KevinB Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 I'm having trouble keeping my pH in a good range and I think it's a problem of too much CO2 and not enough O2. I don't use a skimmer, but I do use an airstone (which probably doesn't do much to help), and I use my powerbeads to create a turbulent water surface. I have an old ETSS skimmer that I could install into the sump, but my sump design doesn't have a bubble trap I could use between the skimmer and return line. So my questions are: If I use the skimmer, I'll try to make a bubble tower where the skimmer outlet would enter a 4x4x8" acrylic box at about 4" from the bottom of the box. There would be about 3" of water above the skimmer outlet. The water entering the skimmer would have to travel down through 3-4" of live rock rubble, then out the bottom of the box. Does it seem like this design would eliminate the skimmer's micro bubbles? Or are there skimmers out there that don't let out any microbubbles? OR is there another option that I should consider for adding oxygen? I don't want to do ozone because of the inherent risks. Is macro algae the best way to go for producing o2? thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 How are you measuring pH? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinB Posted June 8, 2013 Author Share Posted June 8, 2013 I've tried test strips and a ph probe (calibrated) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Monnat Jr Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 If you have a moderately modern home, then you have higher CO2 levels than outside. So adding bubblers may not help as much as you want.. You could pump in air from outside (I think Bio3 was thinking about this?) or leave windows open when the weather cooperates. I definitely saw pH rises when I left windows open, but now it's summer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 Before you start taking remedial action for pH, take readings throughout the day and confirm a reading with a different tester. It has been my experience that pH problems are just as likely to be measurement error than reality. Exceptions are for kalkwasser and CO2 reactors where pH problems are very possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 You can test the indoor CO2 thing by aerating water indoors and outdoors for a given time and test the ph of both. I seem to remember it being an hour, but I don't think you can do it too long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offroadodge Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 on my old 120G I used to take the air inlet for the skimmer and put a hose on it and lead it outside for fresh air. Worked like a champ. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 Consider your tank water inlet to sump. With a 3' waterfall, water cascading over rock is a very good gas exchange process. Patrick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 Consider your tank water inlet to sump. With a 3' waterfall, water cascading over rock is a very good gas exchange process. Patrick If his ambient CO2 is too high (house is too well sealed), more gas exchange is not necessarily a good thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 Consider your tank water inlet to sump. With a 3' waterfall, water cascading over rock is a very good gas exchange process. Patrick If his ambient CO2 is too high (house is too well sealed), more gas exchange is not necessarily a good thing. My understanding is it's much harder to get CO2 out of the water than to get O2 into the water so additional gas exchange should help even if the CO2 level inside is higher than outside. CO2 and O2 also are not mutally exclusive and both might be high. I would try what Planedon suggested first, if there's no difference in pH then additional aeration is probably not going to help much but it won't hurt either. If the pH goes up outside additional surface agitaion would be what I would try next. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 not sure if you have sorted it out, but here are the two articles i read that include the test i mentioned. i got these from george monnet jr. http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-09/rhf/ http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-03/rhf/ they also discuss various solutions to high and low ph. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drift Monkey Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 Apparently Oxydators are used quite often in Europe to add additional oxygen into a system and seems like an elegant solution. I've thought about adding one to my system, but they aren't readily available in the states. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bige Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 Why not have a co2 scrubber? Put some soda lime in a gotarade bottle attached to your skimmer air intake. Co2 delt with. Done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bige Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 And why didn't mec get any of the graduations? I was hoping to run into you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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