[Samper]

I am having problems with my Ph. After 5 hours of the halide being on it's not uncommon for it to reach in the high 8.6 or slightly higher. I did a larger than normal water change last week thinking that might help but nope. I've been experimenting with a reverse lighting scheme but with a gap between the time the halides go off and the fuge light comes on. In that 2 hour time the ph drops from 8.7 or so to the 8.4 or around there. Then my fuge light comes on and I can maintain that for the duration of the night. The fuge light goes off 2 hours before the display causing it to drop to around 8.2. As soon as the halide comes on it starts steadily climbing again. 5 hours later I'm looking at unacceptable levels.
Anthony Calfo had mentioned to me that an artificial reef can actually have 2 seperate photoperiods equaling a whole one. I'm thinking this might solve my problem. Say 2 4 hour photoperiods with a 2 hour gap inbetween them. This lighting scheme is supposed to help the zooxanthellae in some sort of way that I didn't understand but I think this might fix my problem. I'm also running my skimmer air intake outside via my window in hopes some fresh oxygen will help. My new RO should be here tomorrow....maybe that will help.

My questions are..
1. Can you explain to me how 2 photoperiods might benefit the corals?
2. Is it possible that my system is overstocked with photosynthetic life causing this huge peak?


Besides those questions any recommendations you can give me will be appreciated.

[Samper]

Another question....just trying to figure this out.

My monitor was reading 8.65 and I noticed the battery low display on the screen. I changed the battery and now it's reading 8.2. Could the battery being low cause it to read incorrectly and should it be correct now? Do I need to recalibrate after changing batteries?

[Samper]

I apologize for wasting your time. I called American Marine and figured out the problem.

Today my low battery light came on after I started worrying about the problem. Apparrently when the pinpoints get low on battery life they start to read really high. I changed the battery and am at a perfect 8.41. I hope this helps other pinpoint users that might have this problem.

Thanks again.

[Reefland]

Shew, what a relief that's all it was! Just an excellent example of why we should watch things closely but no over react until we've gotten the entire picture. I guess that's a good thing about the Milwaukee brand; they're AC powered.