What ORP levels suitable for Discus?

[khannan31]

G'day all,

I am new to fish and Discus. Bought an ORP/Redox meter
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/DIGITAL-PH-ORP-2-in-1-CONTROLLER-ELECTRODES-CO2-O3_W0QQitemZ230452631668QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Pet_ Supplies_Fish?hash=item35a80c1874

of which I have been observing the readings for a couple of months. I have seen the following patterns:
+250 to +350 gradually increasing during the week. After 1/3 water change comes back to around +250.
Since I started using UV (3 weeks ago), I noticed that lowered the ORP taking longer for it to reach +350. Dose of fertilizer reduces ORP to +200 but it go back to it previous level in an hour.
Yesterday I did a deep gravel clean and brown algae wipe-down with nearly 50% water change. I noticed the ORP was down to +160. But after adding Discus Buffer, increased quickly to +300. The PH went down to 6.2 so I added some PH Up to bring it closed to the 6.5, the level I try to maintain. Now the ORP is already reading +330. My questions are:
1. What is an optimal range for ORP (if there is something like that) for Discus? Is it important enough to track and worry about?
2. Besides UV is there any other way of reducing ORP? Increasing seems to happen by itlself over time.

I don't have CO2 or Ozone.

Sorry guys if this is too basic a question. There appears to be some conflicting info on the internet about ORP, so thought will ask the discus experts!

Cheers!
KS

[Pheonix]

KS,

I too use a redox probe in my tank, with similar values but my tank is bare bottom, on my planted tank however my Mv ranges from +400 to +nearly +500.
I was by a very smart friend of mine that its better to think of the value as a potential for reaction, ie high value means that filter is working well and capable of making the reactions of ammonia to nitrite to nitrate. So in saying this it is better to have a higher Mv than a low one.

My Mv tends to be very stable at +300. I have 325L tank doing 50% water change every week where it drops to +200-240. I would say anywhere between 180 to 350 is a good mark.

I'll search for the email i got and see if there is anything i have missed.

B