Redox

[Detri]

I have a new handy dandy controller. I have it working great. But I don't know what an acceptible level my Redox should read to Calibrate it. Anything I have read is confusing to me and didn't quit understand it fully.

What is it measureing?
What are the benifits of it? (or drawbacks)
What is an acceptible level to calibrate it?

And, thanks so much for your time.

 

[Detri]

Ok I know I got an answer on another thread. But here is a few things i found out.

Qouted from Eric Edelman

"ORP is Oxidation - Reduction Potential. Completely simplified, it is the likelihood of, or driving force behind, these REDOX reactions occuring

The first question usually asked is, "What should my ORP values be?" The answer is that they shouldn't really BE anything. ORP values vary from tank to tank, and they even vary within one single tank. The best indication ORP is the trend that they have, that is where all the important obtainable information is. Some general ideas, or rule of thumb, on where your ORP value should be. 200 mV is pretty low. 500 mV is pretty high. My own personal tank ran at around 375 in midafternoon. When it dropped to 325 or so, I'd clean the skimmer out, and the ORP would rise again in a few hours. Good skimming is the BEST way to maintain solid ORP values.

Things that lower ORP: Dysfunctional Skimmer, increased biological reactions, poor gas exchange. Things that raise ORP: Good skimming, a few chemicals, good gas exchange, photosynthesis. One general trend to look at is that ORP rises when the water becomes rich in oxygen. We can enrich our tanks with oxygen through vigorous protein skimming and photosynthesis. Those are relatively "natural ways" to increase your ORP value"

LOL it only took me a month to understand what I have been reading. Is ORP a decent way to monitor water parameters? I mean if this drops are raises a significant amount. I can assume that one or more of my other parameters maybe out of wack?

 

[robthorn]

alot more than that effects orp. orp will rise and fall with ph also so in the morning and night it will be a different value and not really mean anything is wrong. nowing your ph when checking or checking at the same time each day is needed to actually figure if something is wrong. my orp may change 25 or 50 mv from morning to evening. other things besides those already mentioned by detri are the use of uv or ozone generation. both can be used to raise orp. I only run uv at the moment and my orp runs around 375-385 in the evening. 340 or so in the morning. without the uv it is somewhere around 275 - 300. I think around 400-450 is what most people I see are shooting for when trying to control it with ozone. I think somewhere around 600 mv is when it becomes somewhat harmful to organisms living in the water.

 

[Detri]

Whoa, thanks for replying here!

Finally an answer I can understand. It's apperant that I am not very well educated, unlike others here. Especially in this forum. I have to read 3 times as much about this kind of thing, because I have to learn what words mean and break down phrases. It's hard to get people to understand that saying things in ways that people understand doesn't make them sound any less intelligent.

Anyway, thats niether here nor there. What you just said to me makes alot of sense. Thank you. My OPR raises from 196mv at night and by morning it is above 230mv. My PH tends to stay between 8-8.2. According to you, yours goes down at night.

Is mine going the wrong direction?

alot more than that effects orp. orp will rise and fall with ph also so in the morning and night it will be a different value and not really mean anything is wrong. nowing your ph when checking or checking at the same time each day is needed to actually figure if something is wrong. my orp may change 25 or 50 mv from morning to evening. other things besides those already mentioned by detri are the use of uv or ozone generation. both can be used to raise orp. I only run uv at the moment and my orp runs around 375-385 in the evening. 340 or so in the morning. without the uv it is somewhere around 275 - 300. I think around 400-450 is what most people I see are shooting for when trying to control it with ozone. I think somewhere around 600 mv is when it becomes somewhat harmful to organisms living in the water.