pH Fluctuation
 

Been working very hard the past month or more to really get a handle of pH stabilization. Looked at different methods using my controller, kalk and lighting. This got me to thinking, what 'really' is fluctuation?

Too me I like to work with very tight tolerances but I am curious to see what everyone else operates like.

So, how much does your pH value change throughout the day. Mostly interested in the swing between night time (display tank lights off) and day time (display tank lights on).

For example, at the lowest point during the night my tank will bottom out at 8.20 and then during the day tops out at 8.34. So that would be a variance of 0.14.

Change ranges:
0.00 - 0.05
0.06 - 0.10
0.11 - 0.15
0.16 - 0.20
> 0.21

My pH goes from 7.8 at night to 8.3 during the day.

My Ph used to fluctuate widely so I quite measuring it and now it's all good :mrgreen:


Which means I can't vote in this poll cause I have no idea what my Ph is....

Mine fluctuates from 8.2 at night to 8.6 during the day.

Ya, on that note, I have not actively measured my pH in over 3 years.. If it were not for my pH probe that came with my controller I wouldn't know what my pH was doing either..

my ph probe has been running for 24 hours now and looks like i go from 7.78 to 7.88. woot woot! my first poll answered!

I stopped verifying the accuracy of my pH probe.... as much. I still periodically test the waters with a test kit to see if the probe needs recalibration. I definitely love having a controller, it has freed up considerably amount of time for me.

What helps a whole bunch, in my mind, is the consistency of my new saltwater water that I make. I spent the time initially to hammer out a solid production procedure so I know the values of new water going in matches the values of the tank. Then change a min of 10% per week.

Now I have slowly switched over to a different salt mix so now I have to start all over. :)

Mine does not usually vary more than about .15.
I get 2 swings per day, 1 when the MH shut off at 7 pm and the ph drops until 9 pm when the Kalk ATO starts up. The ph then slowly raises until 9am when the kalk shuts off and it starts to fall until 11 am when the MH fire up then it raises all day. I just recently expanded my mh by 1 hour on each end so this should make the dips smaller.

Mine rises from nightly low of 8.0 to around 8.25 by the end of the daylight cycle. Kalk reactor starts immediately upon lights out. I can always tell when the Kalk in my reactor is depleted because the nightly low goes below pH 8. That happens between 10 days and 14 days.

I stopped verifying the accuracy of my pH probe.... as much. I still periodically test the waters with a test kit to see if the probe needs recalibration. I definitely love having a controller, it has freed up considerably amount of time for me.What helps a whole bunch, in my mind, is the consistency of my new saltwater water that I make. I spent the time initially to hammer out a solid production procedure so I know the values of new water going in matches the values of the tank. Then change a min of 10% per week.I get 2 swings per day, 1 when the MH shut off at 7 pm and the ph drops until 9 pm when the Kalk ATO starts up. The ph then slowly raises until 9am when the kalk shuts off and it starts to fall until 11 am when the MH fire up then it raises all day. I just recently expanded my mh by 1 hour on each end so this should make the dips smaller. Been working very hard the past month or more to really get a handle of pH stabilization. Looked at different methods using my controller, kalk and lighting. This got me to thinking, what 'really' is fluctuation?