fresh air from outdoors to raise pH

[mr.maroonsalty]

Im making this up; throwing it the wall and seeing if it may stick. H2O and CO2 are our most critical molecules; O2 is a critical byproduct provided of the aurotrophs. Basic respiration, right? CO2+H2O+energy>C6H12O6+6O2. Corals are nice in that the ones we keep are heterotrophs hosting autotrophs, but everything else most of us want are simply consumers. The more consumers we have the more CO2 is put back in the system. C6H12O6 +H2O+catalyst>ATP+CO2.

Big stretch here because, there is so much going on with gas exchange between the tank and atmosphere, but all the other benifits aside would not making autotrophs a much more important part of our sytems than a simply light small fuge becomes a huge benefit to a stable system?

We see pH drop in winter in our closed up houses, but is this a result of houses being shut more tightly or is it an environmental response do to winter. I believe it the later. This thread floats back to the top as I am again redeveloping what i hope will be tank worthy of consideration.

None of this is any help to having a load of guests, or cooking a giant meal with hours of gas burner time.

The past weeks I have been weighing the values of devoting one of my two best lit display areas with alga, perhaps my sectional sand bed with grasses. Not the place to go into this. Tom is as up on the science of the tank as anyone is especially when you consider his ability to see the whole picture. This is just my two cents I thought interesting to share as it comes up as I weigh things for the future of my tank.

 

[tmz]

Oxygen and CO2 are necessary but so are many other things, nitrogen alkalinity ,calcium and a myriad of other major minor and trace elements. I wouldn't O2 and CO2 most critical but they are critical.

We see pH drop in winter in our closed up houses, but is this a result of houses being shut more tightly or is it an environmental response do to winter.

Why? How would the animals in the tank react to the season in a closed environment like a reef tank . For some the seasons would be different in their natural environments on given calendar day.
High relative humidity in a closed up house might play role via salt water mist which could rain in some CO2 in addition to high air levels adding to it via gas exchange, though.

 

[mr.maroonsalty]

There is somewhere around a 25% swing in atmospheric CO2 levels in our northern climate as plants stop and start processing CO2 into sugars and O2.Yes, closed homes do build CO2 from cellular respirafion of its animal occupants, a gas range is about the only other major appliance that should change the balance of gasses as the other appliances are well vented. But there is also just not nearly the same level of O2 to dillute it as well. Back in 08 we were much more hung up on chasing pH than we were not too long after.
It seems tbat when you weigh in the advantage of the added biodiversity that maintaining well a variety of autotrophs to balancing such problems as wintertime CO2 levels, that a more balanced captive ecosystem could be reached that might in fact start asking for additional CO2 along with nitrogen.

 

[mr.maroonsalty]

I think that i see the workings going on a wee bit clearer this morning and i am not sure our autotrophs would do much in changing the effect the tanks atmospheric CO2 has; the tank just too readily absorbs it.

 

[blanden.adam]

As a note, plants and algae respire as well. When in the dark, they will contribute to the CO2 released just like a heterotroph would.

 

[mr.maroonsalty]

Yes they have to grow, but it is not one to one.

 

[tmz]

Yes they do respire unused CO2 at night ; pH in many tanks drops at night., commonly called diurnal swing. They also produce exudates ,some of which contribute CO2 as bacteria degrade them.

balanced captive ecosystem could be reached that might in fact start asking for additional CO2 along with nitrogen.


There are tanks with high pH ,8.5 plus. Enhanced gas exchange ; CO2 additions are common approaches to bring them down.

This thread of mine on pH may be of interest:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...ight=ph+how+to

There are good reasons to manage pH but not at the expense of swinging alkalinity around .

Some examples :

skeletal mass starts to dissolve at pH below 7.7 ;

corals take up HCO3, bicarbonate ,and need to convert it to CO3 , carbonate , to use it to form Ca CO3, calcium carbonate for skeletal mass

-- to do so, they shed H+ in the ECF, which is easier to do when concentrations of H + in the water are lower,i.e the pH is higher. This article by Randy Farley has more :

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/4/chemistry:

this is from it:


In the case of corals, calcification takes place external to the organism. If one thinks of corals as tissue coating a calcium carbonate skeleton, then calcification takes place underneath the lowest layer of tissue (the calicoblastic epithelium, also called the basel epithelium) in a very thin water space called the extracytoplasmic calcifying fluid2



http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2252982&highlight=ph+how+to

The recommended range for reef tanks is 7.8 to 8.5 with nsw around 8.2 on average. Fwi I prefer 8.2 ti 8.4 for my tanks.