There is alot of good information in this thread, and I would like to than Ken, Randy and Shaun (in order of apperance) for providing us with some real insight into this.
I wanted to take a moment to sort of recap what we have learned. If I make a mistake, I hope someone will let us know.
1. Assuming you are not using Ozone, knowing your ORP in and of itself is not necessarily usefull, if anything it would only be usefull as an indicator of other things going on in your aquarium. Comparing one aquariums ORP with another's, is almost completely useless. (See #5)
2. We can not be sure what those other things are as the balance of oxidizers and reducers are in a constant state of flux and we do not know who the largest players are. While organics may play a part, we can not be sure that any net effect from organics is not being overwhelmed by oxygen levels, PH and other elemets such as manganese, iron etc etc.
3. Experiments run by Ken Feldman (who ladies and gentleman is speeking at the next Swap) demonstrated no immediate correlation between levels of organics and ORP over a week long study period.
4. Long term tests have not been performed to demonstrate if long term fluctuations (as opposed to daily fluctuations) in organic levels will have any effect on ORP at all.
5. While a build up of Organics and decreased water quality MAY have an effect on the trend of ORP over time (see #4), we should/may be able to notice this trend through carefull observation before we see a correlation with ORP. (i.e. how fast does Algae grow on your glass, etc. etc.)
I think that reduces (pun intended) it down to the essential elements.
I wanted to take a moment to sort of recap what we have learned. If I make a mistake, I hope someone will let us know.
1. Assuming you are not using Ozone, knowing your ORP in and of itself is not necessarily usefull, if anything it would only be usefull as an indicator of other things going on in your aquarium. Comparing one aquariums ORP with another's, is almost completely useless. (See #5)
2. We can not be sure what those other things are as the balance of oxidizers and reducers are in a constant state of flux and we do not know who the largest players are. While organics may play a part, we can not be sure that any net effect from organics is not being overwhelmed by oxygen levels, PH and other elemets such as manganese, iron etc etc.
3. Experiments run by Ken Feldman (who ladies and gentleman is speeking at the next Swap) demonstrated no immediate correlation between levels of organics and ORP over a week long study period.
4. Long term tests have not been performed to demonstrate if long term fluctuations (as opposed to daily fluctuations) in organic levels will have any effect on ORP at all.
5. While a build up of Organics and decreased water quality MAY have an effect on the trend of ORP over time (see #4), we should/may be able to notice this trend through carefull observation before we see a correlation with ORP. (i.e. how fast does Algae grow on your glass, etc. etc.)
I think that reduces (pun intended) it down to the essential elements.
