melev

About six months ago, I switched from the Milwaukee pH controller to the Reef Fanatic Micro pH controller. First thing I discovered was that their pH probe was a smaller diameter and required me to MacGyver a way to keep it installed in the calcium reactor.

Lately, my back pain has been so bad that I've been ignoring my reef to the point I didn't even clean the glass on the 400g and the 60g for days at a time. As the brown film amassed, I just let it go. I still checked on the calcium reactor's effluent, fed the fish and made sure the tank had more water to replace evaporation.

Starting to see some corals acting up, I did get some testing done and cleaned the glass. Alkalinity was low, like 6 dKH. I buffered that parameter up with baked baking soda (about 7 heaping teaspoons in a 12 oz cup of RO water), trickling it into the system each day for the past three days to make up for the difference. The CO2 tank was still full, but the calcium reactor needed more media. Last night I added more media.

However, I noticed that the blinking light on the CO2's regulator wasn't coming on, and the pH controller was reading 8.35 instead of some number closer to 7.0! Not good at all. First thing I checked was the DC power supply to the CO2's regulator, and even swapped it out with another power supply but no luck. Then I looked at the Micro pH controller more closely and discovered that it had lost its programming. Fortunately the packrat that I am, I still had the box and instructions within arm's length and referred to those directions to re-learn how to install the set points. It was reset to 0.00 somehow, instead of the target 7.00 with a .02 differential.

Reprogramming that set point was a little annoying as I had to hold down the button for a decent duration as it moved up from 0.00 all the way up to 7.00, but at least it is set now. The next thing I did was open the valve wide open on the Aquarium Plants regulator to add over 10 bubbles per second to get the pH to drop fast in the calcium reactor. This took about 10-15 minutes until it stabilized at 7.01. I added another cup of buffer to the reef, reset the bubble count to 2bps and called it a night.

Today's test shows Alkalinity at 8 dKH - where I prefer it to be. The reading on the pH controller is 7.05 and CO2 is being added as needed. It looks like I caught this in time before serious loss occurred.

I have no idea how the pH controller can lose its programming like this. I've never seen anything like that happen before, but I will be more vigilant checking the display to make sure the general number is close to my desired setpoint instead of only checking the CO2 tank and reactor's effluent rate.