The Puffer Forum

I just got an electric pH meter with two calibration fluids, one of them half empty and all over the the package.

Well, I got it cleaned up and tried to calibrate it but when I get it to read one bottle right (6.86) the other read off (4.11 instead of the labeled 4.003)...anybody know how to get this thing working right? If it's accurate my GSP is swimming cheerfully around in a 8.42 pH.


Oh yes, forgot to add, I did indeed make sure the bottles were the same temperature as the tank for the calibrations.

Fish don't read pH, which I know doesn't help you with your meter but there's really nothing you should be doing to change pH anyway. As long as it stays stable.

I'd call the company and explain what happened and ask them to mail another bottle.

It is quite possible to likely that the half-empty bottle is no longer accurate as a pH standard. Evaporation/concentration of the residual can give inaccurate measures. Most standard solutions also carry dating. If out of date, replace both, not just the spilled one.

All that said, a large +1 to PP;s comments. The pH of the tank is of interest to us largely if not exclusively as a check on the tank water's stability. Shifts in the pH result from changes in the water's mineral content. walrus in the pH imply changes in the water chemistry and are unlikely to be beneficial. We compare pH to all-new and clean water. Changes imply pollution or loss or addition of particular minerals and carbonate/bicarbonate buffering and are generally negative effects.

HTH

LOL, RTR said, surlaW!

Yeah, best typo ever!

LOL! I do wonder what I intended. If "whereas changes...". that is not an easy typo.

I may have to change my sig line to: "surlaW? What surlaW?"

Lol!

"surlaW" is one of the filler words for our word censor.

You miss typed "shift"
That is an excellent signature line though!

Ah so! I really could not figure out where it came from. Now I really do wonder want I typed.

surlaW! is definitely me.

So, while a definate reading seems unlikely right now, all I really gotta look for is a change up or down to indicate something, and for that all I need to do is keep track of the pH relative to clean water...I can do that with an miscalibrated meter.

True!

Yup. Hard data is not required. Comparative data is what you can use just as well. You are definitely more interested in changes (both direction and magnitude) than in the exact and real readings for those.

I'm not too worried about it myself but pH right now either, my GSP looks fine, but it IS one of the first must answer question in the "hospital" forum.

I set the pH meter to 7 on some distilled water (7.3 on my tap water), my tank's reading about 7.5, it was 7.4 but I added some parasite clear last night (damn fish lice shouldn't come back again). The pH should go up steadily as I increase the salinity (currently sg 1.005) but I also have some API Proper pH 8.2...

I'm just going to keep an eye on it while increasing salt, he should be in actual brackish water in about 6 weeks or so.