PH Testing

[Wildstar1063]

I just got a new PH meter from wetpets, and was curious if every one tests their PH
at the same time each day or just whenever the mood strikes?

The little PH meter is nice, I had a Hanna Piccolo PH tester, which was reallly
nice but the replacment probe is $80.00. It was cheaper to buy the new meter
from wetpets, I could have bought 2 and still been a little cheaper that replacing
the probe on my Piccolo.

Wish I could find a PH meter with a data out port, it would be interesting to
connect a PH meter to a program like LabView, and monitor the PH through
out the day and be able to graph it on your computer. But any meter like that
is probably out of my price range anyway.


Chuck E.

 

[dugg]

I would think it would be best to test either once per day at roughly the same time (mid day), or test at lights on, and again at lights off. That will give you you high and low for the day.

 

[JR719]

Ph will rise from photosynthesis. When the lights are on, Ph up. After lights off, it goes down (unless you have a fuge with reverse or full lighting). My fuge is gone so the Ph drops at night. For a giggle, check it around 5 PM and then around 2 or 3 AM. You'll see a fairly good difference (without reverse or full fuge).
I start the kalk drip around 1 to 1:30 AM after work to maintain Ph.

 

[captbunzo]

Also, pH meters need to be calibrated regularly to retain their accuracy.

 

[captbunzo]

Another REALLY COOL bit for you, Chuck... I have a friend in Edmond that has been playing with exactly such a device (a plug into a computer pH meter). He got some GREAT data from his tank. Check them out here:

http://www.vernier.com

For $137 you can get the Go! Link interface device and the pH sensor.

Also REALLY REALLY cool is that for a pile of money, you can also get sensors for Carbon Dioxide, Current, Dissolved Oxygen, Calcium, Nitrate, and Temperature.

Sounds like a whole ball of fun...

 

[hainesk]

As Paul mentioned, I have used the vernier sensors to monitor my tank. I was surprised at how quickly my pH changed. Also at the magnitude of the swing during the day (about 0.4-0.5 pH units I think, but I don't have my data with me at work). When the lights turned on/off it would jump in the span of a couple minutes (as best I can tell since I only have them set to take data once a minute, then I have to smooth out noise). Also the time scale seemed similar when my auto-topoff (kalkwasswer) came on. I am thinking that I am going to get some of the other sensors to play with, err.. take important and timely data on my tank, in the next month or two. Anyway, my 2-cents on your question of when to test is that even if you test at the same time each day, you reading could vary(maybe aroud 0.1-0.2) depending on how recently your auto-topoff ran. Remember that I am by no means an expert and my tank far from ideal, so your results could be different.

I have also been tinkering a little with getting a website up with realtime tank data using these GoLink sensors. Right now I need to make some changes to my server software before I can put realtime graphs up there, which is a little frustrating, but I think it'll be cool when i get done.

 

[Wildstar1063]

hainesk,

That sensor setup looks just like what us gadget freaks would love to play with.

What did the whole setup run you? It looks like there are a bunch of different
sensors available.

What software are you using to view the data with? I was thinking about using
LabView, as it's so configurable.

Thanks to both you and Paul for the info

Chuck E.

 

[captbunzo]

I am sure Kirk will tell you more when he gets to it. But I CAN tell you that he is currently BORROWING the set from a professor friend of his.... (PUNK)

 

[hainesk]

Right now I just have temperature and pH sensors that I have on loan from the OSU chemistry dept. I will be ordering ones to keep here this week. What I have now would run about $175 from www.vernier.com.

As far as software goes, I cheated. The reason that I am using these sensors is a project that I have been working on for the OSU chemistry dept. I ended up learning how to interface their drivers with some Java software that I had been working on for several years. So basically I wrote my own data capture program that dumps it to a database. I am getting ready to write a web interface that will use the information in the DB for display. Currently I am just using Excel for graphs and some basic data processing. For regular use, the Logger Lite software that comes with it works ok. I would say that LabView, which I used a decent amount when I was in the physics dept. at OSU, is overkill, and quite expensive to boot.

 

[captbunzo]

I betcha if you asked nicely, Kirk might be willing to share anything that he writes for himself and/or is authorized (by OSU chem) to share..........

 

[captbunzo]

And, btw, Kirk REALLY likes it when you call him Kirkules...