PH between 8.5-8.7

Randy Holmes-Farley · Apr 13, 2020

SeeFu said:
randy when u're saying to aerate it. will placing a cheap powerhead w/ 1/2 the propeller out of the water in the sump be sufficient? how will i know if the powerhead is actually decreasing PH vs. just the natural decrease in PH? and finally how long do i do this, overnight?

Airstone would be better. A cup of water with an airstone in it. 15 min is plenty.

The only pH change will be from aeration.

SeeFu · Apr 13, 2020

so no clue what's going on. neptune will read a 7.0 calibration and 10.0 calibration fluid perfectly and it shows PH of 8.49 in my tank. i used a seperate Hanna checker and calibrated it and it shows my tank at 8.24 PH. maybe time to replace the neptune probe? that's a really crap useful life if all i get is 1 yr out of the ph probe.

Shirak · Apr 13, 2020

SeeFu said:
so no clue what's going on. neptune will read a 7.0 calibration and 10.0 calibration fluid perfectly and it shows PH of 8.49 in my tank. i used a seperate Hanna checker and calibrated it and it shows my tank at 8.24 PH. maybe time to replace the neptune probe? that's a really crap useful life if all i get is 1 yr out of the ph probe.

I would think if it's reading both the 7 and 10 correctly then the probe is working fine. Have you tried placing the probe into a sample of tank water in a separate container? Maybe there is some sort of interference going on with the probe when it's in the sump? Have you tried moving it to a new location in the sump?

I would contact neptune also and see if they have any advice on what could be causing the issue.

SeeFu · Apr 13, 2020

Shirak said:
I would think if it's reading both the 7 and 10 correctly then the probe is working fine. Have you tried placing the probe into a sample of tank water in a separate container? Maybe there is some sort of interference going on with the probe when it's in the sump? Have you tried moving it to a new location in the sump?

I would contact neptune also and see if they have any advice on what could be causing the issue.

yea i've tried removing the PH probe and running the cable outside of the sump and i get same reading. guess next step is to reach out to neptune

Shirak · Apr 14, 2020

Did you try reading the tank water in a container outside the tank? Maybe you have stray voltage in the tank/sump water itself?

SeeFu · Apr 14, 2020

i placed the hanna probe into the sump w/ the neptune probe and hanna read just fine. i've also got that grounding probe in the tank and prior to that i did not measure a big stray voltage.

Shirak · Apr 14, 2020

SeeFu said:
i placed the hanna probe into the sump w/ the neptune probe and hanna read just fine. i've also got that grounding probe in the tank and prior to that i did not measure a big stray voltage.

Will be interested to hear what Neptune has to say.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Apr 14, 2020

I'm not sure what the issue is, but based on many reports of issues, controllers do not seem to do a perfect job with either pH or conductivity.

SeeFu · Apr 15, 2020

well neptune is no help. they said since it read's calibration fluid correctly there's nothing they can do.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Apr 15, 2020

Double check the temperature correction coefficient and how it is implemented.

Shirak · Apr 15, 2020

Could micro bubbles or something like that cause it to be wonky when in the sump? Is it near some dosing line that might be giving a false reading in the water? I assume your putting the calibration packets into your sump to warm up to tank temperature before calibrating? Have you tried putting some tank water in a small container floating in your sump?

Other than that I got nothing except try a new probe but I have no other ideas on how it could read the calibration fluid correctly and not your tank. If the probe was bad I would think it wouldn't calibrate correctly.. which leads me to still think there is a problem with the calibration.

SeeFu · Apr 15, 2020

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Double check the temperature correction coefficient and how it is implemented.

i dont have that enabled. its not supposed to make much of a difference.

SeeFu · Apr 15, 2020

Shirak said:
Could micro bubbles or something like that cause it to be wonky when in the sump? Is it near some dosing line that might be giving a false reading in the water? I assume your putting the calibration packets into your sump to warm up to tank temperature before calibrating? Have you tried putting some tank water in a small container floating in your sump?

Other than that I got nothing except try a new probe but I have no other ideas on how it could read the calibration fluid correctly and not your tank. If the probe was bad I would think it wouldn't calibrate correctly.. which leads me to still think there is a problem with the calibration.

yea i've already tried all that. it all reads the higher PH. in a cup, different part of sump, moved the PH prob wire completely out of the tank so its not next to any other wires.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Apr 15, 2020

SeeFu said:
i dont have that enabled. its not supposed to make much of a difference.

Try enabling it and see what effect it has. I agree the effect is supposed to be small, but maybe not using it causes issues.

Shirak · Apr 15, 2020

When you do the calibration have you tried both the basic automatic and the advanced manual mode?

SeeFu · Apr 15, 2020

Shirak said:
When you do the calibration have you tried both the basic automatic and the advanced manual mode?

yea did that too. both come out w/ same results. with the manual mode, i even let it sit in each calibration fluid for 10 min before moving onto the next step.

Miller535 · Apr 15, 2020

The fact that you were reading a pretty normal Ph UNTIL you calibrated it, I would most certainly say it's an issue with either your apex or the probe. I am NOT saying that you did anything wrong.

I work in a electronics Lab as a Eng. Tech. I see odd things I can't explain all the time.