Neptune Apex Salinity Probe acting weird

[AquaForge]

Main Issue:

I accidentally poured a bit of RODI water into the section of my aquarium sump where my salinity probe is located. This happened in a dimly lit environment, and my sump is relatively small. Following the incident, one of the probes showed a significantly lower reading than expected, which is something I anticipated due to the nature of RODI water. However, the problem I'm facing is that the reading has remained about 10 units lower than normal for over three hours, without returning to its usual value.

Question:

Given this situation, do I need to recalibrate the probe every time it comes into contact with fresh water? The rapid change when the RODI water was introduced was expected, but I'm concerned about the persistent low reading.

Background Info:

Despite hearing mixed opinions about this particular probe, I decided to purchase it two days ago. Initially, it provided a low reading. I calibrated it using a calibration solution that I received yesterday. Post-calibration, it still showed a low reading, but it was accurate, prompting me to adjust the salinity slightly by adding salt. This resolved the issue temporarily, but then I noticed a spike in the salinity reading overnight.

I should mention that until this issue arose, I hadn't checked the salinity of my aquarium for a few days. I own both a refractometer and a Milwaukee instrument for measuring salinity. When comparing the probe's readings to these devices, I found it to be slightly different but not alarmingly so.

 

[Pistondog]

Shake the probe to make sure it is free of air bubbles.
I spent some time with this probe and decided it was not worth the effort.
Salinity seems easy to control and only requires a check every week or so.
See Randys diy salinity recipe for a calibration solution.

 

[AquaForge]

Shake the probe to make sure it is free of air bubbles.
I spent some time with this probe and decided it was not worth the effort.
Salinity seems easy to control and only requires a check every week or so.
See Randys diy salinity recipe for a calibration solution.

WOW that fixed it! Thanks!

 

[Reeferbadness]

I have 2 netptunes and both salinity probes are off by a bit (ie 36.8 reads vs 35.0 actual with more reliable tests)... i just use it as a baseline after giving up trying to calibrate it and it always drifted off.

 

[salty150]

Instead of actually fixing the problems with their salinity probe - they just stopped offering it in the Apex packages...

Now if you want one of these problem probes you have to buy it separately.

Nice, huh...?

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

This... plus adjusting the Temp comp = an actual working probe. Albeit it may be off a bit but it will be consistent.

Salinity Probe Stability Kit (SPS)

Monitoring salinity in an aquarium can be a challenge-- small bubbles and debris can interfere with your conductivity probe, leading to inconsistent and unreliable results.Vivid Creative Aquatics has tackled this problem head on with their Salinity Probe Stability Kit. The "SPS" Kit is carefully...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

 

[ukgeoff]

I've been using my Apex for a bit more than two years now, and I've noticed that my salinity probe tends to act up like this randomly, perhaps 3-4 times annually. Whenever it happens, I simply dry it off and recalibrate it using the water from my tank, which does the trick every time.

Once you get the hang of the problem and know the solution, it becomes quite straightforward to manage.