Keeping PH on the high end

[BOWHUNTER4250]

Ok, let me first start off by asking that if your response is going to be a suggestion of " Don't chase PH " then please don't respond . I am trying to do an experiment or figure out how to keep my PH at or above 8.4 / 8.5 either with or without Co2 scrubber , added ventilation etc .....
Now here is the observation i have seen over the last several years ..... I live in the upper mid west and i have a DD300 on my main floor with a 150 gallon basement sump , my basement is unfinished and my furnace is within 20' of my sump . In the summer when the Air is on and windows are closed and humidity is high outside my tank PH will drop down to 7.7-7.8 at night and only get up to maybe 8.0 during the day , nobody is home it might get up to 8.1 all summer long , now if we dont have the air on and windows are open during the summer even with humidity i can get it to climb to maybe 8.2 /8.3 but that lasts only a day or 2 and its back to being closed up.

Now come fall / winter , everything is closed up as well and the weather is dryer outside and the furnace is on ........ however my PH stays at 8.4 / 8.5 regularly with no scrubbing and people home ?? I do run a line from outside to my intake of my skimmer now . I have noticed faster growth with a higher PH in the colder months and a definite slowing in the warmer months . SO my question is if i add a room air exchanger and a Co2 scrubber onto my intake of the skimmer will this be enough to keep running a higher PH in the summer when the air is on and things are closed up. What else can i do or add to help maintain a higher PH ??

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

Are you using a kalkreactor? if not you might want to add that into your system.
Increasing surface agitation , , britewell blocks etc.

 

[GARRIGA]

Kalk what I believe to be the simplest solution. Might make expensive home adjustments and still fail to see gains. Having said that. I’m adding an air exchanger at some point to help reduce CO2 but mostly for the human inhabitants and not necessarily the tank inhabitants. Likely still going to likely need kalk, however.

I’ve read where CO2 scrubbers don’t provide a significant improvement for the cost to implement and maintain. Although it does help.

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

i cant see a co2 scrubber doing much of anything. and yes your fresh air line for the skimmer already does more than the air exchanger will do (and thats a good piece of equipment to add to your system for sure).

 

[BOWHUNTER4250]

Are you using a kalkreactor? if not you might want to add that into your system.
Increasing surface agitation , , britewell blocks etc.

I am not using Kalk right now , i do have power heads in my sump for surface agitation and in my display

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

Kalk what I believe to be the simplest solution. Might make expensive home adjustments and still fail to see gains. Having said that. I’m adding an air exchanger at some point to help reduce CO2 but mostly for the human inhabitants and not necessarily the tank inhabitants. Likely still going to likely need kalk, however.

I’ve read where CO2 scrubbers don’t provide a significant improvement for the cost to implement and maintain. Although it does help.

i used to have a basement with about 3000 gallons of grow out tanks going after having salt vapor destroy a furnace yes you will enjoy the air exchanger.

 

[GARRIGA]

i used to have a basement with about 3000 gallons of grow out tanks going after having salt vapor destroy a furnace yes you will enjoy the air exchanger.

Could that affect an exchanger? Not sure how salt vapor affected the furnace without possibly having the same affects on other HVAC equipment. Fact is I never even knew there was salt vapor.

 

[jda]

I don't have any strong opinions on this except to make sure that you have a super reliable tool to test pH if you are going to do this. I would not trust a hobby grade pH probe or Apex or anything. Even a high quality pH pen might be good.

The only reason that I mention this is that we turn over 100% of the air in our house several times an hour during the warm/nice months with a 48% 12k CFM attic fan and I have never seen 8.5 pH from this with 8.39 or 8.4 being a high. I measure with about a $50 pH pen.

Although it will not matter, I would hate for you to work off of false readings. I am not saying that 8.5 is inaccurate, only to know for sure.

 

[Pistondog]

Ok, let me first start off by asking that if your response is going to be a suggestion of " Don't chase PH " then please don't respond . I am trying to do an experiment or figure out how to keep my PH at or above 8.4 / 8.5 either with or without Co2 scrubber , added ventilation etc .....
Now here is the observation i have seen over the last several years ..... I live in the upper mid west and i have a DD300 on my main floor with a 150 gallon basement sump , my basement is unfinished and my furnace is within 20' of my sump . In the summer when the Air is on and windows are closed and humidity is high outside my tank PH will drop down to 7.7-7.8 at night and only get up to maybe 8.0 during the day , nobody is home it might get up to 8.1 all summer long , now if we dont have the air on and windows are open during the summer even with humidity i can get it to climb to maybe 8.2 /8.3 but that lasts only a day or 2 and its back to being closed up.

Now come fall / winter , everything is closed up as well and the weather is dryer outside and the furnace is on ........ however my PH stays at 8.4 / 8.5 regularly with no scrubbing and people home ?? I do run a line from outside to my intake of my skimmer now . I have noticed faster growth with a higher PH in the colder months and a definite slowing in the warmer months . SO my question is if i add a room air exchanger and a Co2 scrubber onto my intake of the skimmer will this be enough to keep running a higher PH in the summer when the air is on and things are closed up. What else can i do or add to help maintain a higher PH ??

Get a co2 meter to verify low co2 levels.
When the furnace runs, it draws ambient air for combustion. The exhaust goes up the flue and is replaced by fresh air coming in from outside thru windows and doors. This assumes no dedicated combustion air vent from outside.
If lower co2 is the goal in summer, then an HRV/air exchanger will help.

 

[Yodeling]

I think I remember reading somewhere that the observed lower PH in the summer wasn’t caused by higher concentrations of CO2 in the air, but rather by the warmer more humid air depositing more CO2 from the air into your tank. Sounded like a good theory.

 

[fryman]

A CO2 scrubber will absolutely affect pH. Except in rare cases reef tank pH comes down to dissolved CO2.

An air exchanger may very well impact your reef's pH, and has other benefits to home air quality, but it's an expensive option. A much cheaper option is just setup a CO2 scrubber. I've found a pentair fine pore air diffuser/CO2 scrubber to be much more effective than a skimmer/CO2 scrubber setup.

This summer & fall I pegged pH at 8.3+ using a recirc skimmer/CO2 scrubber but then in winter my pH dropped.

So I tested a number of setups with following results:

• 7.8-8.0 pH with just normal skimmer
• 7.9-8.1 pH running skimmer air intake outside
• 8.0-8.2 pH pulling outside air through CO2 media to skimmer
• 8.1-8.2 pH recirc skimmer & CO2 media
• 8.3-8.4 pH dedicated 120W air pump pulling through CO2 media /output to pentair "sweetwater" Fine-Pore Diffuser, 9" (recirculating sump air)

Dosing saturated kalk at night up to evaporation limit is also very helpful.

 

[JonEB]

Ok, let me first start off by asking that if your response is going to be a suggestion of " Don't chase PH " then please don't respond . I am trying to do an experiment or figure out how to keep my PH at or above 8.4 / 8.5 either with or without Co2 scrubber , added ventilation etc .....
Now here is the observation i have seen over the last several years ..... I live in the upper mid west and i have a DD300 on my main floor with a 150 gallon basement sump , my basement is unfinished and my furnace is within 20' of my sump . In the summer when the Air is on and windows are closed and humidity is high outside my tank PH will drop down to 7.7-7.8 at night and only get up to maybe 8.0 during the day , nobody is home it might get up to 8.1 all summer long , now if we dont have the air on and windows are open during the summer even with humidity i can get it to climb to maybe 8.2 /8.3 but that lasts only a day or 2 and its back to being closed up.

Now come fall / winter , everything is closed up as well and the weather is dryer outside and the furnace is on ........ however my PH stays at 8.4 / 8.5 regularly with no scrubbing and people home ?? I do run a line from outside to my intake of my skimmer now . I have noticed faster growth with a higher PH in the colder months and a definite slowing in the warmer months . SO my question is if i add a room air exchanger and a Co2 scrubber onto my intake of the skimmer will this be enough to keep running a higher PH in the summer when the air is on and things are closed up. What else can i do or add to help maintain a higher PH ??

Lots of Chaetomorpha and run high lighting at night. Make sure your dosing ALK with a ph boost mosly at night and some during the day. Worked for me Brought my ph up from 7.8 to 8.2 without a reactor or other options added. If you add a reactor or run a good skimmer you should see the extra boost to 8.4

 

[reefluvrr]

8.3-8.4 pH dedicated 120W air pump pulling through CO2 media /output to pentair "sweetwater" Fine-Pore Diffuser, 9" (recirculating sump air)

I am also considering using a sweetwater fine-pre diffuser after reading your post.
Is the air bubbles that much finer in those diffuser? What is the cleaning maintenance on them?

Thanks!