pH Controllers

[Guest Yomeister66]

Which one of you uses stand-alone pH controllers (such as the Milwaukee or Pinpoint) and how do you like them?

 

Thanks,

 

Johan

[johnnybv]

Which one of you uses stand-alone pH controllers (such as the Milwaukee or Pinpoint) and how do you like them?

 

Thanks,

 

Johan

We have a milwaukee ORP/PH controller on our main coral tank, dont have a calcium reactor on it yet, but we do ose ozone, unit seems to work just fine.

John

[geofloors]

I have a Milwaukee and it works perfectly. Priced better then the Pinpoint too.

 

 

George

[Guest Yomeister66]

Thanks guys. Now if I understand it correctly, the fluid coming out of the calcium reactor has a low pH so if the pH in the tank system drops below a certain value, the controller will shut off the Co2 flow to prevent the pH from dropping even lower?

[Guest Edwardj]

That is correct. Then you top off with kalkwasser - water, which keeps your alkalinity good, and the PH in check.

 

 

Edward

[flowerseller]

You might be better served to run the controller on your reactor to keep it at the desired PH.

Too high and the media does'nt dissolve properly, too low and it turns to mush.

[ErikS]

I've used both pinpoint & milwaukee. Both work fine, milwaukee "only" gives you reading in .1 where the pinpoint gives you .01 - does it matter? IMHO no, .1 is fine for our purposes.

 

I'd give the nod to the milwaukee as it comes with an AC adapter, something that costs a few bucks more for pinpoint.

[Guest Yomeister66]

You might be better served to run the controller on your reactor to keep it at the desired PH.

Too high and the media does'nt dissolve properly, too low and it turns to mush.

 

How do you do that?

[ErikS]

How do you do that?

The PH probe is either placed in the effluent stream or into the reactor unit (some units have fittings for this application).

 

You use the controller to turn the CO2 on & off to achieve the desired PH.

 

PH goes below set point = CO2 off

PH goes above set point = CO2 on

[Guest Yomeister66]

Well, I decided to get the Milwaukee pH controller. Just got delivered but according to the instructions, the alarm comes on when the pH value goes above a certain value, not below. Anybody know what I have to do to change this. (It's this unit I got from Champion) :

 

http://www.championlighting.com/product.ph...=531&page=1

 

Thanks,

 

Johan

[ErikS]

It is rather confusing & at first it seems wrong.........but....when the alarm comes on so does the power.

 

In other words if you set the "check" point to 6.5 everytime & while the PH is above 6.5 the switch is turned on (& the CO2 would flow). It will prevent the PH from dipping below what ever setpoint you want.

 

Another example, if you only wanted to run the reactor when the tank PH was above 8.0 you set it to 8.0 & whenever the tank PH goes above this the CO2/reactor would turn on.

 

Of note - do NOT turn the flow through the reactor off, only turn the CO2 on & off (otherwise you end up with an anaerobic reactor = bad things when it fires off)

[Guest Yomeister66]

Eric,

 

Thanks for the info. Got it to work. (Of course, my calcium reactor sprung a leak at the pump hook-up for some reason and I can't get it hooked up the way it was, but that's another story). Can't hook the controller up to the reactor so I'll have to control system pH. At least my Co2 regulator is also a Milwaukee so that ought to minimize potential problems there.

[flowerseller]

Have the effluent run into a cup and then allow that to overflow into the sump.

Then you can put the probe in the cup and control the reactor by the effluent which is best.

[Guest Yomeister66]

Thanks for the info, Chip. Right now I'm frustrated trying to fix the leak that just developed in the reactor so I'm done playing with it for the day. Will try again after the Liverpool - Chelsea game tomorrow AM and before heading over to Leishman's.

 

Calibrated the Milwaukee probe, then cleaned and calibrated my Pinpoint ph Monitor. Both got correct readings in 4.0, 7.0 and 10.0 samples. Now that they have been in the sump for a while, the Pinpoint is reading 8.03 and the Milwaukee 8.40. Before the calibrating the pinpoint was reading 8.24. The Milwaukee came out of the box today. The Pinpoint is about 14-18 months old.....how often do you guys replace probes?

[flowerseller]

Bring it to Leishmans and we'll look at it.

[ErikS]

The Pinpoint is about 14-18 months old.....how often do you guys replace probes?

That about the recomended lifespan............but as long as they'll hold a calibration I keep using them.