Can someone explain my ph and orp?

[zheka757]

I had napture for 20 days or so, a day I noticed that when lights do come on, my orp and ph dips down a little, orp stays down, ph eventually comes up. Towards evening. I don't understand. Isn't both need to have completely opposed effect?

 

[Troylee]

Don’t know much about orp and don’t care too unless I’m using ozone which I haven’t in 15 years or so.. your ph will always be lowest when the lights come on and go up through out the day and peak like a hour after your lights go off.. that’s common and corals uptaking the co2 in the water column.

 

[zheka757]

At 10a.m my lights turn on, my ph was 8.13
At 11:30a.m. ph dropped to dropped to 8.07.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Don’t know much about orp and don’t care too unless I’m using ozone which I haven’t in 15 years or so.. your ph will always be lowest when the lights come on and go up through out the day and peak like a hour after your lights go off.. that’s common and corals uptaking the co2 in the water column.

I think he's asking more about the dip after lights come on...

 

[Troylee]

I think he's asking more about the dip after lights come on...

Yeah I see that now… hmmm.. few things could cause that.

 

[Troylee]

At 10a.m my lights turn on, my ph was 8.13
At 11:30a.m. ph dropped to dropped to 8.07.

It could be a few things.. c02 levels rising in your house? Are they’re more pets or people around the tank at that time? Do you dose any bacteria or anything that could drop 02 levels? Do you top off with kalk?

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

These are just theories based on perception. But, I tend to lean towards, even after the lights are on, it takes some time for the photosynthesis mechanism to start working. The pH is on its natural downward trend while lights are off and it takes some time for c02, carbonic acid to drop and start to register as an increase in pH.

Another worthy theory to consider, is it's software related. I tend to think that apex fusion employs a rolling average in order to keep anomalies from spiking in the graph and triggering tasks. Perhaps that's the amount of time it takes for the averages to start trending upwards.

it would be nice to get @Randy Holmes-Farley here to weigh in.

 

[zheka757]

I dose Nitrates at midnight, as well as acro power at 3 a.m. I also dose sodium hydroxide mixed per instruction on this forum. It's being dosed through the night, I also just recently put co2 scrubber on my skimmer. So far no positive results with added co2 scrubber.

 

[Troylee]

I dose Nitrates at midnight, as well as acro power at 3 a.m. I also dose sodium hydroxide mixed per instruction on this forum. It's being dosed through the night, I also just recently put co2 scrubber on my skimmer. So far no positive results with added co2 scrubber.

Have you checked your ph with a hand held or something else besides the apex? I’ve found mine isn’t the greatest at being accurate.. to me it seems your ph should be much higher!

 

[zheka757]

Have you checked your ph with a hand held or something else besides the apex? I’ve found mine isn’t the greatest at being accurate.. to me it seems your ph should be much higher!

I would agree on accuracy. I have a Milwaukee ph meter and it reads 8.3-8.4. I calibrate both meters using same solution. But calibration aside, even if it's wrong. That wouldn't explain a dip in measurements.

BTW thank you for your help so far. It's not that I'm worried about it. Is more of curiosity why it's doing it.

 

[Troylee]

I would agree on accuracy. I have a Milwaukee ph meter and it reads 8.3-8.4. I calibrate both meters using same solution. But calibration aside, even if it's wrong. That wouldn't explain a dip in measurements.

BTW thank you for your help so far. It's not that I'm worried about it. Is more of curiosity why it's doing it.

Well sister brought up some good points! I will say my ph doesn’t drop really after lights come on maybe a hair like .1 or .2 at the most.. maybe Randy can shed some light on it… I know as my house wakes up and people are about and around my tank in the morning it’s at its lowest but climbs back up soon after everyone is gone for work or school besides the dogs haha!