Fast Drop in PH

[docscorals]

Hey everyone. Has anyone ever seen this happen? I can’t think of anything that would have changed to cause this to drop off. I haven’t done a water change in a week, so it couldn’t be the introduction of low ph water.

Dkh 10.5
Calcium 450
Mag 1350

 

[billyocean]

Thats a quick steep drop..unlikely to be accurate. Have you recalibrate the probe yet? Or made sure its clean?

 

[docscorals]

I just ordered some recalibration fluid and cleaned it this morning. This Trident is newer and only been running about three months. My other two are fine, so I’m hoping like you said it just needs recalibrated.

I ran out of reagent for my manual PH test kit and am picking up a new kit this morning when my LFS opens to double check.

 

[billyocean]

The only time ive seen an immediate drop is a wifi disconnect or a snail on it or something like that. Otherwise it should be at least somewhat of a gradual drop. It can drop quickly from high c02 or other factors but its still a gradual thing.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

It is electrical interference of some sort unless you poured an acid next to the probe.

Try to figure out what devices nearby may have turned on or off at that time. Things with ballasts are common sources of such problems. UV and lights, for example.

Move its cord apart from any other cords.

Moving cords around and seeing any change is diagnostic, and should not happen.

 

[TheNative192]

Hey everyone. Has anyone ever seen this happen? I can’t think of anything that would have changed to cause this to drop off. I haven’t done a water change in a week, so it couldn’t be the introduction of low ph water.

Dkh 10.5
Calcium 450
Mag 1350

Do you have a UV light, if I turn my UV light on and off my PH goes from 8.1 to 7 in a matter of seconds.

 

[docscorals]

I just checked with a ph kit and it was normal for this tank, which generally runs around 8-8.1. It must be the probe, or as you said some sort of electrical interference. I’ll try moving cords around and turning things around. I cleaned the probe and it was still reading low, so it wasn’t dirty.

I do have UV running on the tank, but that is in a section after where the ph probe sits and it hasn’t caused a problem before. But, things do change! I’ll try shutting it off and see if that has an impact.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I’ll try shutting it off and see if that has an impact.

The electrical effect om pH, if from it, would be instantaneous. :)

 

[docscorals]

I’ll try shutting it off and see if that has an impact.

The electrical effect om pH, if from it, would be instantaneous. :)

Well it wasn’t that then! I’ll try tracing the other cables as you recommended, if that fails then it must be a bad probe or it just fell off calibration somehow.

I love my Apex and Trident (new to automation after years in the hobby) but it sure makes things a lot more complicated!

 

[TheNative192]

Well it wasn’t that then! I’ll try tracing the other cables as you recommended, if that fails then it must be a bad probe or it just fell off calibration somehow.

I love my Apex and Trident (new to automation after years in the hobby) but it sure makes things a lot more complicated!

On my Hydros if I turn my UV back on even though it is a bit away from it, it affects my PH readings, not when its off but just it turning on seems to do the trick.

 

[docscorals]

I’ll try shutting it off and see if that has an impact.

The electrical effect om pH, if from it, would be instantaneous. :)

You called it I think Randy. The cord for my UV somehow got wrapped around the PH probe cord when I was rearranging the equipment in sump. As soon as I untangled them my ph jumped back up to normal. Not sure why it took that long to show up since I did that a few days ago, but it seems to have done the trick. Thanks for the recommendation!

 

[tomekzopola]

I had a heart stopper when i got notification at work that my big tank salinity was dropping and dropping steadily. Thought i would come home to water on floor since that would mean my top off which goes from by ro container dumped a ton of water into tank. Nope. Just as aptasia on probe. Meh. Thank goodness. Would still take too much monitoring over none. Cant risk expensive tank crash

 

[docscorals]

I had a heart stopper when i got notification at work that my big tank salinity was dropping and dropping steadily. Thought i would come home to water on floor since that would mean my top off which goes from by ro container dumped a ton of water into tank. Nope. Just as aptasia on probe. Meh. Thank goodness. Would still take too much monitoring over none. Cant risk expensive tank crash

Oh I agree, I love having the automation and monitoring. Just brings a different set of problems to think about.

 

[tomekzopola]

Oh I agree, I love having the automation and monitoring. Just brings a different set of problems to think about.

Yep. My wifes tank does not have tridents and runs better. Lol. No chasing. We try too hard sometimes. I use my tridents to test her water weekly though.