
Hi!

I'm new to the Apex world - about 2 months in. I thought this would help me better avoid disasters, but I think it's making me neurotic, quite frankly.

I'm experiencing 2 issues, hoping someone can give me an idea what's going on.

For reference, I have a 75-gallon tank, with about a 20-gallon sump, for a total water volume of around 95 gallons. It's a mixed reef tank with about half SPS and the other half LPS. I have a clam, a handful of soft corals, and so many anemones (they keep multiplying!)

Issue 1: ORP
From the first set up, ORP was barely at 200. Then I read to wait a few weeks for the probe to break in. The highest it's ever been in the past 2 months is 220, but hovering right around 200 seems to be pretty normal. Any time I do a water change, it drops to 175-180ish and takes a few weeks to get back into the 200s. The Apex person helping me suggested a low ORP meant something died? But...everything seems to be alive and kicking? Any idea what might be happening here?

Issue 2: Calcium
First setting up the Trident, calcium was so low it wouldn't even register. Over about a month got calcium to 450. Then, without dosing anymore, Calcium continued to rise. Now I'm in this weird cycle where in the span of 24 hours it'll go up to 480 and back down to 440, then back up to 480 the next day? I have a hard time believing that without me adding calcium to the tank it can go up 40 points in a day? In the same vein, I have a hard time believing my tank is sucking up 40 points of calcium in 24 hours? The person from Apex said this was normal....but.... is it?

Side note I did a manual test with a Salifert kit and an API kit and I'm getting about 410/420 for calcium....

Any help or suggestions are appreciated! Thank you thank you!

There isn't a lot of information as it relates to the Trident or your display so I can't comment on what you are seeing with the Ca numbers. How does Alk and Mg look?

As an aside the Trident Calcium is +/- 15 ppm. I do not know what the Salifert or API kits are but the number seem close. Are you testing at the same time, same sample area, etc.