APEX PH Probe Accuracy

[GregOyeah]

Does anyone have or has had accuracy issues with the APEX PH Probe?

Ive had an apex for about 2 months now and its always shown my ph to be really low. It peaks during the day at just over 7.8 which doesnt bother me really, but it bottoms out at night in the low 7.6's and has even dipped into the 7.5's

H380 on at night to balace out ph? Yes

Majority soda ash dosing during the night hours? Yes (the ph spikes during dosing but bottoms back out soon after)

Ran outside air into skimmer? Yes.....only marginally helped, ph never got higher than 7.89, still occasionally dipped into the 7.6's

DIY CO2 Scrubber? Yep....Same as outside air into skimmer.

Finally, I checked PH with an old API test kit, and it read roughly 8.2. So i shelled out 10 more bucks and got a more reliable Salifert ph kit. It reads over 8.3

what the heck man? Is there anyway to manually adjust these PH probes? Is this a common issue with these things? Whats the point of having these fancy probes with alerts if theyre wildly inaccurate?

Any advice?

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

I’m about to set one up on my apex. Did you calibrate the probes and it’s still way off?

 

[GregOyeah]

yep. followed the calibration instructions on fusion

 

[DarthSimon]

Did you try calibrating your probe in Apex Fusion, or Apex Local???

 

[GregOyeah]

I calibrated in apex fusion

 

[DarthSimon]

If you have more calibration solution, do a manual calibration in apex local. After that, you have to look at probe if your not happy results post calibration. I use 2 different Lab grade probes, my original ph probe on my Apex 2016 is still going strong. Haven't calibrated since setup, and my other one is 6-7 months on a Calcium Reactor. No issues.

 

[DarthSimon]

Another thing you can try, take a cup of specimen water, and put the probe inside the cup and get reading on apex. Then take that same cup and take it outside and run an air stone in the cup for 10-15 minutes. Take cup back inside and put the probe back in cup and get a reading. See if there is a change. Does it go up??

 

[vhuang168]

Best way to check your calibration.

After you finish calibrating, leave the probe in the 10 solution. Go back to the dashboard. Wait for a min or 2 and see what it reads. Should be 9.9-10.1. Rinse the probe in ro then do the same for the 7 solution. This could take more than 2 mins. Should read 6.9-7.1.

If you see those reading then the probe is calibrated and accurate.

 

[DarthSimon]

What Vince said of course. If they do read around 10 and 7 in the packet solutions after you calibrate, you have to ask yourself, do you trust an 80 dollar probe, or a 10-20 dollar test kit.


Do you have some big dogs in your house?? I have 2 large dogs in my living room (Where Display Tank is) , and they produced a crazy amount of Co2, hence driving down my pH. I corrected this with Co2 Scrubber, and down the line I moved my filtration to my basement, added a huge skimmer and Ph went from 7.8 to 8.1.

 

[rkpetersen]

I have 2 large dogs in my living room (Where Display Tank is) , and they produced a crazy amount of Co2, hence driving down my pH. I corrected this with Co2 Scrubber, and down the line I moved my filtration to my basement, added a huge skimmer and Ph went from 7.8 to 8.1.

My CO2 meter alarm goes off any time the wife or I boil pasta in the kitchen near one of the tanks. Which we do fairly often.
I also run CO2 scrubbers and the results are impressive. Wish I could run outside lines instead though, because I go through the soda lime pretty fast.

 

[GregOyeah]

so just as a follow up, I ordered new ph calibration solutions and I did a manual calibration in apex local and my ph is now sitting at 8.2

looks like that did the trick. I'll always do manual calibration from now on thats for sure.....and in apex local

 

[DarthSimon]

Sweet!!!! Very good man...

 

[ccombs]

Ok, I am regurgitating some info here. @Lasse recently told me that the pH probes need to be re-calibrated after being in the system for a few weeks. I did a manual calibration on day 1, and my readings have been low as well. I am about to do another calibration in a couple of weeks and see if it fixes my issue. Seems as though it worked for you!

 

[In the sticks]

Does anyone have or has had accuracy issues with the APEX PH Probe?

Ive had an apex for about 2 months now and its always shown my ph to be really low. It peaks during the day at just over 7.8 which doesnt bother me really, but it bottoms out at night in the low 7.6's and has even dipped into the 7.5's

H380 on at night to balace out ph? Yes

Majority soda ash dosing during the night hours? Yes (the ph spikes during dosing but bottoms back out soon after)

Ran outside air into skimmer? Yes.....only marginally helped, ph never got higher than 7.89, still occasionally dipped into the 7.6's

DIY CO2 Scrubber? Yep....Same as outside air into skimmer.

Finally, I checked PH with an old API test kit, and it read roughly 8.2. So i shelled out 10 more bucks and got a more reliable Salifert ph kit. It reads over 8.3

what the heck man? Is there anyway to manually adjust these PH probes? Is this a common issue with these things? Whats the point of having these fancy probes with alerts if theyre wildly inaccurate?

Any advice?

Same thing my lfs tested mine it was 8.2 my apex reads 7.6-7.9

 

[MiamiAG]

How do you calibrate in apex local??

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

How do you calibrate in apex local??

By doing this...

grab the internal IP of Apex ...

Then open another browser and paste the IP address.


Should look like this...

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

Just realized my ATO is off for the water change when i posted the screenshots. lol

 

[forneyjohn19]

To any new people reading this thread, my brand new apex pH probe was reading .1 - .2 low (compared to Hanna pH checker where tank pH had been stable for months). I had calibrated the probe twice on day one, still reading low. Day 3 I put probe in calibration solutions, 7.0 solution was reading 6.85, 10.0 solution was reading 10.0. I recalibrated the probe (48 hours after initial setup). Checked calibration solution readings, 7.0 solution read 7.0, 10.0 solution read 9.97. Probe now reading close to Hanna checker and where the tank pH has been sitting. In short, try recalibrating probe 48 hours after first putting in tank. It worked for me.

 

[In the sticks]

To any new people reading this thread, my brand new apex pH probe was reading .1 - .2 low (compared to Hanna pH checker where tank pH had been stable for months). I had calibrated the probe twice on day one, still reading low. Day 3 I put probe in calibration solutions, 7.0 solution was reading 6.85, 10.0 solution was reading 10.0. I recalibrated the probe (48 hours after initial setup). Checked calibration solution readings, 7.0 solution read 7.0, 10.0 solution read 9.97. Probe now reading close to Hanna checker and where the tank pH has been sitting. In short, try recalibrating probe 48 hours after first putting in tank. It worked for me.

If I remember correctly, I think they recommend running it for like 48hrs than calibrate it. Not sure if that would make a difference, or if anything I said is accurate you may wanna fact check me on this

 

[zoomonster]

If you truly identify that its off after in tank a few days and then calibration maybe just a bad probe. That would surprise me as that's the one Apex probe I have never really had issues with other than temperature(after calibrated). I have both double junction and the old single junction versions and they have worked w/o issue for years. Maybe I calibrate every year or more. Salinity and ORP are a whole different story.