pH Meters/Probes?

[An_Outlier]

Do any of the more experienced people here use pH meters/probes to test the pH of their water?

I’m looking for a decent probe/meter that can help me monitor the pH of my tanks/rainwater in storage. I bought one a little while ago that I will be returning, because apparently it is not meant to go below pH 6 or so and it’s not calibrating properly.

If anyone knows of a probe or meter that works well for this application, please let me know and I’ll see if I can find it for sale.

Or am I overdoing it, and I don’t really need to monitor this stuff so long as I use rainwater and dead leaves (oak, almond)?

[Andy Love]

[quote=”An_Outlier” post=5409]Do any of the more experienced people here… [/quote]

I don’t count myself in that number. Nevertheless I may be able to contribute to the topic (for which, thanks – because it’s been on my mind from time-to-time, too).

I have three or four electronic pH-measuring devices : a hand-held ; and a couple of in-tank monitors (but not in Paros tanks). A noticeable feature is that, when freshly cleaned, calibrated and challenged with identical samples, they all return slightly different results! In context, the differentials are perhaps not significant but they’re there nonetheless.

I trust my hand-held one more than the others and use it for Paros water. It’s one of these. I’ve been using it for a couple of years and it hasn’t yet told me that it needs a new electrode. There’s another version (pH110 I think) that has a refillable electrode and which I may go for when the time comes. In the meantime, I’ve found the pH100 really easy to use and to calibrate. I use an Extech conductivity meter, too, and am similarly pleased with it.

One difficulty we have is that electronically testing for pH in low-conductivity water may be somewhat unreliable (because of the way such meters work) so the results must be viewed as indicative rather than absolute. Still, I would rather have some idea than no idea of that parameter!

I guess that the more ‘difficult’ the species of Paros, the greater concern an optimal pH (and/or conductivity) would be.

If I were to abandon my meter and rely on intuition and oak/catappa leaves, I would have to schedule myself to renew the leaves regularly : after a few weeks’ immersion (I found in tests) they cease to acidify and the pH of their host water may actually increase.

Over to the experts : I look forward very much to reading what they have to say….

[Incidentally, does your Username indicate that you’re a Geologist?]

[Bill Little]

Over the years I have purchased a number of pH meters only to have them go bad very quickly. Two years ago I decided to obtain both a pH meter and a connectivity meter. A local friend of mine, who is in the water quality business, said “DON’T go cheap!” I took his advice and purchased two meters from Milwaukee Instruments. I have been very happy with both meters. I keep the on and in water all the time. It seems to help with not having to re-calibrate them as often. They do however consume batteries regularly (about once a quarter). I am told there is a transformer that you can purchase and with a little modification to the case there is no need for batteries. The pH meter is a model MW 100 and the connectivity meter is model MW 301. As I said they are not inexpensive devices to purchase. I called Milwaukee and talked to one of their sales people. I told him what I was using the monitor for and he noted that many aquarium hobbyists regularly purchase these meters from us. He made the recommendations on which models to acquire. He also indicated he could sell the devices to me directly but suggested a company that would give me a much better price and he was absolutely correct. I purchased the units from http://www.eseasongear.com with a discount of about 40% as I remember. On top of that they paid the shipping. Hope this information helps. I do believe they are available in Europe.

[Author]

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