Carbon emissions threaten sea life

[greenman]

"Sea creatures such as coral, shell fish and star fish are likely to suffer because higher levels of acidity will make it harder for them to form shells and skeletons."

"Along with climate change, the rising acidity of our oceans is yet another reason for us to be concerned about the carbon dioxide we are pumping into the atmosphere," said Professor John Raven,

Raven said that the burning of fossil fuels over the past two centuries had changed the chemistry of the oceans at a rate that was 100 times faster than had happened for millions of years.

"In the past two centuries the oceans have absorbed around half of all carbon produced by humans, soaking up one ton for each person on the planet each year"

iF THIS hAPPENS iN yOUR hOUSE yOU cAN oPEN a wINDOW....

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/07/04/oceans.acid/

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/07/04/oceans.acid/

 

[Matthew C]

I am glad you brought this up because I have been doing my own experiment at home. I can't keep my PH above 8.0 unless I am constantly doseing this or that. My freind in the hobby had a great idea about this. He sells ventless gas heaters (which are incredibly efficient and 99.9 percent pure burning). These stoves give off water vapor and carbon dioxide. The room of the house our heater is in is the same room my tank is in. So we hypothesized that the extra CO2 in the air was entering the tank via the skimmer, and in turn way to much CO2 was keeping the waters PH incredibly low. For the past 2 days I have turned the heater off and the PH has risen to 8.2/8.3 consistantly. The only problem is that the room is colder than hell. So I need a way to keep the heater running low but have the tanks PH stay at 8.2/8.3 (preferably with out doseing the amount of buffer I ahve been). I was thinking of adding a refugium with a light on for 24 hours a day so that photosynthesis is constantly taking the CO2 out and adding O2 which will hopefully grab up some more of those nasty H ions. Is this faulty reasoning? is there another answer? Help me please.
By the way is that a picture of GFP (green flourecent protien) under your name.

 

[DanConnor]

I'd say that the heater is possibly the culprit. People have noticed that during parties or when a lot of people are in the house (exhaling) the ph drops. The refugium idea might work, but I'm really not sure. It might be hard for it to keep up with the continuous supply of CO2.

 

[greenman]

Matthew,

A refugium will help thats for sure keeping it full with macro is key. Alot of house plants can help too even if you add some to the room the tank is in. You also could try running your dkh higher once you get the ph in range. As for th GFP no it is not. Thats the tips of a BTA with a logo over the top of it.

 

[Matthew C]

What if I ran an airline tube to another area of the house so that my skimmer was sucking in better air? Also how do I go about keeping the dkh higher? I don't really understand this. Are there any ph controling systems I could buy? and how much are they usually?

 

[greenman]

Using air from a part of the house with less co2 would work.
DKH is the hardness of the water the harder it is the more your ph will stay the same.... Any lfs will sell DKH buffers.