George Monnat Jr Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 Dang, soda lime is expensive lol! $70 for 5g bucket of it! I use Mrs. Wages Pickling Lime. It's pure calcium hydroxide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerrickH Posted April 27, 2012 Author Share Posted April 27, 2012 So do I for kalk solution. Soda lime is to remove co2 from the air inlet on the skimmer. This will raise ph a lot from what Im reading. Just for *hits and grins, Im going to run an airline from the window close to the tank, and hook it up to the skimmer venturi. See what this does. I wonder what feeding pure O2 to the skimmer venturi would do??? I have a tank full of pure O2 thats regulated....hmmm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Monnat Jr Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 So do I for kalk solution. Soda lime is to remove co2 from the air inlet on the skimmer. This will raise ph a lot from what Im reading. Just for *hits and grins, Im going to run an airline from the window close to the tank, and hook it up to the skimmer venturi. See what this does. I wonder what feeding pure O2 to the skimmer venturi would do??? I have a tank full of pure O2 thats regulated....hmmm Oh, I haven't messed with CO2 stuff, yet. O2 is useful (especially for us divers) but expensive. Don't blow yourself up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerrickH Posted April 27, 2012 Author Share Posted April 27, 2012 Well here is a more direct correlation. Opening up all the windows in the house today and shutting down the AC for about 4-5 hours. Going to see what trend the ph follows after that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerrickH Posted April 27, 2012 Author Share Posted April 27, 2012 Well I think I may be on to something. Since I raised my temp on the chiller setting my ph seems to follow the water temp pretty closely as displayed above. Well today I wanted to try something different. I wanted to open all the windows in the house to see if maybe its a C02 problem in the house thats causing my low ph. Well since I was having problems keeping the ph up above 7.8 when my chiller was set to a lower temp, I decided to compound the experiment. Figured since I was having problems with cooler water ph levels, Id open all the windows in the house(actually had my GF do it, Im at work). and then turn the chiller back down to 78 range. Let it run for a few hours and see if there was an immediate difference in ph. The results are below.....think im on to something. At around 11:30 had her open all the windows, and I set chiller back down to 78...Only thing I need to do is duplicate this tomorrow but with lights off as it may just be a repeat due to light timing. Either way I was able to seperate the temp/ph at a controlled time. Going to kill the lights and see what happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Monnat Jr Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 Interesting, thanks for sharing and please continue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ludakris Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 i have something that u might try out..i havent done it personally but i heard it works...run you air intake tubing from you skimmer outside...this will allow fresh air from outside to be taken in by the system and in doing so will also raise the ph...it just food for thought...better than having the windows open all day..if you try it let me know how it works out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 In the modern homes made today, carbon dioxide levels are high. High carbon dioxide levels in the air to your reef tank will have consequenses. In the past, others have used an outside source of. air to purge their reef tank. Patrick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerrickH Posted April 29, 2012 Author Share Posted April 29, 2012 I let it level back out and sure enough with the windows closed it dipped into the 7.7 range. This morning was 7.8 and opened up all the windows. The lights have been out for 2 days now(im doing complete black out, corals moved to QT tank with lights). I also opened the doors on the stand and sat down and watched the ph. I watched it for about 5 minutes before I opened the windows then sat down and watched the numbers increase by 1hundredth every 20-30 seconds after opening the windows.....The house is 1yr old and theres not a door that dont seal like a tupperware container. C02 is my problem. The ph jumped to 8.1. Since I want it very high to help fight this dino, I dosed some dkh solution. It jumped to 8.6 over about 20 minutes(again I have no corals in my tank atm). I left and went to the lake. Just got home and its still over 8. I did close the windows but even with them open for a while and since there was no one in the house, it managed to level out. Im going to figure out how to get my skimmer venturi tube vented to outside air without having to "crack" a window. Im thinking a slick little tv cable cover with a hole drilled to the outside and a vent cap with a filter on the cap. Remember, I rent. If I owned the house, I would have an ato line, and a large vent for the stand to outside air... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mFrame Posted April 29, 2012 Share Posted April 29, 2012 Mark Callahan had a similar thread and post here on the board about year and a half ago. I believe he addressed it by running a line to the outside window Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+o0zarkawater Posted April 29, 2012 Share Posted April 29, 2012 I don't ever check any of my tank parameters (other than salinity before/after a WC) as it looks like a happy tank. After Callahans thread about stable pH by pulling air from outside, I set a small air pump on my balcony and ran the tube to an airstone in my refugium. Been running like that for over a year. Can't really say if there have been any benefits or drawbacks, but from what I've read it was a cheap thing to try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Monnat Jr Posted April 29, 2012 Share Posted April 29, 2012 Im going to figure out how to get my skimmer venturi tube vented to outside air without having to "crack" a window. Im thinking a slick little tv cable cover with a hole drilled to the outside and a vent cap with a filter on the cap. Remember, I rent. If I owned the house, I would have an ato line, and a large vent for the stand to outside air... I've been thinking of doing the same thing, maybe using a "window insert" like my portable A/C uses to vent. Let me know what happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bige Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 You could also buy soda lime and co2 scrub your air as it enters the skimmer. This will raise your ph. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Monnat Jr Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 Finally got wet and dove today (1st time this year, pretty sad). You mentioned hooking up pressurized & regulated O2, what about nitrox? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerrickH Posted April 30, 2012 Author Share Posted April 30, 2012 Venting the skimmer to a window is my short term fix, and by all means, the cheapest lol! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerrickH Posted May 1, 2012 Author Share Posted May 1, 2012 Well I have had the tank blacked out since Friday night last week. Going to peek in there and see if this ocean snot is still flying around on my rock. Ive got my kalk reactor plumbed into my ATO now and picked up some tubing to run my skimmer to the window. Just been too busy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerrickH Posted May 7, 2012 Author Share Posted May 7, 2012 Well managed to get my skimmer venturi routed to the window. Took about an hour but pH was up to 8.2 from 7.9. Left it alone and turned the whites on for a couple hours, pH hit 8.35 and stayed there for a while till lights went out. Guess my house is a C02 factory... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Monnat Jr Posted May 7, 2012 Share Posted May 7, 2012 Well managed to get my skimmer venturi routed to the window. Took about an hour but pH was up to 8.2 from 7.9. Left it alone and turned the whites on for a couple hours, pH hit 8.35 and stayed there for a while till lights went out. Guess my house is a C02 factory... Makes you wonder the effects on people and pets. I guess we need more plants. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted May 7, 2012 Share Posted May 7, 2012 As I understand it, it has mostly to do with the fact that we seal our houses up incredibly tight for heating/cooling efficiency. You need to find the silver lining here, you just have a very well sealed house Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerrickH Posted May 7, 2012 Author Share Posted May 7, 2012 Yeah, need more "plants".... I like having the windows open myself but I dont like the heat. My ATO tank is empty right now so its not dosing any kalk. Gonna bypass the kalk reactor and see where the ph stabilizes. Would rather spot dose CA instead of constantly dumping kalk in with ATO. I have put all my corals back in the tank. Not sure if it did any good, seems to still be a few stringys here and there. Ive been sucking them out with an old turkey baster. Does look a lot better than it did but who knows. they may come back with a vengeance...if so then Im going to stop all water changes and let them run their course. Eventually they will die out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaggedfire Posted May 7, 2012 Share Posted May 7, 2012 This was a good read. I too am having the constantly low pH issue, even with the tank pretty close to an outside door. I will have to try this tonight and see if this could be my issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerrickH Posted May 8, 2012 Author Share Posted May 8, 2012 Hmm. Dino is back with a vengeance. I see a teardown in the near future and a coral sale... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Monnat Jr Posted May 8, 2012 Share Posted May 8, 2012 Hmm. Dino is back with a vengeance. I see a teardown in the near future and a coral sale... I guess there aren't CUC who like to eat dinoflagellates? Are you running a phosphate removal reactor like PhosBan? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerrickH Posted May 8, 2012 Author Share Posted May 8, 2012 GAC GFO WET SKIMMING CHAETO IN SUMP 7 DAYS LIGHTS OUT TANK WAS COVERED RAISED AK UP HIGH DOSED PEROXIDE Nothings working. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sherita Posted May 8, 2012 Share Posted May 8, 2012 What problems has your low pH been causing? I think I checked my pH once, about 6 years ago. This right here ^ I haven't checked ph in I don't know how long. Dinos are not hard to get rid of in my experience. I dosed H202, and in a week they had disappeared. They showed up in another of my tanks, treated the same, they are gone. I dose kalkwasser in my topoff for alk and ca, routine water changes, no other dosing is done routinely. You might look into dosing H202 to get rid of the dinos (are you sure that is what they are?). Ok, I missed the post about the H202 dosing, sorry. Maybe a pic? That might help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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