pH testing

I know many people including myself believe that testing pH values is not only difficult with color charts, but also almost useless because guessing where you are and chasing perfect numbers is not really worth the constant flucutations you will end up dealing with.

I do, however, like to know my pH value and think it can be useful esp if monitored on a constant basis. My main reason for wanting to do so would be the fact that I have to add so much CA and ALK to the aquarium I want to make sure I do not add too much at once causing large swings in the pH and stressing the corals and fish. I use BRS ALK and prefer to dose myself rather than hope a doser doesnt malfunction and cause a crash and dose about 50ml at a time top the 46gal system once a day which barely raises my alk!

To my main point, has anyone used the Pinpoint pH monitors? I do not have a sump or fuge so the little probe would sit in the main tank, I would prob tuck it in next to the heater and run the cord to under the stand where I could watch the reading as I dose alk and ca. Does this sound like a decent idea or would I be wasting my time? I was looking at hanna checker pH probes and others but they seem to be inaccurate and require CONSTANT recalibration before each test where I figured a continuous reading with calibration once a month would be a better option.

 

Bump- anybody ever use the pinpoint ph probe.
Aquarium Testing Controllers & Monitors: Pinpoint pH Monitor

 

I totally agree with your reasoning on pH; it's a good indicator that your chemistry may be drifting, but if everything else is in check, then it is what it is- just a number.

I don't use that monitor; however, if it were to indicate something going awry, I would definitely still want a test kit around for a quick second opinion before wasting a lot of time checking parameters or doing anything drastic.

All that said, can you post your exact numbers (cal, mag, and alk)? I'm no expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I did view your tank thread, including the latest fts (very beautiful, btw), and quite honestly, I failed to see enough stony corals to justify dosing at all. You didn't mention mag, and as M2434 so eloquently stated a while back in another similar thread, "If your mag is low, dosing cal and alk won't necessarily raise cal and alk; they could simply be precipitating each other out of the water".

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks Mr Bill. I need to update that thread actually the 1 year mark is coming in like 2 weeks and I have added a few things since posting on my build thread. I have some corals that are kind of hidden too from the full tank shot so will list my current coral list. I do have a ton of coralline algae that is growing everywhere!! The walls look so clean because of my weekly scrubbings, just soaked all my powerheads and filters as well actually.

Corals include
Multicolor frogspawn colony with 5 good sized heads plus 2 baby heads
Purple Hammer colony with 1 large head
Wall Frogspawn with 2 mouths
Green frogspawn with 3 large heads, one is splitting and about to be 4
Wall hammer that is not doing so well :/
Elegance Coral
Purple stylophora t hat is exploding in growth
Pink Birdsnest frag that is growing pretty well
5 montipora colonies that are all encrusting and tabling
ORA red planet that has not grown much at all

Then some softies, my Yellow Fiji, xenia, jasmine polyp, eagle eye zoas

As you can see quite a list, from the full tank shot you dotn see many of them because of where they are placed or the ones close to the light get blown out in the picture. Thanks for the compliments by the way

I test with Red Sea Pro and my kit was getting older, just replaced yesterday. Mag tested at 1440 which was my lowest result in months was usually around 1560. Ca always was around 400 but tested at 350. I never dosed by have been dosing 20-30ml BRS CA daily the past week. Alk tested at 8.4 and then with API at 8.0. Been adding 40ml BRS daily for a couple months now and seems to go nowhere. pH is always around 7.8 no matter when I test with API, sometimes more like 8.0 in the evening though. Nitrate is 0 with Red Sea and API, phosphates .04 with hanna checker the past 2 weeks. I am really confused as to where all my alk goes, I do not see any precipitate and do not have issues with it precipiating on equipment.

 

When I do usethe BRS calculater it does tell me i need well over 100ml of solution to get from point A (current point) to point B (goal of 450CA and 10Alk dkh)

 

No doubt, with all that you've added since the pic (and those that are hidden), it would be difficult to determine what you actually need to dose to keep up with usage as well as raising the numbers. Once the levels are up, you can calculate how much is being used daily.

 

Yea with all the growth of coralline and the lps and sps I think I am adding the appropriate amount daily to be fairly stable but not increase my alk or Ca. I did test to see if maybe it was jsut precipitating out and stopped dosing alk for a few days and it dropped from 9 to 7 so I guess they are sucking it up.

Unfortunatly I work 12 hour shifts and can not dose multiple times a day to bring my numbers up and do not want to dose to much at a time causing a major pH swing, hence the idea of the pH monitor. I know you run like me for the msot part and stay away from high tech controllers, dosers, monitors, even sumps and skimmers. Do you dose your tank MrBill or use a pH probe?

 

Since I only have soft corals, I rely on regular water changes to keep everything balanced and only check pH with a test kit when prepping a new batch of water. FWIW, it never changes...

 

Yea my pH does not seem to change much either, always 7.8-8.0. I only test mornings before dosing or evening many hours after dosing though. My main fear is if I increase my dosing I will make a huge jump in pH.

I guess noone else has any input on this probe? I went ahead and ordered it so we will see how it goes I guess

 

Good luck with it.

Also, FYI, your pH always fluctuates a little anyway, but as long as you are raising cal and alk, it shouldn't change as it shows the balance between the two totally irrelevant to the actual amounts in solution.