PH and home occupancy

M

Mitch9192

Membership Expired
This Thanksgiving I was out of my house for 3 days or so and when I returned I noticed that my PH was up to 8.45 which is the highest my tank has ever gotten (I am usually around 7.9 - 8.2. I check my parameters and everything was still in my normal ranges (I dose 2 part). By the next day it was back in its normal range.

Looking online I found an intersting article about CO2's effect on PH.
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-03/rhf/ Interesting Read.

Is it possible since I wasn't there to produce CO2 that my tank became deficient in CO2 which caused the PH to rise?

Has anyone noticed abnormal PH swings when they either have extra people over or their house is vacant?

Mitch
 
I try to keep the window in the tank room cracked slightly to keep co2 from building up in it. If I close it the PH will drop.
 
yea it's proven to mess with tank dynamic with not enough air flow threw the house.....
or if you bug bomb your house and put excess co2 into the air -_-
 
@franklypre wrote:
This is very interesting said:
I have noticed on long drives that if I don't crack a window or set the vent to outside air that I get very sleepy. Not good when driving at 75mph.


Even if we don't consider what happens to the ph, depleting CO2 from the aquarium essentially doesn't allow algae to "breathe" which doesn't sound so bad, except that zooxanthella in the coral is an algae... That would then mean your corals would be damaged by the lack of CO2...

This is why I love this hobby, there is just so much going on behind the scenes!

Mitch
Click to expand...
 
@Mitch9192 wrote:
[I]@franklypre wrote:[/I][quote="This is very interesting said:
I have noticed on long drives that if I don't crack a window or set the vent to outside air that I get very sleepy. Not good when driving at 75mph.


Even if we don't consider what happens to the ph, depleting CO2 from the aquarium essentially doesn't allow algae to "breathe" which doesn't sound so bad, except that zooxanthella in the coral is an algae... That would then mean your corals would be damaged by the lack of CO2...

This is why I love this hobby, there is just so much going on behind the scenes!

Mitch"]

I'm not following your logic here, can you elaborate?

Cheers,
Click to expand...
 
@bimmerzs wrote:
I'm not following your logic here said:
Algae's "air" is CO2, just as our "air" is oxygen. My first thought was that who cares if algae doesn't have its CO2... then maybe it will die and quite making my tank look so bad; however, Zooxanthella is an algae and it requires CO2 to "breath".

Snipit form Wiki:
" Zooxanthellae can provide up to 90% of a coral’s energy requirements.[3] In return, the coral provides the zooxanthellae with protection, shelter, nutrients (mostly waste material containing nitrogen and phosphorus) and a constant supply of carbon dioxide required for photosynthesis ."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zooxanthella

This brings up another question...? Has anyone ever used CO2 injection in a saltwater tank, like they do in a planted tank? Obviously, you would need to counter act your ph, and not push all the oxygen out as the fish need it.

Mitch
Click to expand...
 
I would think the DCO2 would just cause a change in the pH which would make it unavailable for plants/algae to use anyway. Does anyone know if excess CO2 in the sw tank has any direct effect on any living things? Especially since the corals provide all the CO2 the zooxanthellae need.
 
Wiki probably isn't the best place for the fine details, but I wouldn't think the coral provides the CO2 as a byproduct but instead in a process similar to respiration. e.g. if the oxygen was depleted in a room and you continued to breath in and out it wouldn't mean that you are getting the oxygen you need.

Mitch
 
From what I read in this article, the coral animal participates in all exchange between the polyp and the water column. Then there is an internal exchange of nutrients etc between the coral and the zooxanthellae. So I don't know that the algae would grow more as a result of the increased CO2, unless the coral itself was able to absorb more CO2 (dissolved inorganic carbon) through the process of diffusion.

Many scientists believe that increased CO2 in the water will lower the pH and eventually cause a decrease in coral formation and/or the actual reef matrix. That being said, I think the extra CO2 will turn into carbonic acid and wouldn't be available for any of the organisms to use. I haven't found any proof of that yet - just a theory! Sounds like a good experiment, set up an air stone with a CO2 tank and see what happens, more algae and/or lower tank pH?!

http://www.marine.usf.edu/reefslab/documents/evol_ecol2007/Muller-Parker%26DeliaCh5_rev.pdf
 
Read the last two sentence of the abstract in this paper. It says that elevated CO2 levels have little to no effect on photosynthesis rates of zooxanthellae.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/r685270283x5101x/fulltext.pdf
 
Don't calcium reactors use Co2, I'm sure everyone adjusts it differently. Don't really know I dose but this is definately something to think about. I have used Co2 on planted tanks but never thought about it in salt.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top