de gas with bio balls?

[salty joe]

I have outdoor air on an airstone in my effort to drive CO2 from my tank. It helps but not a lot, at least my pH rarely goes below 7.8.
Would directing the outdoor air to pass over a gallon or two of bioballs with water running over them be very effective at stripping CO2? Would making an airtight container with a pressure valve make much difference?
BTW, I don't run a skimmer.

 

[brandon429]

If they’re underwater it won’t help

but if falling water is mixing with air and tumbling over them, it will help as the eddies and pocketing will increase surface area contact within the boil and the physical mixing will indeed drive off co2 if ambient conditions are low co2


when I read posts about co2 and pH here in the chem forum the mention of ambient room levels always stand out as a deciding factor

lots of successful reefs post your pH levels

how is that harming the tank, and how do we know it’s right / accurate am curious to know those details

 

[Tcook]

You could run it through a venturi into a tube of bioballs like the old ETSS downdraft skimmers.

 

[HuduVudu]

What are your indoor CO2 values?

 

[salty joe]

IDK what my indoor CO2 levels are, I do know they fluctuate by quite a lot depending on how much cooking is going on.
I am using air plumbed in from outside.
The bio balls wouldn't be submerged.
pH is read from a calibrated dual junction pH probe.
For a venturi to work, I'd need a fairly high powered water pump, right? Trying to make this work on the cheap.

 

[garbled]

The thing with the "skimmer intake CO2 reduction" stuff is that it largely assumes the skimmer is your primary oxygenator in the tank. Like, if you have alot of splashing from overflows, or tons of air in the line from one, or tons of surface area with high motion, fans, etc etc, you might be putting more room air in the tank than you think you are. I'd say it depends on a ton of factors like that, and also skimmer size and dwell time.

If running outside air to the skimmer isn't helping, maybe the skimmer just isn't the primary source of air? Or maybe CO2 from the atmosphere isn't your pH problem?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Yes, the air/bioball thing will help, but not likely as well as a skimmer using the same air.

 

[HuduVudu]

IDK what my indoor CO2 levels are, I do know they fluctuate by quite a lot depending on how much cooking is going on.

It was well worth my time and money to invest in an indoor air CO2 monitor. My assumptions where wildly innaccurate and the levels that I thought were OK were ... well ummm wrong.

My CO2 in my home could climb as high as 2400ppm in an 18 hour period if I did not air the house. I found this with the CO2 monitor and aired the house at 2400ppm. I have no idea how high they went when I wasn't testing. Suffice it to say that I kept the house closed for days at a time. If your air quality in your home is near mine, you can't pump air in fast enough. Even now with and ERV I still see high numbers. Perhaps your home is like mine, perhaps not. The only real way to know is the same way that we know other parameters in our aquariums. We test.

FWIW

 

[salty joe]

Yes, the air/bioball thing will help, but not likely as well as a skimmer using the same air.

Would it make much difference if I were able to pressurize the bio ball chamber?

 

[Malcontent]

Would it make much difference if I were able to pressurize the bio ball chamber?

I think that would make degassing less effective since vacuums are used for degassing water.

 

[salty joe]

I think that would make degassing less effective since vacuums are used for degassing water.

That's interesting. Now I wonder how much difference a vacuum makes, because I could pull the outdoor air through the bio ball container. With a trap added to the drain.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Would it make much difference if I were able to pressurize the bio ball chamber?

For CO2 removal, that would be worse. It increases the CO2 pressure in the air that is contacting the water, just like higher CO2 air would do.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

That's interesting. Now I wonder how much difference a vacuum makes, because I could pull the outdoor air through the bio ball container. With a trap added to the drain.

That would be better for CO2 removal, but would reduce O2 and I would not recommend it.

 

[theMeat]

Get a skimmer, run air to it from outside