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Durand tank build (1 Viewer)

Chris Goetz said:
Try taking 2 cups of tank water out and placing a ph prove in each cup and see what readings you get.
That should eliminate any kind of interference in the tank caused by other probes, pumps or heaters.
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Pulled to samples and left probes in separate containers. These are the results. Im now going switch the probes on the apex controller and then recalibrate and see if that does anything.


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That 9.74 is from the calibration and it just takes a couple min to show the current value.

Also if it helps, i’ve found doing advanced-manual calibration gets you more accurate readings as the probe can settle on readings longer. Then you can see the readings as it calibrates and should be very close to 700 and 1000.

Edit: I’ve also been swishing probe in RO between each step as I read that gets the most accuracy and I’m so darn tired of pH uncertainty lol
 
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I had them in the separate container for a few min to settle and those were the results. I switched the robes around on the apex and the new prob would not automatic calibrate in the ph2 location on apex. So i ran the test manually. The origin al probe calibrates with in 50 or 60 points of the 7 and 10 calibration fluid. The new probe in the same fluid tested 100-120 over the 7-10. Now after calibrating again. And in new solution. And in separate cups out of the water and now sitting for a few min.

Results
PH1 is my original
PH2 is the new
IMG_0468.png


Im going to once more recalibrate manually with the probes switched again. New one in location 1 and old in location 2 and see what that gives me.
 
I noticed the calibration fluid does not test the same from port to port, but from probe to probe it’s consistent. In port one both probes read the solution below its value but 20ish point. In port 2 both read the solution above the calibration fluid by 20th points. Not sure what that means???? But it consistent with the readings im getting on my tank between the 2 ports for my ph readings in the tank. Port 1 is low and port 2 is high……….

The new probe in port one seems to be reading very low. But in port 2 it stays way high.
Only prob reads pretty consistent in both locations.

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Ok that’s super weird.

So my understanding is the calibration is to get the numbers to line up. Like on the first calibration the values could be off but after that they should be very close to the 7 and 10.

The probes just report back a voltage or resistance so yeah maybe one of your ports is a little more “numb”?
 
spsick said:
Ok that’s super weird.

So my understanding is the calibration is to get the numbers to line up. Like on the first calibration the values could be off but after that they should be very close to the 7 and 10.

The probes just report back a voltage or resistance so yeah maybe one of your ports is a little more “numb”?
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I agree weird.

I have one more calibration test kit that I may try swapping the probes again in the ports and test again. But I used to different calibration fluid kits and results were similar except that I switched from auto to manual so not sure what the calibration numbers were settling before moving on in the test. But why the prob location on the apex is reading different or consistent high on one and low on the other no matter the prob is very confusing to me. Sort of think maybe the apex head ports have something wrong with them???
 
It’s maddening.

think I recall Randy Holmes Farley telling someone on R2R that if their co2 level is that low (like yours) the pH reading has to be wrong.

I’d wager if you toss either of those probes of freshly mixed salt water they read properly in the 8.2ish range. So then in theory if you aerate that water it shouldn’t drop much with co2 that low.

The rabbit hole goes deeeeep! Do you get another pH monitor to verify? I ask myself these questions and throw my hand up hahahahahagarhhhhhh
 
Oh yea this hobby lets our minds and thoughts go crazy LOL
Now my PH reads below my apex allowed readings and my alarms keep going off LOL I wish I understood these things a bit more to know what to change, fix, or accommodate. This makes watching ph spikes from kalk dosing an even harder thing to account for.

Im curious what would happen if I took the scrubbers out of the system. I may give this a try and see what happens as well.
We have family coming today (11 People) should be interesting to see what co2 levels and ph numbers read during the party.

Im thinking I’ll switch the new probe to location one on the apex, recalibrate and let it run. and If I can get a hold of another way to test ph Ill test again and see how they compare.
 
Can’t hurt! I think with a bunch of people is when you’ll really see an impact if co2 and pH.

You can adjust that low pH alarm level too (or remove) if you like in the settings. I had to do that on my frag tank for the same reason.
 
Keep me posted how you like it. I love me some new gadgets 😂

Ran tank without scrubber for a short time now and not seeing any sort of change in the ph yet. Thought maybe more bubbles in the skimmer neck might change something but no.
 
Co2 got to about 845 while everyone was here. Ph never moved. So I guess that’s a good thing. I did set the air to air to run during the party so I’m sure that helped.


I think my plan moving forward is to work on increasing my kalk dose. I’m currently only dosing 1600ml per day. Still working on figuring out my daily top off rate on this tank but I think I’m around 1.5 gallons or 5600ml per day. Increasing my kalk closer to my daily top off should raise that ph higher. 🤞🏽. When I set this tank up. I just stuck with the current setting I had on the last tank and keep testing alk to stay in range. I’ll spend the next few weeks increasing the kalk dose and lower my all for reef dose to maybe 75-80% total top off amount.
 
Sort of feel like I may have had a 🤦🏽‍♂️ moment this am with my ph. As i was trying to do the math with the avast Kalkulator this morning I realized im not dosing the same amount in terms of percentage to this tank compared to the last tank since my sump volume has more than doubled In volume. It would make sense that my PH would be on the lower side with the tank move. And increasing my Kalk dose should be able to take care of the issues I was having with ph. Comparing numbers I was dosing about 80% of my total evaporation On the last tank and now less then 45%. So I adjusted to about 55% total evaporation rate per day for now and will monitor for 24hours and then recheck alk. I dropped my all for reef dose down as well. With so much room to go up with kalk I think I should easily get my Ph at least over 8.
 
Was able to grab a carpenter wrasse sat from reef co. Along with a Goni and a frogspawn. Wrasse was hiding most of the day yesterday. But nothing a little mysis can’t take care of. lol. Today out and about. Now keeping my eye open for a copperband. And that might wrap up the fish stocking list unless something comes up I can’t pass on.

Everything seems to being well. Still working on raising the kalk dose and I’m seeing (If correct) ph increase little by little. I’m only at about 1/2 of what I can dose. I increase, run for 2 days, test alk, then increase kalk and decrease all for reef.

Searching around when out and about for a larger top off container. Still. I found a nice black trash can at the Home Depot. But it’s still to small for the volume I need. Think I’m going to need to find something in the 10gallon range to be able to go weekly.

Made a screen top over the weekend. Tried the curved screen frame hack. It worked ok. I as feeling nervous running with no top. For as much as I loved it. Tried fish sticks is no fun.

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Are you saying that you need some sort of 10 gallon water container? I have a 10 gallon tank that I used as my frag tank before. It's sitting in my garage right now, free for you to take if you want it 😁.
 
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