PH on the rise

[Cali Kid]

My PH has been slowly creeping up each day and had reached 8.75 today

Here are the rest of my water params:

Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 0

Ca - 300 ppm (good to see this is increasing, still got a ways to go)
Alk - 3.54 meq/L (not too bad, but still a bit low - slowly increasing)

Temp - 80 deg. F.

SG - 1.025

I'm measuring my PH with a pinpoint PH monitor. I did the calibration when I bought it about 6 months ago.

Everything in the tank looks great. Should I be concerned?

I'm dosing the two part Alk and Ca supplement by ESV (B-Ionic)

I also evap about 3-4g that I make-up with RO/DI water.

Any suggestions?

Sean

[tdwyatt]

Originally posted by Cali Kid
My PH has been slowly creeping up each day and had reached 8.75 today... ...I'm measuring my PH with a pinpoint PH monitor. I did the calibration when I bought it about 6 months ago. Everything in the tank looks great. Should I be concerned?

Hi Sean,

I wouldn't be too concerned at this point, especially as the system appears to be ok. The 8.75 pH number is a little disconcerning, but may be a measuring problem. Before you get too far into making water column changes, replace your battery in the meter and/or clean your pH probe.

The safest way to do clean your probe is to soak it in white vinegar for an hour or two, then rinse it in RO water and soak it for 10 more minutes in clean RO water and calibrate. It will help to remove the biofilm from it as well. To do this, put 1 tablespoonful of Chlorox (Sodium hypochlorite solution-household bleach) in a clean class container and dilute it with 9 more tablespoonsful of RO water. Soak for 10 minutes, the rinse in clean RO water and soak for 10 more minutes. Recalibrate.

To recalibrate the Pinpoint meter and probe, use the little packets of standards, they are much more reliable when opened fresh and in date than the bottles of standards (which start to wander from the exact pH of the standard as soon as they are opened). Before opening the packets of standardizing solution, bring them to tank temp (throw the unopened packets in the sump for a bit, about 10 minutes),. Get a ceramic mug for each standard to test, and put it in the sump as well. When ready to test, both the mug and the standards will be at tank temp. Open the 7.0 pH packet at the top only, put it (upright) in a water bath in the mug (this prevents temperature change induced variations), then put the probe into the standard solution and stir it gently. Set a timer for 10 minutes, then check the reading at the end of that period and adjust the reading to the standard's pH (7.00). Rinse the probe with fresh RO water, then shake any excess water off the probe and place it in the 10 or the 4 pH standard, and set the timer for 10 minutes. At the end of that time, adjust the reading on the meter to the pH of that solution, rinse in RO water, shake off any excess water, and retest the 7.0 standard again for 2 or 3 minutes. It should read to within 0.01 pH units of 7.00. If not, repeat the calibration process. If it passes the retest, rinse the probe and put it into service.

If this doesn't fix the problem, repost and I will make other suggestions.

Hope this helps,

[Cali Kid]

Thanks Tom!

I will give it a shot. Just so I understand your instructions correctly, I rinse in white vinegar, then in cloraox to remove the biofilm? Or was the biofilm removal an afterthought that should actually proceed the vinegar rinsing?

Sean

Thanks again

[tdwyatt]

Originally posted by Cali Kid
...Or was the biofilm removal an afterthought that should actually proceed the vinegar rinsing?

Yeah, but it prolly won't matter which you do first, although I usually do the biofilm removal first, then remove any remaining calcerous deposits with the white vinegar soak. The chlorox only takes a few min, sometimes the white vinegar thing can take as long as 6 hours to really remove all the stuff. Having a dedicated, very soft toothbrush helps to clean the length of the probe, although it is suggested to never brush or rub the electrode tip. Even removing the excess solutions prior to testing is best done by blotting the tip of the electrode with acid-free blotter paper rather than rubbing it with a towel.

Hope this helps. Clean and re-calibrate the electrode, watch your values for a few days (every hour from the beginning of the photoperiod until about 4 hours after lights out.) This should plot as a biphasic sine wave, with the top of the curve around 8.4 or 8.5 at the end of the photoperiod to a low of 7.95 or so in the morning just prior to lights on.

[Cali Kid]

Thanks Tom,

Its soaking in the vinegar right now. I did two 10 min. soaks in the diluted bleach mix prior. It worked great.

I'm going to let the probe soak overnite. I'm also going to trow the calibration packets into the sump tonite as well as the mug. I should be ready to calibrate in the morning before the photoperiod starts. I'll be sure to update.

Sean

[Cali Kid]

Well, I guess it was just time to clean and re-calibrate. I haven't had the opportunity to watch the PH every hour during the photoperiod yet to plot the biphasic curve...(tomorrow). However, after following Toms directions, I put the probe back into service and the PH peaked at about 8.27. So needless to say, it appears my High PH value was due to a lack of maintenance. When I initially pulled the probe from the sump, it had coraline algae growing on the electrode tip......uhhh hello!

Thanks for the great advice Tom,

Sean

[mojoreef]

good deal tom, another sucessful customer. Cali I handle all Toms billing, please send me your billing inforamation so I may mail you the invoice.

The Yugo needs a paint job..

Sean on a different note, with the levels of cal and alk we run at it is really important to maintain all equipment in this fashion, dont forget about your pumps, probes,valves and so on!!!!!!!



mike

[tdwyatt]

Originally posted by mojoreef
The Yugo needs a paint job...

[Cali Kid]

You guys are too much!

Thanks for the heads-up on the other equipment Mike

Sean

[mojoreef]

OK then Tom it needs a few other things to!!!!!!!!! but a new paint job would make you look so good on the side of the road with the transmission a 100 yards behind you.


mike