PH probe quality

[ricardomunera]

I’m looking at putting together a ph probe with reef pi and I’m seeing a lot of different prices and was wondering how “cheap” you can go with the probe and circuit?for now it’s just going to be for monitoring but I also would like to fiddle with a alk tester so I’d imagine that one would have to be pretty accurate

For the basic tank monitoring and graphing would I be able to use something like this?

 

[Nano_Man]

It's not the price of the probe it's how accurate it is. You would have to calibrate it then see how accurate it is to the other methods for taking reading and see how apart they are

 

[ricardomunera]

It's not the price of the probe it's how accurate it is. You would have to calibrate it then see how accurate it is to the other methods for taking reading and see how apart they are

I realize that the accuracy would be important. This one claims +/- .3. Would I have to worry about that claim being false with a lower priced one. And how accurate would I need it to be?

 

[ricardomunera]

It's not the price of the probe it's how accurate it is. You would have to calibrate it then see how accurate it is to the other methods for taking reading and see how apart they are

I realize that the accuracy would be important. This one claims +/- .3. Would I have to worry about that claim being false with a lower priced one. And how accurate would I need it to be?

Also from my understanding the accuracy would mainly come from the circuit?

 

[Uncle99]

Waste of money and time.
Even the most expensive probes give false reports over time sending us into a chase that’s untrue.

After learning that lesson, I’ve not measured PH in a decade.

It’s ok to employ any or all those things which may increase PH like water movement, outside air to skimmer, macro algae, CO2 scrub, but measure it is not necessary in normal reef tank settings.

 

[Sral]

I realize that the accuracy would be important. This one claims +/- .3. Would I have to worry about that claim being false with a lower priced one. And how accurate would I need it to be?

I'd mostly worry about integrating it and getting a good value.
Analog ones are not well integrateable into ReefPi iirc and you'd need an isolator on top to get any anything useful out of it.

I'd just go with the tried and tested RoboTank pH and be done with it (if that's still available).

 

[ricardomunera]

I realize that the accuracy would be important. This one claims +/- .3. Would I have to worry about that claim being false with a lower priced one. And how accurate would I need it to be?

I'd mostly worry about integrating it and getting a good value.
Analog ones are not well integrateable into ReefPi iirc and you'd need an isolator on top to get any anything useful out of it.

I'd just go with the tried and tested RoboTank pH and be done with it (if that's still available).

I would imagine that would be more than accurate enough to do a diy alk tester as well?

 

[Sral]

I would imagine that would be more than accurate enough to do a diy alk tester as well?

Should be, depends on how you want to do it ?

If you want to titrate and check a certain pH it should be good enough, since titration changes the pH very rapidly around the mark you are interested in, so a little pH difference of 0.1 doesn't matter too much. RoboTank's pH circuit is better than 0.1 from what I have heard (outside the probe aging that is).

 

[Sral]

I would imagine that would be more than accurate enough to do a diy alk tester as well?

You can try to get it done with this one as well, since you are already down the DIY route, but that would possibly require electrical isolation, e.g. an analog electric isolator board with power delivery.

You just might get away without it if you measure in an electrically isolated container, now that I think about it, but I'd personally not risk it, tbh.

 

[ricardomunera]

I would imagine that would be more than accurate enough to do a diy alk tester as well?

You can try to get it done with this one as well, since you are already down the DIY route, but that would possibly require electrical isolation, e.g. an analog electric isolator board with power delivery.

You just might get away without it if you measure in an electrically isolated container, now that I think about it, but I'd personally not risk it, tbh.

I haven’t gotten anything yet. Just looking into options. I’m trying to decide if I should just try and find a used trident or if I can just diy my way into something

 

[Sral]

I haven’t gotten anything yet. Just looking into options. I’m trying to decide if I should just try and find a used trident or if I can just diy my way into something

What's your plan on the measurement process btw ?