Help - PH very low

[Fish&Corgis]

I have a 175G, w 75G fuge full of caulerpa, and sump. My PH has dropped significantly over the past week. The tank has been up for 18 months and PH has remained constant.

Currently at 5.6.

I have added super buffer to try to stabilize. It has done nothing.

Recent notes or changes...

Caulerpa in fuge has gone nuts recently

My sump and fuge are in the basement, humidity has been high recenlty limiting evaporation thus airflow.

Fish seem fine, shrooms and some polyps ok, star polyps in hiding

Any thoughts.

 

[jdieck]

Do you mean 7.6 PH?
What is your alkalinity level?

Otherwise unless your tank is barren and with a very low salinity with almost no alkalinity 5.6 PH is certainly an error, try finding a better way to determine your tank PH

 

[Fish&Corgis]

Using and electronic ph monitor. I thought things seemed way off for the tank to seem to be fine. I guess I need to figure out how to recalibrate it.

 

[Fish&Corgis]

Yes it is currently reading 5.6.

I am worried about over alkalinity since I feel I may have added too much superbuffer. Salinity is 1.025

 

[ooja3k]

Ok, it sounds like you need to re-calibrate the probe... There is no way your tanks ph is 5.6... im pretty sure your corals would be disintegrating...

 

[jdieck]

Test your alkalinity just in case. If too high you may want to make a water change. Also test your magnesium and calcium in case the high alkalinity precipitated them.

For calibration the meter should have some instructions, usually you need reference solutions at PH 7 and PH 10 to do the calibration.

 

[Fish&Corgis]

Had the 4.0 and 7.0, calibrated. I was able to dial the 4.0 right in, the highest I could calibrate the 7.0 was to about 6.92.

PH now reads at 8.16.

I do not have an alkalinity test kit, I will do a large water change tomorrow just in case.

 

[ooja3k]

That ph is much more reasonable...

Nice fix.

 

[Fish&Corgis]

Well, I get home from work today and pH is 4.5. I guess my fix didn't work. I attempted to recalibrate and in process dropped the probe and broke it.

I guess I will need to replace the probe. Any thoughts if this could have been the problem or is it the entire unit?

 

[ooja3k]

I would think its the probe... What type of unit are you using?? A pinpoint monitor?

 

[Fish&Corgis]

Yes a pinpoint. Replacing the probe is the cheapest. Though I would hate to replace the probe and then have to replace the whole unit.

 

[ooja3k]

well i would try the cheap fix first.. if that works awesome, its fixed... but if it doesn't... then you have to buy a new unit anyway.. i would buy the new probe first.

 

[Fish&Corgis]

Except, new probe $45 new unit $88. I wonder if I should just send the unit to pinpoint to fix. It just means I would have to test ph the old fashioned way.

 

[ooja3k]

I might do that if I were you. Send it to them to check, if its the unit, see if they can fix it, if its not the unit, then have them send it back with a new ph probe.

That sounds like a good plan to me

 

[vanmo92]

I agree, If your tank ever got to 5.6 everything in your tank would certainly be dead. I think it is definitely the meter.

 

[jdieck]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12451926#post12451926 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Fish&Corgis
Except, new probe $45 new unit $88. I wonder if I should just send the unit to pinpoint to fix. It just means I would have to test ph the old fashioned way.

Unles you got the meter wet or drop it in water, 99% of the time it is the probe. You need to replace the probe after a year or so anyhow so having a spare does not hurt in case it was not the probe, so get the probe and if it does not work keep it as spare, just insure that the tip is always moist with solution 4 under the protective cap and will last a ong time in storage.