Interesting Observation: Can your macro algae method influence your pH

[BroccoliFarmer]

I am not sure if this is a homer simpson 'doh' moment or could i be on to something

My sump used to have an icecap algae scrubber in front of a similar footprint of cheato. Since I started monitoring my pH at night, it was always in the low 7.7 range. as of Oct 6..I bottomed out at 7.67. I then did some tank maintenence and unplugged my algae scrubber. my pH is going through the roof with my nighttime ph last night being 7.88. WOWZA. Nothing else changed other than unplugging scrubber.

Problem: Has any research been done one which macro algae has the most substantial influence on pH values.
hypothesis: that full chaeto nutrient control is better than a combination GHA / chaeto (with GHA first in line to the nutrients) when it comes to oxgenation of the water thus increasing the ph value. We could test this by putting the algae scrubber after the chaeto as well as have the chaeto and scrubber roughly equal in initial filtration.

 

[Dan_P]

I am not sure if this is a homer simpson 'doh' moment or could i be on to something

My sump used to have an icecap algae scrubber in front of a similar footprint of cheato. Since I started monitoring my pH at night, it was always in the low 7.7 range. as of Oct 6..I bottomed out at 7.67. I then did some tank maintenence and unplugged my algae scrubber. my pH is going through the roof with my nighttime ph last night being 7.88. WOWZA. Nothing else changed other than unplugging scrubber.

Problem: Has any research been done one which macro algae has the most substantial influence on pH values.
hypothesis: that full chaeto nutrient control is better than a combination GHA / chaeto (with GHA first in line to the nutrients) when it comes to oxgenation of the water thus increasing the ph value. We could test this by putting the algae scrubber after the chaeto as well as have the chaeto and scrubber roughly equal in initial filtration.

Algae will alter the pH to greater extent during photosynthesis because it is removing CO2. At night algae continue to require energy and revert to respiration which generates CO2. I have never read anything about how much CO2 is generated or how much it affects pH in a closed system.

An algae scrubber is a community of organisms which likely includes heterotrophs which generate quite a bit of CO2 and for this reason why taking the algae scrubber might result in a slightly higher pH. Keep in mind though that the pH difference observed is small and might not be real or not as large as the meter indicates.

 

[Garf]

I am not sure if this is a homer simpson 'doh' moment or could i be on to something

My sump used to have an icecap algae scrubber in front of a similar footprint of cheato. Since I started monitoring my pH at night, it was always in the low 7.7 range. as of Oct 6..I bottomed out at 7.67. I then did some tank maintenence and unplugged my algae scrubber. my pH is going through the roof with my nighttime ph last night being 7.88. WOWZA. Nothing else changed other than unplugging scrubber.

Problem: Has any research been done one which macro algae has the most substantial influence on pH values.
hypothesis: that full chaeto nutrient control is better than a combination GHA / chaeto (with GHA first in line to the nutrients) when it comes to oxgenation of the water thus increasing the ph value. We could test this by putting the algae scrubber after the chaeto as well as have the chaeto and scrubber roughly equal in initial filtration.

Algae scrubbers are odd. As soon as the algae gets a few mm thick it seems to revert to a mainly bacterial influenced zone due to the lack of light on the screen.