Skimmer air from my crawl

[Sullyman]

Gat ambitious today. got some tubing and some fittings and ran the air feed for my skliimer down into my crawl space. Looking to see my Ph get back up to normal, wondering if the cool air will affect my temp.

 

[yznhmr]

why would that help? i have been thinking about running it out side.. my air line that is..

 

[Bryan89]

I saw a .2 pH rise from running outside air to my protein skimmer. It will remove the co2 from your tank. In new, well sealed houses (e.g. mine) respiration and use of natural gas will tend to increase the co2 in the house. This co2 forms carbonic acid in your tank, lowering the pH of the tank. Based on an atricle written by Randy Holmes-Farley, my house (or atleast the tank room) has a co2 concentration of 1000 ppm, or 3x normal levels enviromental levels.

This will only affect tank pH if co2 leves are high in your home. If co2 levels are normal and tank pH is acceptabe (e.g. 8.0-8.4) the use of outside air will do nothing.

HTH

Bryan

 

[yznhmr]

how do you measure CO2 in the house? my ph rides between 7.9 and 8.1 in my system

 

[gotfish8]

Does anyone know where I could find an airpump that I could use to run a hose outside? All I can find are ones the draw air in right at the pump

 

[Bryan89]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7862187#post7862187 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by yznhmr
how do you measure CO2 in the house? my ph rides between 7.9 and 8.1 in my system

I believe you would have to buy some sort of air monitor. I just used the pH change in the tank water after aeriation from outside air.

Here is an article about low pH issues:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-09/rhf/index.php

Bryan

 

[Sullyman]

My crawl space has vents to the outside, but I may have to run the air line closer to the vent? The ac has been on so long, my goes from 7.7 to 8.0-8.1 over the course of the day. Normally 7.8-7.9 to 8.2-8.3, so I need more fresh air somehow.

 

[mhurley]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7862187#post7862187 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by yznhmr
how do you measure CO2 in the house? my ph rides between 7.9 and 8.1 in my system

Jason,

You measure it indirectly....

Take a glass of tank water, measure the pH.
Take that glass and put it on your outside deck with an air pump and bubbler in it. Run it for about 30 minutes to oxygenate the air.
Remeasure the pH with the same probe as before.
Did the pH go up?
If so, you've got elevated levels of CO2 in the house that is impacting pH. Very common when we're boxed in with the A/C or heat running all the time.

 

[pk1]

I had the same problem with my last tank, and have it with this tank...hoping a reverse lighting fuge will do the trick, it did with my last one....do you have one of those set up? I have a feeling it won't fix my problem completely so plan B is to turn the kalk feed on only at night. if it isn't one thing it's the next!!!

Pk

 

[Bryan89]

Or, you can have outside air placed into your tank room with a HRV or something equivalent. I'll post photos of mine when it is assembled this week.

Bryan

 

[hansnfrans]

Okay, here's a question for y'all:

If your skimmer's air intake is drawing air from outside, then what happens when the mosquito spraying trucks spray the neighborhood at night? What happens if you spray RAID on a wasp nest near the intake? How does stuff like this affect the tank?

 

[pk1]

I'd guess it would not be good. I don't know the how soluble any of those chemicals are in seawater though, and doubt most people would. Added safety net : build an activated carbon catch slightly behind the intake.

PK

 

[Sullyman]

Looks like it made a big difference, 8.08 at lights out, so if it doesn't drop below 7.8 tonight, it's getting more oxygen in the crawl than we are in the house.

 

[gotfish8]

Well here is what I did. I bought a aqualifter pump 40' tubing and a airstone. I found these cool little filter things for the air intake at meier's. They have floss and carbon, and will fit over the end of 5/16 od tubing

 

[Bryan89]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7868266#post7868266 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Sullyman
Looks like it made a big difference, 8.08 at lights out, so if it doesn't drop below 7.8 tonight, it's getting more oxygen in the crawl than we are in the house.

Glad it worked for you, that is exactly the same effect I noticed and almost the same numbers.

Bryan

 

[Bryan89]

DP

 

[hansnfrans]

Sullyman- Wouldn't it be easier to just run your fuge on a reverse lighting cycle? Or is it that your pH is too low during the day as well?

 

[Sullyman]

My Ph was low during the day too. My fuge runs 27/7.
This moring the Ph was 7.78, so it's making a difference. If it gets up to 8.3 today, it's back to normal.

 

[mhurley]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7871180#post7871180 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Sullyman
My fuge runs 27/7.

:eek2: How do I do that? I could use a few extra hours in the day.

 

[Sullyman]

Obviously, I've taken time management to a whole new level!