Another Apex salinity probe thread. Help please.

[boacvh]

Hi.

my salinity probe has been working correctly for a year + now. No issues.
I decided to give my sump a thorough cleaning and now the salinity probe doesn’t work anymore. It reads in the 60s.
I tried recalibration, and it didn’t work either. I tried manual calibration too with the probe in my sump and it still doesn’t work. Reads in the 60 range.
I have read the countless threads on how to properly calibrate and micro bubbles, temperature, TC factor, letting it dry for a couple days, etc.
But no matter what I try the apex still reads my salt is in the 60 range. I have a refractometer and also a Hannah salinity tester. I calibrated both of them so I know my tank is at 34.8. Any additional ideas besides micro bubbles and stray voltage? I am pretty sure those are not the issues. Could the probe just be broken now? How to know?
thanks!

 

[vetteguy53081]

There is likely air getting to the probe or dirty. . . . Soak in ro water.
There is another recommendation I forget but i'll put you in touch with our Apex guy.......................... @SuncrestReef

 

[boacvh]

There is likely air getting to the probe or dirty. . . . Soak in ro water.
There is another recommendation I forget but i'll put you in touch with our Apex guy.......................... @SuncrestReef

Thanks @vetteguy53081, I have inverted and twisted the probe completely underwater so I doubt it’s trapped air. Will give it another try.

 

[boacvh]

No. Still doesn't work. Bummer, it was working ok before. But now I get why there are so many posts regarding the calibration of this probe. This is a few days already of trying everything in every thread I could find. I can say unequivocally it has nothing to do with microbubbles. I am almost ready to give up and just ignore it and use my hannah salinity checker for now.

 

[boacvh]

Ha. Of course, had to post the above to immediately find a solution afterwards. So here it is. The simple solution was to follow @rkpetersen steps here: the reboot was the key step.

Apex salinity probe calibration

The Apex conductivity/salinity probe is not of the best design. With that acknowledged, here's how to get yours working consistently and well. First, if you've done a calibration before and it seems to be messed up, simply recalibrating it is likely not going to do the trick. You need to reset...

www.reef2reef.com

Remove probe from apex
Make fake calibration
Reboot apex (I just unplugged it)
Then repeat a MANUAL calibration
Working again. Yay!
@rkpetersen thank you!