[Samper]

I measure my Ph with a milwaukee instruments sm 101 that was calibrated less than a month ago when I bought it. For the past two days my Ph hasn't dropped below 8.5. I stopped dripping limewater 48 hours ago and my fuge light has been off as have the display lights. Today I came home and it is at 8.71. My windows have been open 24/7 with ceiling fans running since spring hit. My dual stage reactor with spraybar is running but the effluent that was at 6.8 is now at 6.2 without any change in the settings. I don't know what happened with that.
I took the probe out and cleaned it off and changed the battery and am still getting the same readings. I used some distilled white vinegar and brought it down over a 2 hour period to 8.5. Within 3 hours it has climbed back to 8.72 with all lights off and the effluent running dangerously low. I should be melting the media right now.
I called another reefer that lives down the road for me and his ph is also at 8.70 and he doesn't run a reactor but strictly uses a 2 part. His Ca, Alk and temp are the same as mine except he is at 10 dKh. I can't bring the ph down and thought it was a plankton bloom or something but it shouldn't effect ph like this with the lighting off.
My Temp is 79
Ca 450 ppm
Alk 11 dKh
What could be going on?

[Samper]

I did have a problem the other day because I accidentally left my RO running and my SG went down to 1.022. A few days after that incident I started seeing the Ph increase. Right now it's at 8.75. I don't know what to do.

[charlie]

Have you done a water change recently? This has got me pretty much stumped to.

[weez1959]

Maybe recalibrate anyways, just for sh%ts and giggles. That way you'll be really sure. I had a problem with my pinpoint a while back and it was also reading in the upper 80s.

[Samper]

Charlie I did do a WC of 15 gallons last night. This morning when I woke up the Ph is at 8.55 and that's without light or limewater for at least 60 hours.

[Reefland]

I would also recalibrate the pH monitor first...

[charlie]

Is there a way to get another PH probe to check the accuracy of yours? Do you have a PH test kit.
Do you have a refugium?

[mad_dog01]

I have been always told...if your PH is low open the windows and get fresh air in the room...something to do with CO2. In your first post you said you have had the windows open for two weeks...is this when you saw the PH increase? If so shut the windows and see what happens. During the winter months when the windows are shut most people report low ph.

[zhenya]

Chuck,

How are things today? Aside from making sure that your probe is accurate, I had success bringing ph down with seltzer water or perhaps some acid.
I have to agree with Charlie, though, if you have fresh salt water made up just do a water change and see if that helps.
Salinity in my anemone tank went down to 1.023 one time but I didn't experience this kind of ph rise. I hope all is well and it is back to normal...

[Samper]

My buddy came by and we ran through a series of solutions to determine the accuracy of the probe. I didn't have any of the calibrating solution left so I tested vinegar, milk, limewater, RO water and tap water. Every solution we tested read .3 or so higher than it should have. I knew there should have been no reason for the ph to be that high with lights off and no kalk dripping. I'm a little upset since the probe is so new and am hoping that somehow it just lost calibration. I'm ordering some new fluids and hope I don't have to buy a new probe. The glass is clear but I don't see any bubbles in it so it may be broken I just don't know how I did it. I'm gonna email milwaukee and find out what they think might have happened. My ph was only slightly low and not a concern. With everything back on I'm now sitting at 8.45 via my friends probe. Before I got my grounding probes I had a MJ putting stray current into the tank that I had to remove. Could this have caused the problem?

[charlie]

Whew, good deal. Glad you found the problem. I would definitly talk to them and see if they won't send you a new one.
Can you post a pic of your probe? I think I am using the same thing!! I don't know about the stray voltage, are you gonna ask them about that too? I had the exact same thing, stray voltage, ground probe, happen. I would be interested to see what they say.
Good luck.

[Samper]

Here is a link to a pic of the probe that I'm using. I'm definately gonna ask them about the stray current possibly causing the problem. If that's the case I'm not gonna ask them for a new probe because I should have had those probes in place from the start. I'll let ya know what they say.

[charlie]

Thanx Chuck, I didn't get the link, but I bet it is the same unit. I find with mine that if I calibrate it every month, it stays pretty much spot on. Like I said before, good luck, glad it wasn't anything serious!!! You sounded worried.

[Samper]

http://www.milwaukeetesters.com/engl...ages/SM101.jpg

I was extremely worried because it didn't make sense. Thank god I didn't take any drastic measures to correct things. I've learned that most problems that people freak out about are only made worse when they start trying to correct it without figuring out what exactly is going on first.

[charlie]

You did the right thing, no panic, and you trusted your critters. I am sure they would have said something to let you know things weren't right. Good deal!!!