WHO KEEPS TRAC OF ORP

[Proteus]

I'm going to buy a ORP meter and am wondering if people are keeping trac of it and weather you think it's benificial to do so

[michika]

I do, I like the quick snap shot it can provide me in partnership with pH and a few other parameters. Mostly I give it a quick look when I sign in everytime to if things are looking "stable".

For me its the quick glance parameter and I always look most closely at throughout the day when I'm awake from my tank as fluctuating ORP in my tank is an immediate flag/sign for me to look further at the happenings inside my glass boxes.

[kien]

I've had an ORP probe running with my Profilux for 3 years now and although it is cool, I really have no idea what it means LOL. Well okay, I have an idea of what it means (ie, what it is supposedly telling me at a technical level), but I have never done anything about the readings. I've seen it fluctuate from the mid 300s to the mid 400s. I have never reacted to any of my ORP readings though. If I lost my ORP probe today I certainly would not miss it. If I could go back in time I would tell myself not to bother with the probe.

[Proteus]

I was just going to buy a hand held unit. There cheap and I think it would be ok just to have a little more of a understanding if thing are going down.

I do wonder if people control the ORP. with peroxide or if they let it run its coarse. After all its pretty much a balance of good and evil. I have a very small tank buy our standards and its 90% sps. I crashed once and really only speculate what it was.

[kien]

I was just going to buy a hand held unit. There cheap and I think it would be ok just to have a little more of a understanding if thing are going down.

I do wonder if people control the ORP. with peroxide or if they let it run its coarse. After all its pretty much a balance of good and evil. I have a very small tank buy our standards and its 90% sps. I crashed once and really only speculate what it was.

How would an ORP probe have helped ? I'm just curious :-) As I said, I don't pay any attention to my ORP as it doesn't ever do anything too crazy. I've had a couple of SPS/coral crashe now and in both cases the ORP readings were normal :lol:

[Jaws]

I believe ORP can be controlled by an ozonizer and having them work together ensures too much ozone doesn't enter the tank because it can kill everything very quickly. I've never seen clearer water than when I was running an ozonizer on my old tank.

[Proteus]

How would an ORP probe have helped ? I'm just curious :-) As I said, I don't pay any attention to my ORP as it doesn't ever do anything too crazy. I've had a couple of SPS/coral crashe now and in both cases the ORP readings were normal :lol:

I'm not sure it would help or tell me anything useful. Hence the thread. I'm doing fine without one and really don't think my tactics would change at all.

I appreciate your input. Ill hold off to buy more important stuff like frags lol

[Mike-fish]

So what is the point behind monitoring orp any way

[kien]

I'm not sure it would help or tell me anything useful. Hence the thread. I'm doing fine without one and really don't think my tactics would change at all.

I appreciate your input. Ill hold off to buy more important stuff like frags lol

Well, you posed a valid question and one that I was hoping someone would be able to answer (ie, what people do with their ORP readings). There are not a whole lot of people monitoring their ORP. As I said, I have the probe that came as a package with my Profilux controller but aside from the "cool" factor of seeing fancy numbers dance across my tank's LCD display, I have never monitored ORP.

[Proteus]

So what is the point behind monitoring orp any way

Orp pretty much give you a idea of the good bacteria vs the bad bacteria. So to speak. With a million other factors. 350 to 450 is considered good but not limited to such numbers as all tanks are different. Since you need both good and bad it just gives you a idea of the balance in your tank. Peroxide puts o2 in the water oxidizing the organically in water colomn raising the orp

It's way more complicated than that but I'm not smart enough to be on scientific terms lol

[syncro]

Some good info:
ORP and the Reef Aquarium - Randy Holmes-Farley
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-12/rhf/feature/index.php

[vaporize]

for ppl that like to read:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-12/rhf/feature/index.php

ppl use ozone to increase it typically :)

[abcha0s]

I think you could argue most of the same points for a PH probe. It's not hard to find an expert that claims 'ph isn't as important as we make it out to be'. The general consensus seems to be that stability is more important than a precise value.

I monitor both PH and ORP, but I rarely check either. I've concluded a long time ago that I don't trust the calibration of my probes enough to act on the readings.

I once tried to control PH by attaching a kalkwasser stirrer to a PH probe. I had one near miss that spiked my PH to well over 9 (thank god for vinegar). After tinkering with it for about a year I shut it down and concluded 'it's just not worth it'.

What ORP and PH both do is give you insights into the patterns and swings in your tank. It is actually interesting to see the PH and ORP swings throughout the day. It is interesting to note the effect of water changes on both values. It may not give you an objective measure on the health of the tank, but it will generally tell you if it is running a stable baseline.

I also once had a hydrogen sulfide incident. I didn't need the ORP probe to tell me there was a problem, but it was interesting to see the ORP drop to zero. It was also interesting to watch it slowly climb back up as I took emergency measures.

- Brad

[Proteus]

Watching the orp climb after the h2s incedents is a nice feature. I know adding peroxide will oxidize the h2s but without the orp meter it's harder to tell if it was working or if enough 02 was added to system to nutralize it.