Has anyone ever "shocked" their pH probe back to life? I know it's only 30 bucks to buy a new one, but 30 bucks is a sweet zoa frag or half a Kole Tang. So... I found on Vernier's website that you can "shock" a pH probe that has been stored dry back to working by soaking it in a HCl solution of .1-1.0 M concentration. Luckily I have friends in the Chemistry department at my school that hooked me up with a little bit last night and I set it to soak at about 9AM this morning. According to Vernier, it should soak for 4-8 hrs in this solution. Following that I will try to recalibrate it and see if it works and post back here in a little while. Wish me luck!
Don't throw away your dried out pH probe!!!
- Thread starter bubbarockies
- Start date
It works! Or at least right now it is. I don't know if it will stay that way. I took it out of the Hydrochloric acid solution, did a quick rinse in some RO/DI water and calibrated it. It is reading my tank water at 7.96, which I believe to be correct. I tested it using a liquid test kit and it looked like 8 to me. I will get some more calibration solution and test it again later. But as of right now it seems that I have revived the pH probe. Unfortunately, as you said happens sometimes Martin, my temp probe is reading 122, which can't be true because my fish aren't fried. I guess I may be spending the 30 dollars after all, haha.
After I soaked it in the HCl I rinsed it out really well in the RO/DI water to make sure it wasn't going to contaminate the water. I just know that I have been told by reefers and people at school that if the bulb is left dry then it is permanently ruined, end of story, but clearly that's not the case. Especially if andyrm66 just soaked it in RO/DI. We all have RO/DI on hand. HCl isn't exactly something everyone has on hand, but I know more than one other person on the forum that has access if needed. I only used 50 mL and it was plenty to get mine back to working correctly. If anyone has one that is dried out I'd love to take it and try the RO/DI approach or try the HCl solution again if that doesn't work. It's worth a shot right!
I don't know why the HCl works so I have no idea if it's the acidity or what. I would probably go with vinegar personally since it will have a fairly consistent pH from one person to another, but with lemon juice there are more variables like dissolved sugars among other things. Let us know what happens!
