pH reading issues

Basic / Standard Reef Angel hardware
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cosmith71
Posts: 1437
Joined: Fri Mar 29, 2013 3:51 pm
Location: Oklahoma City

pH reading issues

Post by cosmith71 »

So here's my daily pH readings.
Reef Angel Web Chart.jpg
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pH regularly shows a daily drop from the low 8's to <6 from around 2pm to midnight. Coincidentally, that's the warmest part of the day and matches pretty closely with the activity of the fan blowing across my sump. I also have a Seneye monitor on the tank and its pH readings do not correlate this drop. It shows a more expected curve of pH rising slightly during the day and dropping slightly at night. My tank is doing well, so I suspect that the pH really isn't dropping into the 5's on a daily basis.

I have a theory that the fan blowing across the water may be imparting a static charge to the tank and affecting the pH probe. I put a grounding probe in with no effect (I guess I should check continuity on it to make sure it works).

Any thoughts?

--Colin
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Sacohen
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Joined: Sun Apr 21, 2013 6:25 am
Location: Davie, FL

Re: pH reading issues

Post by Sacohen »

I have my fan blowing on the sump water too, but don't have pH drops like you are showing.
I do have a grounding probe in the sump though.
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cosmith71
Posts: 1437
Joined: Fri Mar 29, 2013 3:51 pm
Location: Oklahoma City

Re: pH reading issues

Post by cosmith71 »

I checked continuity on the grounding probe and I think it may have had a problem. I replaced the plug end, so we'll see how this afternoon goes.

--Colin
Lionfan
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Joined: Wed Nov 26, 2014 8:53 am

Re: pH reading issues

Post by Lionfan »

I was having the same problem.
I knew there was no way ph was going from 8.3 to almost 7.2 every night.
Ending up being a bad float switch.
So I would think the fan is the culprit.
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cosmith71
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Joined: Fri Mar 29, 2013 3:51 pm
Location: Oklahoma City

Re: pH reading issues

Post by cosmith71 »

Did some experimenting yesterday. Grounding probe had no effect. pH reading drops when fan is on (steady drop, not instant) and rises steadily when fan goes off. No drop if fan is on but pointed away from the water.
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