RAISING PH

[BOWHUNTER4250]

I have a 180 display and a 220 basement sump ( approx. 120 gal. of water in sump) now my sump is in a room with my water heater , furnace etc.. i have an open canopy but a fair amount of lights ... i struggle to raise my PH higher than 8.1 8.14 , drops down to 7.8 7.5 at night , now i know i have a CO2 problem because when i have doors and windows open i can get it up to 8.25
i have plenty of surface agitation , flow , air etc....

my question is i have been looking into putting a ventilation fan in my fish room to pull that stale air out and bring in fresh outside air into my room and into the sump ..... now i can add a tube to the fan to blow that air directly into my sump essentially acting as tho the windows and doors are open to raise my PH ? will this work drawing this into the sump or would it have to go directly into the display ?

 

[GoVols]

I have a 180 display and a 220 basement sump ( approx. 120 gal. of water in sump) now my sump is in a room with my water heater , furnace etc.. i have an open canopy but a fair amount of lights ... i struggle to raise my PH higher than 8.1 8.14 , drops down to 7.8 7.5 at night , now i know i have a CO2 problem because when i have doors and windows open i can get it up to 8.25
i have plenty of surface agitation , flow , air etc....

my question is i have been looking into putting a ventilation fan in my fish room to pull that stale air out and bring in fresh outside air into my room and into the sump ..... now i can add a tube to the fan to blow that air directly into my sump essentially acting as tho the windows and doors are open to raise my PH ? will this work drawing this into the sump or would it have to go directly into the display ?

Bump

 

[swnoob]

You don't need to blow air directly into your sump. As long as you get fresh air into the room you're good.

The first thing I would try is to attach a hose to your skimmer air intake and run it to the outside of the house. I also had a low ph. My tank consistently ran at 7.6-8.1 Running a calcium didn't help as well.

I took the calcium offline and switched to 2 part dosing but that only got me to 7.8-8.15. After adding the intake hose I'm now at 8-8.4

Having a fuge with an opposite light cycle will also give you a slight bump in ph.

 

[BOWHUNTER4250]

You don't need to blow air directly into your sump. As long as you get fresh air into the room you're good.

The first thing I would try is to attach a hose to your skimmer air intake and run it to the outside of the house. I also had a low ph. My tank consistently ran at 7.6-8.1 Running a calcium didn't help as well.

I took the calcium offline and switched to 2 part dosing but that only got me to 7.8-8.15. After adding the intake hose I'm now at 8-8.4

Having a fuge with an opposite light cycle will also give you a slight bump in ph.

yes i run my line outside currently , i have a massive skimmer that has 2 pumps , these lines are directly ran outside to pull in fresh air

 

[swnoob]

Maybe a co2 scrubber? Just another thing to add to the cost and maintenance or would it be more cost effective to ventilate the room properly? I've seen some builds go as far as having their hvac guy route some duct into their central air.

 

[bdare]

I think you will continue to battle CO2 build up with your sump in the same room as your furnace. As suggested, I would look into the CO2 scrubber.

 

[Myka]

yes i run my line outside currently , i have a massive skimmer that has 2 pumps , these lines are directly ran outside to pull in fresh air

That should be the same effect as opening doors and windows. A CO2 scrubber shouldn't help much more, if at all unless for some reason the air you're drawing in has lots of CO2 in it...?? I'm not sure why the outside lines to the skimmer aren't working for you...???

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

yes i run my line outside currently , i have a massive skimmer that has 2 pumps , these lines are directly ran outside to pull in fresh air

If the air flow is sufficient, that will help. The question is how much CO2 remains in the room overall, and how much aeration you have in the sump area relative to the tank top which is in the room air.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I think you will continue to battle CO2 build up with your sump in the same room as your furnace. As suggested, I would look into the CO2 scrubber.

If a furnace is releasing CO2 into the room, that is a highly dangerous situation for people in the house as carbon monoxide is a huge risk.

In general, all furnaces vent all their CO2 to the outside.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

That should be the same effect as opening doors and windows. A CO2 scrubber shouldn't help much more, if at all unless for some reason the air you're drawing in has lots of CO2 in it...?? I'm not sure why the outside lines to the skimmer aren't working for you...???

Theoretically it could help more if the air exiting the scrubber has less CO2 than outdoor air.

 

[BOWHUNTER4250]

If the air flow is sufficient, that will help. The question is how much CO2 remains in the room overall, and how much aeration you have in the sump area relative to the tank top which is in the room air.

I have 2 power heads in my sump , one on each end running 24/7 with good surface agitation , my sump is 8' long. I also run a skimmer pump at night that blows all of the micro bubbles into my sump and display to help with oxygenation , that line as well is drawing outside air in and blowing directly into my sump. that has helped keep it from dropping below 7.7 at night

 

[BOWHUNTER4250]

If a furnace is releasing CO2 into the room, that is a highly dangerous situation for people in the house as carbon monoxide is a huge risk.

In general, all furnaces vent all their CO2 to the outside.

we have carbon monoxide detectors thru the house ? it is an older furnace so im sure some CO2 is getting in my fish room ?

 

[BOWHUNTER4250]

If the air flow is sufficient, that will help. The question is how much CO2 remains in the room overall, and how much aeration you have in the sump area relative to the tank top which is in the room air.

would it help to cover the opening in my sump ?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

we have carbon monoxide detectors thru the house ? it is an older furnace so im sure some CO2 is getting in my fish room ?

I doubt there is any significant CO2 entering this way.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

would it help to cover the opening in my sump ?

That would be to prevent room air from exchanging?

 

[ksed]

Typically you can get carbon monoxide entering the room from a cracked heat exchanger in the furnace.

 

[Myka]

Theoretically it could help more if the air exiting the scrubber has less CO2 than outdoor air.

Yeah, I guess that's true. I was simply wondering why the fresh air didn't seem to have much/any effect.