sithrico
Active Member
Hi friend. Sounds a lot like something that happened to me when I first set mine up. Got crazy temp readings. Salinity swings like no other. ORP swings. Then ph stuck at 62. I did some research found a blog talking about the apex probe setups. I can't find the site again but I truly remember the whys it happens. First off the temp. It is tied in with salinity so if the temp is wrong salinity will be way off. Get three thermometers. Looks like you did something like this almost. Take the average of the three temps and then go into the apex temp settings. Hit the probe calibration and then offset the temp to match what the average of the three are. This will calibrate it at the average of the three you have then you will notice it stay on par. Next, you should set up the salinity. Now, what happens the calibration fluid is sometimes bad right from the box. You should pick some up from BRS. I would get like three. One to start one for a month later and one on hand for down the road. Let it sit in the sump for at least 2 hours. This gives the fluid enough time to get to the same temp as your water. Then run the calibration inside your sump. Just be really careful not to spill anything. It's nerve-racking but this truly works. Rinse the probe off in ro/di water and then cut a small corner off the bag and insert the probe in and kind of jiggle it up and down back and forth to get air bubbles out. Then hit the calibration button. Once it is done put in in the rack and let it sit for about 3 hours and then use this site. Salinity Calculator. Enter the sample tmp. use the one the apex says. Then enter what the salt says. Hit calculate and it will give you like a 0.0####### answer. That is what the salinity of the tank is. It doesn't match a refractometer or anything because the apex uses a formula that takes tmp and conductivity. So your apex is truly showing you the conductivity of the water, not the salinity. You have to calculate that to get the salinity. The calculator will help tons when you get the temp set up correctly then your salt swings will stabilize and stay on point. Next the ph and orp. They are supposed to swing throughout the day. This helps tell you what you're doing wrong. Kalk it up or down. See what part of the day you need to add the kalk. Since light and temp affect ph it always changes. You get to control it better by slowing down swings. Then the orp just calculates the oxygen in the water. It raises when the lights are out because the corals calm for the night as well as the fish. This one helps to see how the refug. is working out for you by adding oxygen or if something died because it will get really low due to the ammonia taking oxygen to turn to nitrite. So it's ph and orp are just a cool one to have but something you should never chase. tmp and salt are the most important probes to have to keep things alive. Sorry for the long write up, but this was what helped me get out of the frustration of those probes. Good luck if you got problems just ask. Also, us the BRS youtube apex probe calibration setup videos those help a lot too.
