wade December 2, 2013 Share December 2, 2013 So we hosted about 20 people at our house on Turkey day last week. The display tank is on the main floor with the kitchen, tables, etc... so basically all the people. Our house is fairly new and well sealed. People arrived by around 1:30. Here is a breakdown of what happened: time pH 2p 8.27 3p 8.25 4p 8.21 5p 8.09 6p 8.06 7p 7.95 8p 7.80 9p 7.76 10p 7.68 <opened windows here as I started gettting concerned!> 11p 7.85 .. It took the tank until 11am the next day, with the cabinet open and skimmer running full blast to get the pH back to a normal range!!! And that is just from having a bunch of friends over. Pretty amazing... .now imagine in well sealed houses how much CO2 builds up over a long winter. Maybe nothing compared to this example, but still worth thinking about. Vent your house every so often. Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sachabballi reef December 2, 2013 Share December 2, 2013 LOL.... I can see you running and checking on the tank every hour ....how many times did you say through clenched teeth "please don't tap on the glass" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wade December 2, 2013 Author Share December 2, 2013 LOL. Surprisingly no one (other than my 1 year old) was tapping on the glass - and he can't do that unless being held up to it. Lots of people spent lots of time staring at the tank though. The Apex output is actually facing the main part of the room and I made the #s large, so I could watch all evening as it plummeted. I actually thought nothing of it until I noticed it was below 8 so early. These results are from the log. Pretty amazing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sachabballi reef December 2, 2013 Share December 2, 2013 i am not one to talk...I watched my tank all week we were in disney...it was thanksgiving last year when I lost everything so paranoia was at an all time high to say the least. Its incredibly nice to have controllers isn't it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wangspeed December 2, 2013 Share December 2, 2013 My gas stove drops the PH dramatically if I don't pop open the window behind the tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wade December 2, 2013 Author Share December 2, 2013 My gas stove drops the PH dramatically if I don't pop open the window behind the tank. That is rather frightening as stoves put out a great deal of carbon monoxide (which people do not)! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM December 2, 2013 Share December 2, 2013 I should really plumb my skimmer to the outside. I'm running pretty low too even though my alk is at 8.4 dkH. I'm going to start making my kids hold their breath at home until I get the skimmer air intake outside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wangspeed December 2, 2013 Share December 2, 2013 That is rather frightening as stoves put out a great deal of carbon monoxide (which people do not)! A proper burner shouldn't put out much CO at all. Mostly CO2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OUsnakebyte December 2, 2013 Share December 2, 2013 Ocean acidification anyone...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldReefer December 2, 2013 Share December 2, 2013 Plumbing the skimmer to the outside helps, but I can still see a difference when there are a lot of people in the house. It is amazing. Great post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shoelace December 2, 2013 Share December 2, 2013 Fascinating. It makes me want to run FishyPapa's DIY CO2 scrubber. What proportion do you think is attributable to the skimmer versus tank surface area? I'm thinking mostly skimmer because of all the tiny bubbles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wade December 2, 2013 Author Share December 2, 2013 I'm guessing skimmer does far far far more gas exchange than the surface unless you have heavy current and massive fans. My skimmer draws 1000lph of air. I used to use a skimmer to do experiments in the lab that required scrubbing the gases out of solution. It works very quickly. Any return lines that suck air and combine it will do a great deal as well. So in the end, its probably a mixture of ambient and force air on the skimmer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shoelace December 2, 2013 Share December 2, 2013 That's what I'm thinking, but on the other hand, CO2 is highly diffusible, so I'm wondering if even the surface area of the tank can be a cause for decreased pH regardless of the CO2 concentration going into your skimmer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curtis Scott December 2, 2013 Share December 2, 2013 I noticed the same thing over this past week. Another thing I noticed and have been able to track is how bad my wood burning fire place effects my CO2 and in turn lowers my ph. :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zygote2k December 2, 2013 Share December 2, 2013 This is one of the reasons keeping an aquarium thriving in a busy restaurant is difficult. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lnevo December 2, 2013 Share December 2, 2013 Yeah same here although not as low as yours. We had only 14 people over. Ph which is usually 8-8.1 went down to 7.76 at the low end and thats with a window open! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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