ORP sudden drop

[Huskyguy]

Today the ORP in my tank dropped from 320 to 220 in one hour. All the fish started showing signs of stress and I lost my blonde naso. I put 3 air pumps in my tank and the ORP level went up slowly. It is up to 310 at this moment but I can't figure out what caused the sudden change?????
Temp is 79. PH 8.1 ammonia is little high at .5 nitrate is at 10. Salinity is 1.025
I am looking at the graph in the apex controller and the only thing has changed at that time is the ORP.
Now my tangs are showing signs of ich which they didn't have it tomorrow!!!
Anybody have experienced ORP change that fast?
All the probes for the Apex is one month old.

 

[deboy69]

I would look at why you have ammonia. Did you add a bunch of fish at the same time or close together? How old is the tank.

 

[Dr.DiSilicate]

I would look at why you have ammonia. Did you add a bunch of fish at the same time or close together? How old is the tank.

A plus 1. We need more info on the tank, age, equipment, any recent changes. As far as I know you measure ORP because it can be an indicator of the overall aquarium health. You need to find the rood change. I'd say .5 on your ammonia is crazy high for an established tank.

 

[zombie]

Need lots more info. When did the naso die in relation to the change in orp? How big is the tank? How long has it been set up? What has changed in the tank in the last few weeks (recent additions, change dosing methods, etc.)? How many fish do you have in there? ......

 

[jda123]

Do you fuel, or stopped fueling, bacteria with vinegar, vodka or bio pellets?

Massive die off and low levels of oxygen are the only ways that I ever saw ORP drop quickly.

Have your RHF's article on ORP?
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-12/rhf/feature/

 

[SkyShark]

Anything happen around the tank? Maybe this is a bit of a long shot, but worth thinking about. Any heavy cleaning, painting, etc nearby?

 

[Huskyguy]

It did it again today. we left the house for work and I get a text from apex fusion that the ORP dropped below 250. turned back home to find the ORP dropped to 220 again from 340 in less than 1 hour.
Put 3 air pumps in the tank to get the ORP level back up when the wife told me that she used the new bottle Brightwell Advanced Vitamin,minor and trace element for the second time and both time the ORP dropped suddenly. she used 2 full caps on the 535 gallon tank. Its not too much, I guess I have a bad bottle or something??????
The ORP is back 330 and the fish are breathing better.
I love the Brightwell products and I never had a problem. I guess this bottle is not good??????
Did any of you guys had problems with any type of supplement from before?????
This is a link of what I used
http://www.marinedepot.com/Brightwe...-Brightwell_Aquatics-BW01029-FIADTECS-vi.html

 

[Huskyguy]

oh one last thing, ammonia is 0. the last test was false readings.

 

[jda123]

There are anti oxidants in that stuff that is lowering the ORP as the anti-oxidants are temporarily winning the battle after addition. It would not concern me except that your fish are freaking out. There doesn't look like anything in that bottle that could go too bad... no organics or anything.

I would stop using it. It isn't necessary for anything except building levels of those elements that are in any good salt mix, or are introduced with food, and are already likely in abundance. If anything, using it could be bad if iron, manganese, zinc and some of the other trace elements that you don't test for get too high. You should be able to get all of those things from regular water changes... except for maybe iron if you grow a lot of chaeto and macro... but there are better ways to add iron.

 

[zombie]

I would stop adding that stuff. My personal rule is never add anything you cant test for. The one exception to this rule are vodka, vinegar, gfo, and carbon because the reduction in nitrates, phosphates, and pH can indirectly test for those.

 

[jda123]

Vodka and vinegar are carbon. The N and P are only indirect effects of dosing organic carbon, even if it is the effect that people are looking for. If you are not monitoring oxygen, DOC and something else that I am forgetting right now, then you could be doing more harm than good with organic carbon by oxygen starvation in rocks, sand and even the water column as well as reducing food for microfauna. If you use GFO, then you need to monitor phosphate and alkalinity.

Organic carbon and GFO should also be on the list not to use unless you can test for what they are doing.