P-Dub
The ocean is open to all, merciful to none.
A lot of folks seem to have to deal with relatively low pH in our reef tanks. There are many solutions to this problem and I have employed them all. What hasn't yet been discussed is a solution that seems obvious yet, after scouring this and other forums and the net and YouTube has yet been explored. Patience, the final piece of the puzzle is coming. Be advised this will not work for everyone due to tank location.
My journey began with consistently low pH, relatively speaking. i.e. not in the ideal range of 8.2-8.4 we are all looking for. The first photo is my tank soon after being set up and after the cycling.
Here we can see the pH averaging around 7.95. This prompted me to open the windows and start running a small co2 scrubber canister on the intake of my protein skimmer. This yielded an improvement but not in the range I was hoping for. Additionally, opening the windows in our location is not ideal as we average daily temperatures of 89*F with relative humidity around 80-90%.
We can see this helped but not in the range I was hoping for. Still, I ran with it in this configuration and started to run a full-sized co2 scrubber on the intake of the skimmer. After some time I realized this option was going to start to cost quite a bit of money in scrubber media. I was assuming the scrubber would last longer than 3-4 days. Not checking the color change yielded fluctuations in pH out of the ideal range. So, at that point, I realized it is time to put a hole in the wall and run outside air to my skimmer and save some money. We have a 5-year-old home that is relatively airtight so this was going to have to be my solution.
So now we are hovering around 8.1 on average. Not bad but still not in the range I would like. So what to do next. Well, it would seem I'd have to live with this and for many it is fine. I could find no other reasonable solution out there on the web. Looking over my system and asking how else can I limit the introduction of co2 into my system when it hit me and I came to the obvious solution. I have an air intake line attached to the, wait for it...... OVERFLOW! Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle... You all can see where this is going form here. But, before I drilled another hole in my 8-inch thick concrete wall I wanted to make certain I was going to see some results. I had the co2 canister laying around, now un-used, so let's see how this might pan out.
Now that's better. Averaging 8.2. Now time to drill. Had to go to a larger diameter air intake on my overflow, but
So there you have it. Within the range and not spending a small fortune on co2 scrubber media. I'd like it higher but I'll take that. No window opening, no co2 scrubber, just the cost of a 10-inch masonry drill bit.
I hope that this helps others out as well.
Happy reefing.
My journey began with consistently low pH, relatively speaking. i.e. not in the ideal range of 8.2-8.4 we are all looking for. The first photo is my tank soon after being set up and after the cycling.
Here we can see the pH averaging around 7.95. This prompted me to open the windows and start running a small co2 scrubber canister on the intake of my protein skimmer. This yielded an improvement but not in the range I was hoping for. Additionally, opening the windows in our location is not ideal as we average daily temperatures of 89*F with relative humidity around 80-90%.
We can see this helped but not in the range I was hoping for. Still, I ran with it in this configuration and started to run a full-sized co2 scrubber on the intake of the skimmer. After some time I realized this option was going to start to cost quite a bit of money in scrubber media. I was assuming the scrubber would last longer than 3-4 days. Not checking the color change yielded fluctuations in pH out of the ideal range. So, at that point, I realized it is time to put a hole in the wall and run outside air to my skimmer and save some money. We have a 5-year-old home that is relatively airtight so this was going to have to be my solution.
So now we are hovering around 8.1 on average. Not bad but still not in the range I would like. So what to do next. Well, it would seem I'd have to live with this and for many it is fine. I could find no other reasonable solution out there on the web. Looking over my system and asking how else can I limit the introduction of co2 into my system when it hit me and I came to the obvious solution. I have an air intake line attached to the, wait for it...... OVERFLOW! Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle... You all can see where this is going form here. But, before I drilled another hole in my 8-inch thick concrete wall I wanted to make certain I was going to see some results. I had the co2 canister laying around, now un-used, so let's see how this might pan out.
Now that's better. Averaging 8.2. Now time to drill. Had to go to a larger diameter air intake on my overflow, but
So there you have it. Within the range and not spending a small fortune on co2 scrubber media. I'd like it higher but I'll take that. No window opening, no co2 scrubber, just the cost of a 10-inch masonry drill bit.
I hope that this helps others out as well.
Happy reefing.
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