Effect of open windows on pH

[Jamie814]

I am staying around 9 dkh. and I use All for Reef

All for reef does not boost pH, switching to a 2 part that uses Sodium Carbonate or soda ash as the alk supplement will help raise your pH.

 

[CHSUB]

I'm pretty sure the mechanism is as follows. Corals utilize carbonate and bicarbonate from the water column. Carbonate they can use directly, but bicarbonate has an extra hydrogen attached. In order to use bicarbonate, it needs to shed a hydrogen ion back into the water column. At lower pH, there are more hydrogen ions surrounding the corals, making it more difficult to shed said ion. At higher pH, the hydrogen ions in solution are less, making it easier to shed hydrogen and thus use the bicarbonate for skeletal structure formation. I'm not sure if this is active transport or passive transport, but if I were to make a bet, it would be passive.

What about soft corals? Is the skeletal structure also composed of carbonates? Or does low pH effect them differently than hard corals?

 

[PharmrJohn]

What about soft corals? Is the skeletal structure also composed of carbonates? Or does low pH effect them differently than hard corals?

Some softies (I don't know which) do calcify. But I'm not sure to what extent. My knee-jerk reaction is that those softies would be affected by low pH, just not to a greater comparitive extent. GREAT question. I'll have to look it up. I wanna know which ones calcify.

 

[bobnicaragua]

Hello,
I have a 110 gallons in my basement. And I heard about the effects of opening windows on reducing CO2 and therefor increasing pH.
But after few months of testing, I am very impressed with the results and I wanted to share them with the community.

The first picture below is before opening the basement's window at all.
The second is when I started opening it few hours in the morning. Notice the slow drop in pH around August 18. We went camping that night and no one was home breathing.
The third picture shows the first 3 days where the window was open all day but close at night. The last 4 days the window has been open 24h a day.



I find those results drastic and considering I want to start getting acropora, I really like the consistency of the 8.1 to 8.2 pH.
But I live in Calgary Canada, where the winter will bring a -25C (-13F) temperature and opening my windows will not be an option anymore (even 30 minutes a day).
I tried the bathroom fan in the basement with really insignificant result, and my house has this air exchanger running 24/7. If I stop this air exchange, the pH would drop even further down.
So I am looking for alternative and I am thinking about CO2 scrubber. But I wanted to have the community feedback on what you would suggest.
I use All for Reef in my ATO and it maintain a constant Alkalinity (9) very well, I don't have space for refugium, I don't really want to use Kalkwasser as it is going to plug the ATO pump. and bringing outside air to the Protein skimmer is not really an option (cold winters) and my wife would not enjoy that ugly line going out the window.
So the CO2 scrubber seems to be my only option?

It sounds like kalk is your best option. You just need a doser and reservoir.

I dose kalkwasser overnight using a versa doser. I experienced a major increase in acropora growth and two part consumption when I went from dosing kalk continuously to dosing the same amount overnight.

The kalk makes up for most my evaporation and I have a separate small ATO to hold the water level constant.

The more your acros grow and consume, the more kalk you can dose and the faster they’ll grow.

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

Does anyone else has a tank in the basement and experience low pH as a result?

I do, but my basement is unique. I live on a raised ranch which means the front of my home is on street level (I live on a hill) and the basement and garage are also on street level. So, I have my tank in my finished basement but I also had the low PH concern because I wanted my corals to grow faster. I run a recirulating CO2 scrubber on the tank, but probably dont need it. I think I was getting about 7.9 ph with no scrubber, however even after multiple recalibrations with ph meter, i always see 8.4 ph during day. Does it make a difference in growth? Maybe? Some corals grow fast, some do not.
I wouldn't let ph be a reason you dont grow acropora as much as higher light and an aged stable tank be your first reasons for growing them.