low ph question

[bnhd3]

my new ph meter is reading 7.3. i believe my low ph is due to excess co2 in my tank room. i have my tank in a room off the back of my house. this room stays shut off from the main part of the house. it has it's own a.c. unit, but it is expensive to cool this room all the time. what i'm getting at is that the room is always stuffy and hot. there is a ceiling fan running 24/7 and during the day i have a large fan angle down over my sump. my tank temp stays at 84 during the day and a little lower at night of course. do any of you think it would help bring my ph back up to run some clear plastic tubing from my skimmers air intake to the outside?

[BraenDead]

Did you calibrate the pH probe? pH probes need to be calibrated fairly frequently, and especially new probes need to be calibrated. What type of calibration fluid did you use?

Bob

[Henry Bowman]

Running your skimmer's airline outside may help. I would try it and possibly put the AC on a timer to keep the high temp closer to 81 deg.

[bnhd3]

I do not have any calibration solution. the meter is a milwaukee ph600 and it came with card included verifying an inspector calibrated it twice once to 7 and once to 4. I don't know if i trust them or not! can you get calibration fluid locally from say a hardware store or do i have to order it? I have always known it was low even using chemical tests and strips it read low.

Originally posted by Henry Bowman
Running your skimmer's airline outside may help. I would try it and possibly put the AC on a timer to keep the high temp closer to 81 deg.

It would cost a fortune to cool that room down enought to get the tank to 81. I have read of a lot people having healthy tanks running at 84. I will eventually get a chiller i guess if i can't maintain. The lights i have put out a rediculous amount of heat. if you hold your hand a few inches from the exhaust fan on the end of my lighting fixture it will burn you. so the ac would just fighting an uphill battle.

[bertoni]

I don't believe the reading. The live rock would be dissolving. I would recommend a good brand of pH calibration solutions:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-02/rhf/index.htm

A good cleaning of the probe might help as well. pH meters are also prone to electrical inteference. Measuring a cup of water and moving the power line (if there is one) might help, too.

[bnhd3]

here is a link to a picture of the ph monitor i purchase:

http://all-aquatics.com/store/item/y...l?item_id=yhac

i did not want to spend too much money because i plan on getting a controller eventually.

[bnhd3]

i tested again this morning with the ph meter and it said 7.7. i have a crappy red sea test kit that i used this morning too and it read at least 8.1. of course these red sea kits are all about guesstimating. they use a color spectrum chart to decide what your level is and by their scale any reading in the 7's would be a shade of green. all readings above 8.0 are in the purple spectrum. my reading was pretty purple. so i believe bertoni is right. i need to calibrate the thing despite what the card that came with it says. thanks very much!!

[bertoni]

You're welcome! Good luck!