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Unread 06/22/2019, 09:49 AM   #1
Kengar
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pH Probe Going Bad, I Presume????

I presume this reflects the probe going bad. See attached image. If so, it would be annoying since the probe was replaced just less than four months ago.......

I've been seeing some glitchy readouts over last week or so. I recalibrated and that seemed to clear the issues, but then today the reading just dropped instantaneously, before rising again. (You can see the day/night cycling; I added a CO2 scrubber yesterday and pH held fast at 8, till the beginning of the day today.)


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Unread 06/23/2019, 06:03 PM   #2
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Unread 07/13/2019, 02:33 PM   #3
laverda
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Are you dosing or adding top off close to your PH probe? I would put your ATO well past you probe as water flows through your sump or the lower salinity when topping off will create dips in your PH readings. I know when mine was 4-5” away it still affected my PH and ORP probes. Even my temp prob was affected in the winter.


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Unread 07/13/2019, 03:22 PM   #4
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Nope. I have dual sumps connected in series via 2 inch pipe. Probes are in upstream sump — a 44 breeder without any dividers or chambers, just a pair of ClariSea filter units — where flow is fairly quiet. Fresh water, on the other hand, is introduced into the system by ATO at the downstream end of the second sump, so probes should see little if any effect of fresh water addition. Not doing any sort of automated dosing yet, either. Plus, water is added far more frequently than those spurious data points would appear..... I ultimately bought a new pribe and have only seen one glitchy data point appear.


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Unread 07/20/2019, 11:33 PM   #5
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I saw something like this on another board and turned out they had stray voltage in the tank.


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Unread 08/19/2019, 04:25 PM   #6
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I put in two grounding probes, one in sump and one in overflow box. Behavior has continued. I contacted Neptune about it. They said it looks like readings caused by bubbles accumulating and then busting loose. Thing is, my probes are at far upstream end of sump, and flow into the sump is fairly bubble-free to begin with (coming through a pair of ClariSea filters). Plus, the conductivity/salinity probe is CLEARLY bad after less than six months (salinity reading steadily increasing despite ATO holding water level ROCK SOLID). So rather than spend $200 for new probes, I think that money will be better spend on a MindStream unit.....


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Unread 08/19/2019, 05:44 PM   #7
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I would toss the probe and forget about PH.
Cheers! Mark


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Unread 08/19/2019, 06:19 PM   #8
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pH controls solenoids to regulate whether air is drawn through CO2 scrubber. It makes a difference, and testing on BRS TV has convinced me of importance to keep it above 8.1, so I’m not going to just forget about pH. Although as of now MindStream doesn’t interface with Apex system to turn solenoids on/off...... sigh.

Re salinity, it was an indicator to let me know from afar whether ATO failed to work properly, either not coming on properly or not shutting off properly. I will be adding some high and low float switches in the sump and connecting to an I/O breakout box at some point to have a more direct reading, but until then it would have been nice for a “lab grade” probe to actually function as, well, lab grade.....


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Unread 08/20/2019, 02:21 AM   #9
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if your dosing 2 part your salinity could be raising even though your water level has not changed. The chloride from calcium chloride and the sodium from Carbonate or bicarbonate do not get used thereby increasing Sodium Chloride ( salt) levels in your water.


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Unread 08/20/2019, 07:34 AM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by laverda View Post
if your dosing 2 part your salinity could be raising even though your water level has not changed. The chloride from calcium chloride and the sodium from Carbonate or bicarbonate do not get used thereby increasing Sodium Chloride ( salt) levels in your water.
Nope. At least not on a regular, ongoing basis. Four caps of Part 1 and four caps of Part 2 every few days. Rise in salinity bears no relation. See attached.


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Unread 08/20/2019, 07:39 AM   #11
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And re pH, which is intermittently "spiky," see attached


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Unread 08/21/2019, 07:50 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kengar View Post
And re pH, which is intermittently "spiky," see attached
There is nothing in your graphs that would lead me to believe your probe is going bad. I’d chalk that up to an anomaly or some sort of interference whether it’s from another device in your tank or something else. If you have power cords for devices running parallel to the probe cable, that could cause it as well. You might start logging other devices that turn on and off randomly or at set times and see if you can find a device that turns on or off at the same time as a “spike”. Turning on logging for different outlets that change states based on programming will allow you do do that hone in on something that could be causing the sudden change in the probe reading.


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