Effect of house CO2 levels on pH

[AlanM]

Just thought I'd post a graph that I found interesting demonstrating the effect of inside air on pH. 

 

It's my anniversary coming up, and my mom sent me a box of Kansas City Steaks.  They were packed with a pile of dry ice.  I opened the box inside and dropped the dry ice in the sink at 5:30 and amused the kids by filling it with water.  I let probably 2 pounds of it evaporate inside. 

 

Here was the result on my pH as measured by Apex and still dropping.  My alkalinity is fairly high at 11, by the way, but pH is heading down towards 7.75.

 

Edited August 29, 2013 by AlanM

[firecrackerbob]

2lbs is a huge volume of gas.  im not surprised by the graph.  just out of curiosity, is your house newer (better insulated/sealed) or older?  also, how close is your tank to the sink you dropped the ice into?

[AlanM]

Sink is around the corner about 10 feet away from the tank.  It was built in 1972 and isn't particularly well sealed, but does have double-paned windows and such.  

 

It's also interesting that the pH when we were on vacation was 0.2 higher than it is when we're home and was totally consistent while we were away even though the lights were running daily.  I had pH swings that didn't seem to correspond to the lights (I have no life and little algae in the tank so far), and it turned out they corresponded to when we were at home.  Humans are an acid breathing plague. 8)

[rtsusc83]

Yep. We are carbon dioxide producing animals. Having been a submariner, we could not make it without our co2 scrubbers. So if you have a newer house, co2 can build up.

[Coral Hind]

Wow, that's a pretty good and steady drop. Time to open some windows and air the place out.

[miggs76]

I bought a canister from BRS and filled it with CO2 scrubbing media.  My pH used to range from 7.9 to 8.1......now it is 8.1 to 8.3

My tank is in the basement and air is stagnant.  It was a bit of a last resort for me, but it totally works and doesn't cost that much.  I would estimate I have to change the media every 5 weeks.  BRS sells the media in a 9 lbs. jug so it will last me over 6 months.  I have definitely noticed an improvement in SPS coloration.  People kept telling me that my pH was fine.  It may have been OK, but a pH in the range of 8.1-8.3 brought out enhanced coloration.  For you people that have basement tanks like myself you may want to look into it.

[BowieReefer84]

I bought a canister from BRS and filled it with CO2 scrubbing media.  My pH used to range from 7.9 to 8.1......now it is 8.1 to 8.3

My tank is in the basement and air is stagnant.  It was a bit of a last resort for me, but it totally works and doesn't cost that much.  I would estimate I have to change the media every 5 weeks.  BRS sells the media in a 9 lbs. jug so it will last me over 6 months.  I have definitely noticed an improvement in SPS coloration.  People kept telling me that my pH was fine.  It may have been OK, but a pH in the range of 8.1-8.3 brought out enhanced coloration.  For you people that have basement tanks like myself you may want to look into it.

link please.

[Djplus1]

link please.

Definitely link. My ph sucks too.

[monkiboy]

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-color-changing-medical-grade-co2-absorbent.html

[miggs76]

The link above is for the media.  This link is for the air canister filter:  http://aquarium.bulkreefsupply.com/search?w=universal%20air%20filter

 

 

It was about an 80 dollar investment, but if the media lasts 6 months then its 100 a year to refill the media (but if you do a group buy you can get it even cheaper). 

[BowieReefer84]

wow really neat.  I have never seen this before.  Might give it a shot with my tank that is in a underground sealed basement.

[Curtis Scott]

Very interesting. I'll have to give this a shot next time my ph gets low from CO2 in my house and it's really hot outside. 

Edited August 30, 2013 by Curtis Scott

[AlanM]

So do you run your skimmer intake through it or something?  How do you get the lower CO2 air into your tank when the high CO2 house is competing to push it into your water across all of the surface area of your display tank and sump?  

 

As I discovered, just dropping 2 pounds of CO2 into the air upstairs was enough to drop the pH by 0.2.  It seems like your very large surface area with high CO2 inside air will compete with the low CO2 air that you're running through this, somehow.

 

Edit:  BTW, I've heard that this is a good argument for dosing kalk with your makeup water since the lime water reacts with dissolved CO2 to turn it into bicarbonate from carbonic acid and raises the pH while increasing alk and calcium.  Wonder if that BRS media is just dry kalk (lime).

 

Edit2:  Here it is:  http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-09/rhf/

Edited August 30, 2013 by AlanM

[miggs76]

You run a line into the skimmer air intake.  The air from the house is pulled into the air canister.  The excess CO2 is "scrubbed" by the media and the O2 rich air is injected into the tank.  Right at this moment my pH is 8.24 (2:56pm).

It would NEVER have been that high without the scrubber.....it would have been about 8.05 at 3pm.  I'm not saying this will work for everyone, but it certainly did some magic on my tank.  I had a couple Acro's that would not extend polyps at all.......a few days after I put the scrubber in they all started extending polyps.  I just think acro's do much better at a higher pH.

Edited August 30, 2013 by miggs76

[miggs76]

one other thing that it did for me.....made my skimmer more efficient.  Not sure the science behind that, but the skimmate is darker and there are bigger bubbles.

[treesprite]

I was having a bad pH problem for a while over the summer, and finally realized it was due to the poor ventilation in the apartment building which is rather old. We have no ventilation directly to outside from the kitchen. We get the stuff from 2 floors below us and the floor above us all going through one vent, with just one fan up at the roof. So now I have to keep a close eye on my pH.