During my free time, I’ve still been
trying to better my understanding about ORP. So far I have come to understand
that a substance with a negative ORP value is a reducing agent by which has the
potential to donate electrons while a positive ORP value is an oxidizing agent
by which has the potential to receive electrons. From here I have several
questions related to ORP and the AFS:
1. Laterite, Zeolite and cat litter are all anions, can we say they
are reducing agents? Hence ammonium as cations is oxidizing agents?
2. Through the AFS, ammonium is taken out of the water body and
broken down to nitrogen gas. Leaving the water body free from ammonium. Will
this process still happen if the water body is acidic (pH<7)?
3. Will it be correct to say that the AFS is a water purification
system thus enabling the water to have a positive ORP?
4. Better aeration-better dissolved oxygen-higher pH-more ammonia
converted to ammonium-captured and degraded by AFS-purer water-better positive
ORP. Correct?
I’m still trying to put the pieces
together, and to be honest, for me it’s quite a mind numbing process.
I’ve started feeding heavily again, and usually by the afternoon the ORP
value will have dropped by 20-30. Water changes helps but not enough so clay is
added daily also. This clay seems to help by oxidizing (binding) nitrite,
nitrate and phosphates, also by coagulation of floating koi feces enabling the
filters to filter it out faster. So by evening the ORP has returned to initial
value in the morning. So this is my current understanding between the relationships
between ammonia-pH-aeration-AFS-ORP-Koi Clay. Have I got anything
wrong/backwards?
Best regards,
Yogas
Hi
Yogas,
Your
redox (ORP) should have a higher value in the morning and as the day continues
go down slowly during the day until at night it should be at its lowest reading
in mV. During the night and when metabolism is low and photosynthesis has
stopped, the water is cleaned up by biological and chemical reactions by your
filtration system and the resultant redox potential then becomes higher in
value by these processes.
During the day, as metabolism increases
with pollutants insults, the ORP will go down slowly, especially after a/every
feeding session. The only way to counter-act this tendency of ORP lowering is
with a protein skimmer that removes nitrogenous organic compounds with the use
of ozone. Then with a good redox measuring device the redox potential will stay
more stable throughout the day and night as the measuring device controls the
redox potential and the use of ozone.
It
can also be said, that a Biocenosis Clarification Baskets made up the way I
explain in my blog is the only way that plants will continue to take in at
night ammonia/ammonium and process Nitrates as N2 as a foodsource when other methods of planting
aquatic plants will not, giving the ponds mass a higher ORP in the morning than
other methods of filtration.
NO3 ammonia or ammonium nitrate NH4+ is not complicated for
plants to use when photosynthesis is shut down so plants still use it as a
foodsource at night but not Nitrates because Nitrates must be reduced to
ammonium once again in a two-step reduction process and that’s chemical work
for the plants. Because the BCB’s chemical makeup, the intake of anions and some
cations amounts in an ion displacement in the pond are equal through diffusion
and magnetic pull. This also holds true for plants because if a plant did not
take cations and anions in equal amounts it would have a fatal pH swing inside
the cells. Most plants keep a constant pH of 7.0, no matter what their
surrounding pH is in the waters mass.
Because
the BCB’s are taking in theses positively charged (cation) and negatively
charges (anions) ions these them become a foodsource for the bacteria as well
as plants. The more a filtration system removes these ions from the waters mass
the higher the redox (ORP) and the lower the TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) will
become. Ions can become a never-ending insult because chemical and physical
processes create them.
The
BCB’s themselves are not pH dependent and the ammonium ion, which is mildly
acidic is what is formed from ammonia when the ammonia is dissolved in water,
it is then converted into the ammonium ion. Though lots of hobbyists would like
to believe that a lower pH (acidic) would lessen the toxic nature of this ion
that is not really 100% true. Though the degree of the ion is depended on the
pH of the solution it’s in, the lower pH makes the ammonium ion and a higher pH
makes the ammonia ion both are toxic and long term exposure is not recommended.
In fact plants will readily take in ammonia (NH3) over the ammonium (NH4+) because, though it is
more toxic, it has no electrical charge and is easily taken in by the plants,
most aquatic plants follow this rule and there are only a few exceptions to
this rule were some plants favor Nitrates over ammonia. In other methods of
planting the plants root hairs will not be exposed to the ammonia/ammonium ion
like in the BCB’s and the plants at night will just shut down until next day.
So plants and the BCB’s will also raise redox potential at night as well as day
because of the ammonia/ammonium ion is still being attracted inside each one
24/7.
Because
of what has been said above this is the reason why the name of the baskets are
called Biocenosis Clarification Baskets and not just Biocenosis Baskets like
most people call them. The AFS is a clarifier filter that is built with a
diffusion of mechanical buffers for continuously removal of macro and micro
solids being deposited by sedimentation and ion removal.
Most
if not all filtration systems are hydrophobic in nature because of the media and/or
substrate they use but an AFS is hydrophilic in character and has a tendency to
mix with its surrounding water. In other words, it has a tendency to be wetted
inside and out by water and dissolve in it and become one. Plus it is an
ion-exchange molecular attachment filter along with polar molecule attachment
filter also. These characteristics of the BCB’s make it the world’s most unique
filter for the hobbyist available. Each thing that I have mentioned hear is
another reason the AFS clarifies water and polishes it to the point of
unbelievable clarity at times.
Since
the AFS is acting like a molecular processing filter of that of chemical
filtration, various molecules attach to the interface substrate by absorption,
adsorption, and ion-exchange. As far as I know there is no other way cheaply to
do all this for the hobbyist except through an AFS using the BCB’s as
explained.
As
we know molecules must brush extremely close to a surface as they move through
the media but this is also what clogs other filters, too. The interface between
the media, water and the pollutants that are in the water are always in
jeopardy if the media clogs. Redox will suffer and TDS will rise and Nitrate
accumulations are its end results along with maybe even becoming an ammonia
producer. I would not call a
filter that clogs a water purification system
if it jeopardizes ORP in the process.
AFS do not clog so they fall under the umbrella of purification systems
or clarifying systems because of their versatility with water management.
Your statement that Laterite,
Zeolite and cat litter are all anions, so we say they are reducing agents is
true to a point that they will attract ions for the reduction of that ion. Hence
ammonium is a cations or oxidizing agent because electrons are lost to another
species.
