Lazy man’s CO2 solution...air stone?

[rmurken]

Soggy, salty colleagues—

I have read conflicting things about whether aerating your water with a good old air pump and air stone will help knock out excess CO2. Certainly in a FW planted tank it will knock out dissolved CO2 you’ve added, but query whether the same can be said of a reef tank—with skimmer—that is just stubbornly out of equilibrium.

Uhhhh, asking for a friend.

thanks.

 

[Scrubber_steve]

Typically, excess co2 is a consequence of excess co2 in the ambient air, as a result of gas cookers, heaters - or when there is a large number of people in the home (breathing), windows closed. This also results in low oxygen levels. An air pump/ skimmer pumping this ambient air into the water is the cause of the proplem, not a fix.

 

[jblasi]

Agree with @Scrubber_steve. Your skimmer is going to create a million times the amount of bubbles that an air stone will. If your suffering from low PH due to CO2. You may need to look into an outside solution. A scrubber into the Venturi of the skimmer, a way to ventilate the room better or possibly even running an airline to the outside. I was recently victim to low PH due to the size of the room my tank is in and my wife, 2 kids and myself always being around.

 

[C. Eymann]

Only way an airstone/air pump will be able to raise ph/scrub CO² is if the air pump is placed outside, or if inlet is rigged to a soda lime canister.

If its a skimmerless system it maybe beneficial to have an airstone /pump, but its pH increasing abilities will be limited by CO2 concentration of ambient air.

I did use an airstone in the sump of a skimmerless SPS tank I kept in college, it might have been beneficial, but who knows?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Any aeration will drive the CO2 toward equilibrium with the air you are using. That can either add or remove CO2, and it may do different directions at different time of the day.

 

[rmurken]

Thanks all! My next big move is to set up a discrete line to draw outside air in. But per Randy’s point, I may also experiment with reverse daylight aeration on the theory that it’s most likely to knock out CO2 when it is most abundant. Going to avoid the scrubber route. I am generally 7.8-7.9, so low but not abnormal. Basically want to do what I can short of scrubbing.

 

[Cory]

If cheap co2 betterment is wanted you should use fresh air from outside. Air bubbler works but may take more than you think. You can also use a refugium or ats with strong lighting. Brs showed that onecof their tanks had a ph increase to 8.7 iirc from photosynthesis! That means co2 is being removed a lot.