(Almost) Everything You Need to Know About Apex Salinity Calibration and TC Factor

[Sean Clark]

this reading was in the mid 36.5 range up to 36 but now it says it was tracking at 35.5? then I poured a small amount of Kalkwasser in the sump and the probe jumped up 2 pts and stayed there, I tried to celebrate and the probe went to the 40s, I was able to do the TC adjustment and it went to 36 and declined to 33.5 as of now. there was a small temp swing yesterday (hot day) fans weren't set up yet.

Can you do an overlay like this one with the temp and salinity? My salinity looks like it is all over the place but it is only the scale of the graph. The important thing is that the salinity values do not deviate with the temp fluctuations.

 

[Jeff Crawford]

I dropped my temp 1 degree to prep for summer heat a couple days ago and had a temp spike last night

 

[Jeff Crawford]

im confused about this graph because earlier in the week my temps flux between 79-79.5 as it was set at 79, now its set at 78, the chart says it was a degree lower than it was, just like the salt chart says it was spot on earlier in the week, it wasn't , it was around 36.5 not 35.5 as indicated in the graph

 

[Jeff Crawford]

is the tc calculations adjusting retroactively (altering my history?)

 

[Jeff Crawford]

oops, I read the temp wrong, its accurate

 

[Sean Clark]

I dropped my temp 1 degree to prep for summer heat a couple days ago and had a temp spike last night

How did you drop your temp so fast?

 

[Sean Clark]

is the tc calculations adjusting retroactively (altering my history?)

No idea. I doubt it. Other calibrations are not.

 

[Jeff Crawford]

How did you drop your temp so fast?

I reduced temp from 79 to 78, anticipating high temps, so when it climbs it will climb less

 

[Sean Clark]

I reduced temp from 79 to 78, anticipating high temps, so when it climbs it will climb less

I read that but it looks like you dropped it with ice.

 

[Jeff Crawford]

I read that but it looks like you dropped it with ice.

the water station and quarantine set up is in an uninsulated garage, its seattle cold but when it jumps to a sweltering 75F, I need a fan lol,

 

[Jeff Crawford]

the water station and quarantine set up is in an uninsulated garage, its seattle cold but when it jumps to a sweltering 75F, I need a fan lol,

I cant resist pandoras box, what do you do with your calcium prob results?? Im not sure mine is even useful to monitor swintgs, my calcium is climbing from 750 to 850 but obviously its impossible to increase without adding any, I dose carbinate for alcaliniy only at this time in the frag quarantine tank. (fyi, it could be near 550 from previous calcium adds a month ago)

 

[Sean Clark]

I cant resist pandoras box, what do you do with your calcium prob results?? Im not sure mine is even useful to monitor swintgs, my calcium is climbing from 750 to 850 but obviously its impossible to increase without adding any, I dose carbinate for alcaliniy only at this time in the frag quarantine tank. (fyi, it could be near 550 from previous calcium adds a month ago)

There are well documented issues with the consistency of Trident Calcium results. Google will guide you. I would just recommend that you verify prior to making any adjustments.

 

[Jeff Crawford]

There are well documented issues with the consistency of Trident Calcium results. Google will guide you. I would just recommend that you verify prior to making any adjustments.

thanks, I will wade through it

 

[Jeff Crawford]

thanks, I will wade through it

Yall were correct about the salt probe, it was micro bubbles!!!! the way my quaranteen is set up I cannot avoid micro bubbles in both sump and tank, sump is above and drains to tank pulling air (its a 140 gal quarantine and I don't want it full with an overflow) it makes sense for me but the micro bubbles.....I put a filter pad around the probes and viola...stable salt readings.

 

[Mark Goode]

I have just installed a Neptune Apex; all worked but the salinity probe - that gave a reading of 50+, and sent an alarm every hour. I followed the calibration instructions at the start of this thread, and the readings dropped to 34.9 (against a refractometer reading of 35). All good. I turned off my Apex unit while I fixed it to a Red Sea control panel, and when turned back on gave salinity readings of 50+ again.

I've shaken it and wiggled it about to no avail, eventually visiting the LFS and buying a 'salinity probe stability kit' and a Neptune PMUP (the noisiest piece of equipment I have).

The salinity is now reading 54.9. I think my next step will be to take the probe outside and recalibrate it with a rock.

 

[AustinJT]

Hi, this is OLD. But.. you mention about Tmp Probe have to be on Same Module as Salt Probe. What about pH Probe? I was going to set TC for my pH Probe too. But I only have 1 Tmp Probe. But my main Reef pH Probe was attach to PM1. Should I be changing it back to Base Unit, so both Reef pH Probe and Salt Probe would share 1 Tmp Probe on same unit. Reason my R-pH was kicked off to PM1 because at the time... I have my Calcium Reactor running, therefore, the based pH Probe was used for Calcium Reactor. Since the tank was at Start Up point, I couldn't both to care about pH. So I just figure that once PM1 arrive, I will just use it to read Reef pH. But now.... if both probe need to be one same module as Tmp probe, looks like i have some adjustment to make if I were to use TC factor correctly. Right?

 

[ZombieEngineer]

Hi, this is OLD. But.. you mention about Tmp Probe have to be on Same Module as Salt Probe. What about pH Probe? I was going to set TC for my pH Probe too. But I only have 1 Tmp Probe. But my main Reef pH Probe was attach to PM1. Should I be changing it back to Base Unit, so both Reef pH Probe and Salt Probe would share 1 Tmp Probe on same unit. Reason my R-pH was kicked off to PM1 because at the time... I have my Calcium Reactor running, therefore, the based pH Probe was used for Calcium Reactor. Since the tank was at Start Up point, I couldn't both to care about pH. So I just figure that once PM1 arrive, I will just use it to read Reef pH. But now.... if both probe need to be one same module as Tmp probe, looks like i have some adjustment to make if I were to use TC factor correctly. Right?

Temp compensation for the pH probe also used the temp probe connected to the same module as it is connected to.

The adjustment is very small though and only affects the reading by 0.04pH per degree F. Unless your tank has substantial changes in temperature, you won't even see a noticeable difference in the reading.

 

[AustinJT]

Temp compensation for the pH probe also used the temp probe connected to the same module as it is connected to.

The adjustment is very small though and only affects the reading by 0.04pH per degree F. Unless your tank has substantial changes in temperature, you won't even see a noticeable difference in the reading.

TC hasn't been turned on yet. Either my Salt Probe gone bad or something.
It read between 34.5ppt to 36.5ppt through out the day.

And yes, my Tmp was a bit unstable.
Because I set 24-26c. Temp read between 24.8 to 25.8 from Neptune.
But Tmp controller from Chiller read 24-26. The reason I set it 2c apart because the of Kick Start.
If I set 25-26c, the chiller is constantly ON/OFF every 1 minute, it working 1 min, off 1 min and repeated.
The service guy said, since it's kick start ON&OFF too quickly, it might create issue with Compressor.

Since the setting of 24 to 26c. Chiller works about 10-15mins and rest about 20-25mins which is better according to Service Guy as compressor is having time to cool down (It heats up during running).

 

[AydenLincoln]

I find that this product is amazing too and fixed all my issues.

 

[AustinJT]

Temp compensation for the pH probe also used the temp probe connected to the same module as it is connected to.

The adjustment is very small though and only affects the reading by 0.04pH per degree F. Unless your tank has substantial changes in temperature, you won't even see a noticeable difference in the reading.

Apparently, the Same Module is a myth?

Well, I change my R-pH to my Base Unit and Revert my CRx_pH to PM1.

But TC on Base Probe & PM1 Probe is connected.
Because when I turned TC of R-pH, my PM1 probe is automatically Enabled TC on its own. If I Disabled TC on PM1, the TC on Base Unit probe is also disable TC. So they actually linked.

But how does one calibrate Tmp?