So I decided that my tank was looking a little too cloudy and wanted to run some activated carbon to clarify the tank.
Within about 30 minutes of starting carbon filtering through a reactor, my pH jumped from 8.30 to 8.37. The setup was a pump from my sump chamber through the reactor to the return chamber and bypassing my skimmer.
As my skimmer is used to control my pH it came on using house air (high CO2) to drive down the pH. Within about 10-15 minutes of turning off the reactor, the pH went right back down to 8.30 which is my setpoint.
I'm trying to sus out why the pH jumped from running an activated carbon reactor.
The sump volume is roughly 20gal and the total volume of my system is about 105gal.
The reactor was probably moving about 120gal/hr.
Normally, I expect increased water movement to reduce my pH as my air has higher CO2.
I'll experiment a little with this and see what I can deduce.
Any insights would be appreciated...does activated carbon do anything to raise pH?
Within about 30 minutes of starting carbon filtering through a reactor, my pH jumped from 8.30 to 8.37. The setup was a pump from my sump chamber through the reactor to the return chamber and bypassing my skimmer.
As my skimmer is used to control my pH it came on using house air (high CO2) to drive down the pH. Within about 10-15 minutes of turning off the reactor, the pH went right back down to 8.30 which is my setpoint.
I'm trying to sus out why the pH jumped from running an activated carbon reactor.
The sump volume is roughly 20gal and the total volume of my system is about 105gal.
The reactor was probably moving about 120gal/hr.
Normally, I expect increased water movement to reduce my pH as my air has higher CO2.
I'll experiment a little with this and see what I can deduce.
Any insights would be appreciated...does activated carbon do anything to raise pH?