Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi Pipkin,

That pen sounds good, I will go scout Ebay to see what they cost.. I am getting a bit tired of those colour charts

And my fish are so far still alive!

FOund one of those electronic pH testers on ebay for under $10 delivered... thats not bad

Most of them don't last more than a month or two...

Really?... are there other ones that do last longer? but pricier?... I wonder why they cant just make copies of the expensive ones if so

Ooops ! Wouldn't have recommended them if I'd realised, sorry.

Dunno how much you want to pay, but I bought one from Marine Depot and it's worked well. No issues other than it's about 4 years old and I need another probe. It won't calibrate any longer, but they say the probes last 12-18 months with continuous use, so it's done very well.

Edit: they cost a tad less than $100 US depending on where you buy it from.

I have trouble reading the Nitrate chart, Is there a probe that does this?

That depends on how rich you are

Usually I am happy with: above 0? I'm happy

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doesnt matter, its only $10 and I didnt exactly research it... if it lasts 3-6 months ill be happy because it will save me and my dad a lot of time. if it does last 6 months i will probably buy a bunch of them and throw them away when they break... it will still be cheaper than some of the expensive ones (although I dont like disposal products, since its wasteful... but at least it is small)

Yeah that Pinpoint pH tester looks nicer and I like the fact the probe is replaceable, although $39.95 is quite a bit for a replacement on and $100 product... but hey maybe thats cheap, I certainly don't know how much they cost to manufacture.

If the cheapo I bought from Ecrap doesnt work very long or accurately then maybe I will invest in one of those... wouldnt be too bad if I got 4 years out of it like you did... maybe it depends on frequency of use too?

I dislike those charts, why can't some chemist come up with a formula that actually changes colour throughout each 0.5 step rather than in shades of a colour.... now that would be something to get excited about!

Constant use. I just left the probe in the tank with the meter in the plastic tote that houses the air pump, temp guage, power strip, etc...

my $10 electronic probe experience:
calibrate
test -> fail
calibrate
test -> fail
go back to using API ph test kit (seriously it uses 3 drops, and instant results)

Having said that I haven't measured ph for a couple of months, I really am lazy

I made that mistake once

Yeah I know but when I have to ask other people than myself to check it then the results do get even stranger, especially around that pH7-7.6 are where there is the high range pH and low range pH test overlapping each other... often I end up doing both test because the results are so close to the high or low end of the scale.
But I guess when the system has settled more the tests wont need to be done more than 1 or maybe twice a week