Decreasing 24 hour PH variability in a Nano aquarium

Wtyson254

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My 14 gallon Innovative marine nano is experiencing wide PH fluctuations between day and night.

The aquarium is in my bedroom in my NYC apartment (poor gas exchange in summer /winter with outside air). The effect is most pronounced when I am home but is present regardless.

I have an Air CO2 meter but need to get it out of storage.

the tank has a red haddoni carpet anemone, 2 spotcinctus clownfish, and an aptasia eating filefish.

I run a Tunze 9001 skimmer from 9pm to noon every day.

PH probe was Calibrated last week

My guess is that my PH issues are largely due to CO2 swings (photosynthetic vs non-photosynthetic parts of the day).

How should I try and decrease the variability?

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Wtyson254

Wtyson254

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I try to keep my ALK around 8-9, but it has been a few days since I have tested it, I will report new readings today.
 

Clownfishy

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Here is some suggestions. Crack the windows open at night as you will be shocked at how high your C02 is at night especially as the aquarium is in your bedroom. Drip Kalkwasser at night. Add c02 scrubber to your skimmer.
I too have a nano and do all these things and it has made a difference. I am also considering adding a algae reactor on reverse lighting periods but trying to hide the pipes and the pumps for one in a nano is not easy!

Hope that helps
 
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Wtyson254

Wtyson254

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Here is some suggestions. Crack the windows open at night as you will be shocked at how high your C02 is at night especially as the aquarium is in your bedroom. Drip Kalkwasser at night. Add c02 scrubber to your skimmer.
I too have a nano and do all these things and it has made a difference. I am also considering adding a algae reactor on reverse lighting periods but trying to hide the pipes and the pumps for one in a nano is not easy!

Hope that helps
It is already too hot and humid in NYC to have my windows open at night, so that is not possible (again this is in my bedroom). My C02 in my apt the last time I checked was between 600 and 900. I could drip kalk at night but I would only be comfortable doing this with a PH probe controlled doser.

I am currently looking at nano sized algae reactors and have stumbled across this: any thoughts?

 

gbru316

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I’ve found it takes a few hours for skimmer to impact pH after replacing CO2 scrubber media.

try starting your skimmer earlier in the day.
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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If it is from photosynthesis, more aeration will bring down the high end. It may also bring up the low end, but an aeration test with inside air will tell you.
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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The Aeration Test

Some of the possible causes of low pH listed above require an effort to diagnose. Problems 3 and 4 are quite common, and here is a way to distinguish them. Remove a cup of tank water and measure its pH. Then aerate it for an hour with an airstone using outside air. Its pH should rise if it is unusually low for the measured alkalinity (Figure 2). Then repeat the same experiment on a new cup of water using inside air. If its pH also rises, then the aquarium’s pH will rise simply with more aeration because it is only the aquarium that contains excess carbon dioxide. If the pH does not rise in the cup (or rises very little) when aerating with indoor air, then that air likely contains excess CO2, and more aeration with that same air will not solve the low pH problem (although aeration with fresher air should). Be careful implementing this test if the outside aeration test results in a large temperature change (more than 5°C or 10°F), because such changes alone impact pH measurements.
 
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