Can someone explain ORP to me??

[SomethingFishy]

:eek:

I bought an American Marine ORP meter. It did not come with calibration fluid (it's coming in from the store) However, in the American Marine instructions it says that you do not need to calibrate so I am a little confused there.

Anyway all that a side I get a reading of 285 on my Predator FOWLR tank. From what I have read ORP meters are like an overall guage of knowing the system stablity. Is there some sort of guide line as to where and when the panic :sick: affect should kick in. Like uh oh it's 200 time to clean it or something?? Do you need to calibrate these monitors or am I missing something.

SomethingFishy here.......

[SomethingFishy]

I'm not using any ozone. Is there any point having this monitor if I'm not using Ozone???

[CarmieJo]

I don't have an ORP but thought they were mostly used when you ran ozone. Since I can't give you any advice I'll give you a :bump: instead.

[SomethingFishy]

Thanks for the Bump Carmie!!!!


:tongue2:

[Amphibious]

I'll take a crack at an explanation of ORP for you and when the "experts" read my post they can correct it.

Oxygen Reduction Potential (ORP) is a reading of the potential oxygen available for reducing the Nitrogen in your system at any given time. The reason for concern is the lower your ORP the likelihood of a spike in Ammonia or Nitrites could occur if a fish, snail, shrimp, anemone dies, or uneaten food lies around decaying. All of which could cause a spike and a further die off. Using an ORP metering device with out ozone simply gives you the current reading in your system. Without looking up the absolute correct figure, I believe an ORP of 380 is what you are looking for to thwart the disaster in an event as described above.

By adding an ozone generator to the metering device, when the ORP falls below a set point it turns on the ozone generator and raises the ORP to the set point and then turns the ozone off. adding ozone to your system has another benefit. You inject the ozone into the airline of your skimmer making it run more efficiently, further cleaning your water and that's a good thing.

OK, guys and girls, correct me if I've said anything wrong or add to what I've said if you want. I know some of you run ozone with ORP metering. I personally do not use ozone at this time but will add it to the aquaculture system when I get that up and running. Then secondly to my personal system. I do believe in using it.

[Rob]

your description looks ok to me.. :)


but i have one comment
By adding an ozone generator to the metering device, when the ORP falls below a set point it turns on the ozone generator and raises the ORP to the set point and then turns the ozone off. adding ozone to your system has another benefit. You inject the ozone into the airline of your skimmer making it run more efficiently, further cleaning your water and that's a good thing.
i haev never run ozone, bu my understanding is that an ORP controller is usually used with ozone to shut off the ozone generator in case the ORP got to high in the system (which would oxidize/kill life in your tank)

ORP without a ozone generator is general not a critical component to monitor, but is critical when using ozone as you can poison your tank and your house if it pumps too much in.

anyone, please correct if im mistaken

[Amphibious]

your description looks ok to me.. :)


i haev never run ozone, bu my understanding is that an ORP controller is usually used with ozone to shut off the ozone generator in case the ORP got to high in the system (which would oxidize/kill life in your tank)

ORP without a ozone generator is general not a critical component to monitor, but is critical when using ozone as you can poison your tank and your house if it pumps too much in.

anyone, please correct if im mistakenYou're sort of right but the controller also turns the ozone on. In other words, you set the ORP at (as an example) 380, then you set the differential at 10 (as an example). Let's say you set the unit up on day one and the controller reads an ORP of 290. It turns on the ozone until it reaches 380 and turns the ozone off. As the ozone in the system is used up the reading slowly drops until it gets to 370 and then turns the ozone back on to raise the ORP to 380.

Does that make sense?

[Rob]

yes, so it makes sure that while you are pumping ozone in it will shut it off preventing too much, and trun it on when its too low..

ok..
i just figured when using ozone (which again, i have never done) you would want to run it as much as safely possible.. in other words run it 24/7 (Like UV) as long as it doesn't go over x value. because i want it to run as a filtering/sterilizing device, not only something to raise ORP. (if the goal is only to manage ORP then my statement is irrelevant)

make sense?

[duke1231]

WOW! My God all the stuff you can buy for your tank, it's amazing. amp, did they have all this stuff when you started?

[3vilPuffin]

Well of course not lol... sorry..... amp, you know its true though. God why does all this stuff cost so much money is what you should be asking, i mean geeeezzzz. lol

[Amphibious]

WOW! My God all the stuff you can buy for your tank, it's amazing. amp, did they have all this stuff when you started?Well of course not, I'm older than LR!!!


Well of course not lol... sorry..... amp, you know its true though. God why does all this stuff cost so much money is what you should be asking, i mean geeeezzzz. lolOf course it's true. When you're born in 1937 and get your first aquarium (a pressed glass 3 gal) in 1946 you pre-date all the modern stuff. Think of the challenges back then. This was post depression and no common man had any extra money, let alone a kid of 9 years. Every penny I could get my hands on was saved for another fish or gadget to compliment the hobby. At age 12, I got my first job working summers at a boat rental company earning .20 cents an hour. Being a good worker, after a month I got a .03 cent raise and by the end of summer season I was earning .25 cents an hour. I had friends working grocery store for .15 cents an hour. I was envied by some and they even applied at the boat company but there was no job available.

You young-uns don't have a clew about hard times. :tongue2: :rotfl: