PH out of control

M

mikebow16

Premium Member
for the last week my pH has got out of hand I stopped dosing my Mg and and 2 part but it still reaches >8.40 in the evening. Before last week it stayed between 8.16 to 8.25 with the exception of the pH spike when I add the Alk. I mitigated that by adding the Alk with a doser. I figured the doser was not working properly but it is off and has been off for the last 3 days. Nothing has died in the tank fish or coral so that is not the cause. I'll post alk and calcium readings when I get a chance.

Does anyone have an idea what would cause this weird spike?
 
I ruled out three possibilities
1. Normal pH reading on my top off water
2. Alk at 9.0
3. Replaced my pH probe and calibrated it.

I'm treating with some vinegar but it is just a temporary fix
 
Maybe some type of interference. Did you change any cable routing around the time you noticed the issue, moved the controller etc.

Cheers,
 
8.4 isn't bad. It may or may not be right, but 8.5 is when you will start to see corals stress, especially SPS.
 
The only change was that I replaced my fuge light and did a water change before I left for vacation. unless there was some problem with the salt mix. But I usually expect the ph to go down over time but it keeps increasing. ??
 
So did you change the way any the cables/cord's were routed...if a power cord is laying across ph probe cable, it could cause interference/noise. You can unplug the fuge light or make sure nothing is on the cable to see if it changes anything.

Cheers,
 
I agree with what Ron said and in addition you should also recheck the probe calibration with fresh cal fluid.

By the way I have a Apex controller, and a Pinpoint pH monitor and they do not read the same even when calibrating at the same time. There is a 10 point difference but they both track each other up and down as the pH changes. If I just move the wires going to the probes the pH readings become sporadic and then settle back down.
 
I tried moving the wires around with no change most of my AC wires don't run parallel to my probe wires. What has me concerned is that before last week my ph tracked within about 0.1 to 0.2 without a large variation but now I'm seeing a 0.3 to 0.4 swing. Usually i'm trying to keep the ph up not trying to keep it low. I just replaced the probe and calibrated it with fresh calibration solution.
 
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