Apex Neptune - ORP Drop

[tee89]

Hi R2R folks,

So I was doing some maintenance and unplugged my Apex, plugged it back on and my ORP readings dropped from 171 to 50, any idea why this might have happened?

I thought it might have been interference so I isolated the ORP cable reading went up a little. I've been monitoring for the past few hours and its creeping back up, currently at 64. My tank is fairly new, and completed the cycle quite recently.

Any advise is greatly appreciated.

thank you,

 

[blaxsun]

I notice that every now and then when my tank is offline for any extended maintenance that my ORP readings get temporarily skewed. There are two ways I've found of dealing with this:
1. Wait (it will eventually return to previous levels).
2. Force a calibration reset (which Neptune doesn't recommend but I love doing anyway).

If you want to force a calibration reset, do the following (disclaimer: perform at your own discretion): Click on the ORP gear icon, then click advanced. Then click on manual calibration. As soon as you click calibrate quickly click on next, next, next (etc.) until it's done. The uber-high readings force the ORP probe to reset to factory defaults. This method still takes 6-12 hours to stabilize, but it's faster than letting it trickle back to normal levels.

 

[tee89]

I notice that every now and then when my tank is offline for any extended maintenance that my ORP readings get temporarily skewed. There are two ways I've found of dealing with this:
1. Wait (it will eventually return to previous levels).
2. Force a calibration reset (which Neptune doesn't recommend but I love doing anyway).

If you want to force a calibration reset, do the following (disclaimer: perform at your own discretion): Click on the ORP gear icon, then click advanced. Then click on manual calibration. As soon as you click calibrate quickly click on next, next, next (etc.) until it's done. The uber-high readings force the ORP probe to reset to factory defaults. This method still takes 6-12 hours to stabilize, but it's faster than letting it trickle back to normal levels.

Thanks blaxsun, yes im noticing the readings are coming back up and you're spot on with the tank been offline, it was probably offline for about 30min.

LOL im tempted to do the force calibration now. Appreciate your response, gives me some relief i was wondering if i screwed it up, very new to using an Apex.

 

[blaxsun]

Thanks blaxsun, yes im noticing the readings are coming back up and you're spot on with the tank been offline, it was probably offline for about 30min.

LOL im tempted to do the force calibration now. Appreciate your response, gives me some relief i was wondering if i screwed it up, very new to using an Apex.

No worries. If you're slow clicking on the calibration you can just run it again! There's really no way to actually recalibrate the ORP probe as you need a special fluid which Neptune doesn't sell, and from what I remember it was fairly expensive when I looked into it a while back (this is where I inadvertently learned of the "fix" from another reefer).

The ORP isn't incredibly critical - but it does give you a good indicator of when something is amiss in the tank, such as when a pump or skimmer is offline, extended maintenance or something is radically altering the oxygen component (such as something dying, a large supplement of bacteria, etc.)

Also note that ORP is directly tied to pH, so that as your pH increases during the day your ORP will drop; then at night when your pH starts to drop your ORP will slowly increase again. My ORP seems to fluctutate between 395-445, but this took about 6 months to slowly reach that and I also have a fair amount of pumps, powerheads and water flow - so don't feel like you need to be between the 200-450 recommended levels.

 

[tee89]

LOL i think my time with PC gaming should come to some aid. Yes i read about ORP not been a critical piece but we spend so much on equipment like this i want it to work properly. Appreciate the details. You would think apex comes up with calibration fluid, i looked it up as well, and its like over $50 for chemicals. Might as well buy a new ORP. Cheers blaxsun

 

[Wolters_88]

My ORP keeps dropping like this. What would cause this?

 

[tee89]

@Wolters_88 many reasons for the ORP to drop, my situation came down to the ORP probe been reset when I unplugged the apex while doing some maintenance. The ORP slowly climbed back up over the next few days. Did you do a water change or add some additives into the tank, this will cause the ORP to drop, also check to see if you have any dead fish or inverts.