First sincere apologies if this is the wrong community, I don’t have lab science friends to ask about this.
Over the last few months my ph probe has been working well, then over a few days it started to drift down to reporting a ph of 2-3 instead of the 6-7 I would expect. There are so many cleaning procedures out there for ph probes, and knowing how to clean them depends on knowing what is causing them to foul.
I tried using generic probe cleaning solution, 0.1M HCL, and even just a light detergent. Nothing has worked so far.
I was reading that black spots on the ceramic could be from sulfides. And this probe is used 24/7 in my aquarium, where I dechlorinate freshly added water with a dechlorinate that I believe uses sodium thiosulfate. Could that be interacting with the probe’s silver /silver chloride?
I just got thiourea and I’ll be trying to prepare a thiourea/hcl solution.
What else should I try? What else might be causing this kind of fouling/errant results?
Interesting, thank you. It’s only been three months so I’d hope I can get more life out of it. If you can hear from your friend what she does to maintain her probe that will be helpful. I’ll also reach out to the manufacturer for their ideas, too. Their online documentation is too generic to be helpful.