High PH

[HI SALENITY]

I am having high PH readings. I have the controller set to shut off my halide at 8.75 and it gets that high and the light shuts off daily. The probe was just recalibrated and I switched to dosing PH lowering baking soda (from BRS).

So my 400w electronic Lumatek halide ballast is within 1 foot of my apex.

Is this too close?
Could their bee interference from the ballast to make the ph read high?
How far away should I have the ballast from the Apex

[kenargo]

I don't understand the reasoning behind shutting off lights when PH gets too high; if you expect lights out to lower PH significantly you will find that the reality is somewhat less that I suspect you may be thinking of. I would NOT suggest to dose baking soda as a form of PH control; you must identify the cause.

Are you dosing anything else (kalk for example)? What is the tank compisition? Are you sure you calibrated correctly and did you verify calibration after the fact by placing the probe in the calibration fluids and verifying the readings?

WRT dosing; that maybe making your problem more of a problem, I would stop dosing and research root causes.

[HI SALENITY]

First off yes I turn the Halide off and the PH goes down fast.

No I don't dose anything but BRS 2-part, The one that lowers the PH.

I just recalibrated the probe and have the same problem. and yes I checked it after it was calibrated.

I don't know why the PH is high, I can't prove the apex is wrong yet so I'm going to continue to dose the way I am as everything looks as good as it has in a long time.

ANY IDEAS why my PH would be high? My house has been shut up for a long time with the furnace on how much will that affect the PH?

I am trying to borrow a PH meter to check mine.

[HI SALENITY]

BTW, I'm thinking my probe could be calibrated correctly but once it.s placed in the tank it gets messed with by the halide as my PH is great as long as the halide is off.

[kenargo]

If PH drops that quickly then I suspect some kind of interference; try moving components further apart and see if the reading changes my virtue of the relocation. Especially of issue is the ballast being near the Base unit and probe wiring.

A closed up house, especially one that has a tight seal will tend to lower PH because of built-up CO2.

[kurt_n]

If you can't easily relocate the ballast to troubleshoot, you could always relocate the pH probe. Take a glass of tank water with your pH probe in it as far away from the tank as you can. Then turn off the lights. If the pH drops, interference is your problem. From the sounds of it, I'm thinking it is.

As far as dosing...

No I don't dose anything but BRS 2-part, The one that lowers the PH.

... I think maybe there's a misinterpretation of what that other 2-part recipe does. It's not really going to *lower* your pH - it's just not going to raise it as much as the other recipe does.

[HI SALENITY]

I'm on to some things... first off the light has gone out at the same time the last 3 days. This is the same time my calcium pump kicks on. This seems to be a patern but then it kicks on once/hr 24hrs a day and it doesn't always kill the light. Also It doesn't look like the ph was always high enough to turn the halide off wen it went off?

Another thing I've noticed once sleeping on the couch next to the tank was as the Alk pump turned on the Actenics would blink wile they were supposed to be off.

I got another ph meter and some calibration fluid so Tomorrow I'm going to Pull everything electrical out and tidy up all the cords... and move the Ballast.

If I can't get things figured out I'll be calling Apex.

Thanks for the help all!

[HI SALENITY]

As far as dosing...



... I think maybe there's a misinterpretation of what that other 2-part recipe does. It's not really going to *lower* your pH - it's just not going to raise it as much as the other recipe does.[/QUOTE]


If this won't lower the ph should I not dose it during the time the Halide is on?

Is it actually bringing up the ph some?