Skimmers don't "add" co2... they circulate whats present in the air. If your PH was 8 adding a skimmer will not make it go below that....
Just grow it: Have you ever added CO2 to your reef tank?
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- Thread starter Peace River
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darrick001
Active Member
It will 100% add co2 if the water in your tank has less co2 than is present in the air. This is not a common issue but it does happen.
It actually happens all the time if tank pH is higher than 8.3, 8.4ish, with normal alkalinity levels.
darrick001
Active Member
When I was traveling for work I actually used ph to tell my wife the overflows needed to be cleaned. If the water drops more than 2 inches my ph would start to drop. If my ph dropped below 8.25 I had her clean the overflows. My ph normally runs 8.3-8.45
I have a few questions on this. If I had a big refugium/reactor with macro algae and I increased the CO2 to my target ppm in there, couldn't I easily offgass the CO2 coming from the refugium/reactor output? The flow through the reactor would be slow so it shouldn't be hard to off gas the CO2 from the output if I drop it in an area with lots of gas exchange. Or am I missing something? I inject CO2 in planted tanks and it's pretty easy to off gas with enough surface agitation. CO2 in the planted tank has no effect on the kH, but Is this different in a reef tank?
Depends how and where you off-gas it to. It's heavy and sits on the water which increases the pressure to re-enter the water.
