Some strange pH readings

chrishet

chrishet

Member
I've had my Apex up and running for some time now with no problems, I love it! and the iPhone app!

This past week I have seen some strange readings on my pH probe. Huge jumps are seen during the evening hours (pH jumps up to 11.5) which lead me to think I was having a problem with my dosing routine...which has been running fine. The times do not line up and I only dose 3 times per night.. Just to eliminate this I turned off my dosing pumps last night but still got these readings. I have not cleaned or recalibrated my probe. I checked my ATO water and it was 8.5 but my ATO typically triggers during the daytime hours. Any ideas? I may stay up tonight and check it was a test kit....

apex.jpg
 
Looks like you might be getting interference from something. Try rerouting your probe wires outside the tank or stand temporarily and see if it changes. You can also look at your outlet log at those times and see if another outlet is turning on/off around those times.
 
Good idea on rerouting..I will do that. I just checked the log and it appears that the temp is spiking at the exact same time....I checked all outlets and don't see any scheduled times that would cause this.

BTW, good game Sunday!
 
If the temp is spiking too then you almost certainly have interference somewhere. It will be a process of elimination. Move them as far from other cables as possible, prove that's the problem then move them back one by one and see where the problem is coming from.

And yes, it was a good game. I hear we're looking for a kicker!
 
Thx Alan...I've moved the cables around all others...we will keep an eye on it.

looking for a GOOD kicker!....a routine kick would have ended that game...
 
Things are getting stranger...I noticed the spiking again last night around 2230. Since the cables were rerouted, I decided to unplug one of the probes for the night to see if perhaps it is something more internal...I unplugged the temp probe and went to bed. This morning I checked and the spikes in the pH probe continued throughout the night...and the real strange thing is that I noticed in the log that the temp also spiked, with no probe attached!

I swapped probes this morning and will monitor tonight to see if I the spikes continue without the pH probe attached...but I am starting to think there is something going on in the controller...it is strange this is only occurring at night. I also reprogrammed my dosing/ATO cycles to occur during the day - these are the only rules that fire at night.
 
If the pH probe is disconnected on my Apex, the pH reading goes to 11.5 which you are hitting a couple times in your graph. Make sure the pH probe has solid, clean connection on the base module.
 
does seem strange that these errors only occur at night however....seems like an intermittent probe or lost connection would not care....
 
Do you dose Sodium carbonate or kalk or anything? A kalk addition right next the the pH probe could get it pretty close to 12.

Just a thought.
 
schwaggs said:
If the pH probe is disconnected on my Apex, the pH reading goes to 11.5 which you are hitting a couple times in your graph. Make sure the pH probe has solid, clean connection on the base module.
Click to expand...

Is it strictly 11.5 or approximately? I know with the DA ReefKeepers a null value of 0 often shows up and it doesn't round or anything so the reading is either 0 or what the probe is showing.

On his charts he has a value in between and it slowly comes down over the course of time. Only way I could see a disconnect reading showing is if the Apex somehow was rounding values seen in the last 5 minutes for each point or something.

Kind of think this is a sign of dosing. That being said, if it is because of manual dosing... slow down! Try a drip with some air line. pH that high will burn any animal near by and could even damage equipment in the tank near by.
 
My dosing is downstream in my waterflow...probes are on the overflow, the dosing outputs are near my return pump. My dosing routines are (were) at 11pm, 2am, and 5am and were only 1 min each (22 gal tank), plus I turned off dosing last night completely and saw these spikes - I truly do not think these are true readings. It does sounds like the graphs round off the probe outputs...appears to me like a lost connection but is kinda weird that it happens only at night. I cleaned my BNC connector this morning and have not seen any spikes yet...keeping my fingers crossed....
 
What else do you have programmed only at night? A frag tank or refugium on reverse day light which has a ballast of some sort? Maybe you were only present to be touching probes at night and hit a lose connection. Kalk dosing at night?

Just trying to help talk it out fully for any possibility. Hopefully it is already fixed with the connection. Good luck.
 
Thx Gordonious...I appreciate the suggestions. Nothing else is triggered, or rules fired to cause a trigger, during the night time hours...just my dosing pumps and I moved those to daytime hours to resolved this issue. If cleaning the BNC connector doesn't fix the problem I'm replacing the probe. Thx
 
When you disconnected the probe to clean the connection, did you happen to notice what value the probe Apex displayed?
 
Well this morning I noticed a few spikes...not as many as the night before but I am still seeing these. I am going to leave both probes off today to see what happens...
 
ok that was kinda dumb of me...when the pH probe is disconnected I see a value of 11.9...duh...disconnecting the probe won't help me trouble shoot this one...lol..looks like I'm ordering a new probe.
 
Not sure it will do any good, but you could try placing the probes in a cup of vinegar overnight. This would isolate them from the tank and provide a somewhat steady reading as a test as well as cleaning them.

Todd
 
I am having the same problems for the last week. My APEX was working well during 9 months. I have two PH probes and they are going crazy.
I was speaking with neptune customer support and they think it is the base module.
I will receive a new module tomorrow.
I will keep you inform.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

R
some random questions
Replies
1
Views
222
SantaMonica
S
griss
pH - Thought I'd Share This
Replies
5
Views
2K
BuckeyeFish
BuckeyeFish
M
Back to this wonderfull hobbie after 10 years
Replies
4
Views
277
griss
griss
rrrrob
Thoughts on Purigen?
Replies
11
Views
714
alejandrodia
A
K
Carbon Dosing causes STN/RTN?
Replies
13
Views
3K
Timfish
Timfish
Back
Top