Help!!! Suggestions needed. Ph Swings

[satttheman]

Hello Everyone

I'm having low ph issues and I'm going crazy trying to fix it. Ran a co2 scrubber which worked good for a while(even made the chamber thingy to prolong the media). So a little about my system it's a red sea 250 mostly frags. My system with good ph around 7.8-8.2 swing throughout the day will consumes about .5-.6dkh. But my ph often drops to ~7.5 and struggles to get to 8 which throws of my consumption by almost half. Yesterday I ran a line from my skimmer silencer to outside my ph was 7.68-8.06(biggest swing I have measured) throughout the day with an average of 7.83.

So when my ph is steady my consumption is steady. My nutrients are 5 no3 and .04 po4. I'm running gfo and biopellets. Have a Skimz algae reactor and it didn't do much for the systems nutrients. Removed it and now my sump is pack with marinepure so it can't go back in.

What I need help/sugguestion/my question is should I hookup my turf scrubber to attempt to boost or stabilize the ph in my system? Or will it be another wasted effort. My thought is that if I could keep my ph higher at night through photosynthesis it will be higher during the day.

Also the scrubber was originally on this system and I never monitored ph so I'm not sure if it will or how much. I ended up taking it off because it took up too much space in the cabinet but now I'm thinking about just sitting it on the outside. If I do setup the scrubber eventually I will remove the other nutrient exports.

 

[miPapareef]

I feel your pain. My issue is keeping stable alk because of big changes in consumption due to changes in pH. I actually adjust dosing based on anticipation of pH swings (vacations, parties, closing windows).

I have significantly increased my fuge and its lighting but it didn’t really help the daily swing and doesn’t overcome the pH lower affects of more people in the house or closing the windows (I try to keep the fish room window year round).

So I don’t think a scrubber will help significantly. My next plan is to add a home ventilation system. Like this.

Just a few pics of my pH

 

[satttheman]

You but at least your is above 7.6 lol. Your swings are pretty close like .2. Mine go .3-.5 and a lot of the time is still 8 or 8.1. That whole home is a cool idea.

 

[miPapareef]

With respect to the absolute number of pH, I think we might not be far apart due to calibration or just accuracy of the sensor. But, yes I’m in pretty good shape because I keep windows opens (year round) and have fans moving air. It’s not just for the tank, all that CO2 builds up in a high efficiency sealed houses and it’s not good for the people either.

 

[jda]

Either get a powerful can and move a few thousand CFM of air every few days (when it is nice and you can), or throw the pH probe away and just never think about it. When we lived in the midwest, it early AM at about 5:00 for for the best air and winter in the later afternoon around 3:00.

We had a 48" whole house fan that could move in 100% new air in just a few minutes - this was in the 15k CFM range. The humans appreciated this as well.

Make sure that you get the basement too... this will keep radon down as well as get all of the co2 out. Some fans on the floor with open windows will stir things up. Then, you can close all the other windows and leave the basement door open and a strong attic fan will swap the air the basement very well. If you don't get the basement, then as soon as you turn on the AC or furnace, then it will pump that co2 back into the rest of the home.

I never found anything else to work that was sustainable.

 

[DaveC]

We had a 48" whole house fan that could move in 100% new air in just a few minutes - this was in the 15k CFM range. The humans appreciated this as well.

I grew up with a fan like that. We didn't have air conditioning until I was about 14.