pH help. CO2 scrubber not improving

[aaron186]

I could use some help troubleshooting my pH. It’s been sitting at about 7.90-7.98 for the past month. I have a recirculating scrubber with fresh media attached to a RO 150sss elite skimmer on a 100 gal tank. I’m doing soda ash to keep alk at 8 and using tropic Marin pro reef salt. I do an autowater change of 1.4 gal per day (10% per week). I bought a CO2 detector and my living room levels are around 900-1000 ppm. My pH is 7.7-7.8 without the scrubber. My pH is measured with an apex and I bought a Hanna checker that gives similar readings.

Opening a window isn’t practical since I live in Florida and require AC 11 months of the year to keep the house livable. I tried to run an air line to the garage but there’s no way to run it through the walls with my AWC tubes that doesn’t result in the tube creating a U shape. The tubes are run through 2 walls and behind appliances. I’m worried that condensation will eventually block that tube and I would have no way of monitoring it.

Would changing to Kalk give me a better boost to pH? My acro growth has been stagnant so I think pH might be to blame. I did ICP testing and outside of a slight decrease in iodine it’s within normal limits.

I was considering switching to aquaforest components for dosing as well. I was lucky and won a pack from BRS with it and it seems intriguing. Not sure if that will alter the pH though.

 

[Stang67]

Following as i too am having issues with PH. Scrubber only bumped it from 7.76 to 7.82. some but not what i was "hoping" for. Going to add an air stone to the sump tonight to see if the extra aeration helps

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

What’s the trouble my ph is in the same range. My corals do fine. , I do keep my alk a little bit higher. Ya kalk will boost i Run kalk and calcium reactor combo

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Would changing to Kalk give me a better boost to pH?

Changing what? You do not mention dosing kalkwasser?

A higher pH two part would boost pH a bit, but that ambient CO2 is hard to fight.

 

[aaron186]

Changing what? You do not mention dosing kalkwasser?

A higher pH two part would boost pH a bit, but that ambient CO2 is hard to fight.

Changing from 2 part to Kalk. I’m dosing BRS soda ash right now

 

[Steve2020]

Following as i too am having issues with PH. Scrubber only bumped it from 7.76 to 7.82. some but not what i was "hoping" for. Going to add an air stone to the sump tonight to see if the extra aeration helps

Adding an air stone may help but then again it may hurt. If the air pump is in your home and the level of CO2 in your home is the driving factor in your current ph levels in your tank then it may do nothing for ph and actually will more than likely lower the ph in the tank. Locating the air pump in a location where the CO2 concentration is less than where your tank is located, i.e. outside or near your furnace fresh air intake if you have one should increase the tank ph.
Just something to think about.

 

[Stang67]

Adding an air stone may help but then again it may hurt. If the air pump is in your home and the level of CO2 in your home is the driving factor in your current ph levels in your tank then it may do nothing for ph and actually will more than likely lower the ph in the tank. Locating the air pump in a location where the CO2 concentration is less than where your tank is located, i.e. outside or near your furnace fresh air intake if you have one should increase the tank ph.
Just something to think about.

I am in agreement with you there. Just testing options at this time to determine best method for my situation.

 

[Troylee]

Hard to say but here was my issue… my ph kept reading 7.6 to 8. I have my skimmer line pulling from outside, I top off with kalk and use all for reef… I fought this and fought it! Bought a new ph probe “pinpoint dual electrode” I’ve calibrated it manually and through my apex app to no avail! Still reads super low! Brand new saltwater mixed outside in the open air it still read 8.01 at best! Bought a hand held pen and it says 8.45 on my display lol.. . I have a ticket in with Neptune they gave me a bunch of steps and I’ve tried it all but now I gottta schedule a call and share my screen with them when I got time. So the op covered that but anyone else with this issue id double check your probe with a hand held before freaking out!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Changing from 2 part to Kalk. I’m dosing BRS soda ash right now

Changing to kalkwasser or a hydroxide based two part will have a pH raising effect, yes.

 

[jda]

You don't even have to open the windows for long enough to make the AC come on. You are exchanging air, not warming the place up. 900-1000 is not good for humans, either. Even if the AC has to run a bit, a few dollars is much cheaper than reactors, chemicals and all of that. A minute or two a day with a crossbreeze in and out of the home can do wonders over time - watch the co2 meter drop.

High indoor co2 is like rowing into a headwind... it is VERY hard. Nothing lasts for long, even kalk.

 

[Stang67]

You don't even have to open the windows for long enough to make the AC come on. You are exchanging air, not warming the place up. 900-1000 is not good for humans, either. Even if the AC has to run a bit, a few dollars is much cheaper than reactors, chemicals and all of that. A minute or two a day with a crossbreeze in and out of the home can do wonders over time - watch the co2 meter drop.

High indoor co2 is like rowing into a headwind... it is VERY hard. Nothing lasts for long, even kalk.

I'm finding that out. You can try everything but ultimately your a slave to the environment your in.

 

[Dburr1014]

I tried to run an air line to the garage but there’s no way to run it through the walls with my AWC tubes that doesn’t result in the tube creating a U shape. The tubes are run through 2 walls and behind appliances. I’m worried that condensation will eventually block that tube and I would have no way of monitoring it.

Good advice so far but I would like to address this.
Are you saying you can't get the hose thru the wall because it bends? Are you saying you have 2 sheetrock to get thru?
Do you have fish tape?


Or a long screwdriver to poke thru and tape the hose after you poke thru the wall then pull the hose thru.
Are the other thing you can do is draw a larger hole and run a PVC pipe or conduit through the wall and push it through there.

 

[jda]

It is especially confusing in cold areas where the furnace will use pennies of natural gas if you even have to warm your place up, but often you do not. It was around 45 here yesterday, home was at 70 and we had a crew over for Football. Cracked the sliding door a few inches and the furnace never came on and the co2 stayed in the 400s where it would have climbed to 600+ with this amount of people.

I am not saying to open windows when it is zero, or when the temperature and humidity are both in the nineties, but a 1 mph wind crossed trough a 3x4 window with will bring in 1000 cfm, or so, of fresh air which can really dilute the high co2 air that you have. If you stay on top of it, you can pick and choose the nice days when you exchange some air.

How much are scrubber and media shipped? Hundo? More? I don't know. That could be a few years worth of electric or natural gas and you don't even get the benefit to the humans or other pets of the fresh air.

This summer, so many people were hesitant to open windows and I got a few PMs from some of them that felt like fools after they did it... it doesn't take long and most of the time the home will warm/cool the air before the HVAC even has to kick on.

 

[Stang67]

It is especially confusing in cold areas where the furnace will use pennies of natural gas if you even have to warm your place up, but often you do not. It was around 45 here yesterday, home was at 70 and we had a crew over for Football. Cracked the sliding door a few inches and the furnace never came on and the co2 stayed in the 400s where it would have climbed to 600+ with this amount of people.

I am not saying to open windows when it is zero, or when the temperature and humidity are both in the nineties, but a 1 mph wind crossed trough a 3x4 window with will bring in 1000 cfm, or so, of fresh air which can really dilute the high co2 air that you have. If you stay on top of it, you can pick and choose the nice days when you exchange some air.

How much are scrubber and media shipped? Hundo? More? I don't know. That could be a few years worth of electric or natural gas and you don't even get the benefit to the humans or other pets of the fresh air.

This summer, so many people were hesitant to open windows and I got a few PMs from some of them that felt like fools after they did it... it doesn't take long and most of the time the home will warm/cool the air before the HVAC even has to kick on.

For me the run from the skimmer outside means 15ft an drilling through 70yo foundation block. So that's a no. To run it through the furnace intake would be 10 ft. Doable but distance defeats the purpose. Same with running upstairs.
Opening windows would be a possibility but I don't have any that would enable me to get any sort of cross breeze. Except the tiny 12x3 basement windows and those are blocked outside by plants.

 

[MartinM]

Maybe an indoor air scrubber? Or indoor plants?

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

For me the run from the skimmer outside means 15ft an drilling through 70yo foundation block. So that's a no. To run it through the furnace intake would be 10 ft. Doable but distance defeats the purpose. Same with running upstairs.
Opening windows would be a possibility but I don't have any that would enable me to get any sort of cross breeze. Except the tiny 12x3 basement windows and those are blocked outside by plants.

Why cnt you just drill a hole?

 

[jda]

For the most part, folks without co2 issues found one small way to get fresh air in. Folks with co2 issues found many ways not to. This is not that hard if you just do it.

 

[Steve2020]

For me the run from the skimmer outside means 15ft an drilling through 70yo foundation block. So that's a no. To run it through the furnace intake would be 10 ft. Doable but distance defeats the purpose. Same with running upstairs.
Opening windows would be a possibility but I don't have any that would enable me to get any sort of cross breeze. Except the tiny 12x3 basement windows and those are blocked outside by plants.

I run a 1/2" ID hose from the furnace fresh air intake to my skimmer recirc CO2 scrubber and the air hose length is 65ft long and it pulls air just fine. When I am able to open widows/sliding door I will sometimes bypass the scrubber and run the air hose to the skimmer and I get absolutely no decrease in foam height so I have little if no change in CFM to the skimmer air intake with that length of air line. My skimmer recirc setup only takes a minute to go from recirc to fresh air intake only.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Maybe an indoor air scrubber? Or indoor plants?

Plants aren't useful in this context unless the room looks like a greenhouse.

 

[GARRIGA]

Changing what? You do not mention dosing kalkwasser?

A higher pH two part would boost pH a bit, but that ambient CO2 is hard to fight.

I'm in the same predicament and kalk raised my dkh from 9 to 14 while only raising pH from 7.5 to 7.8. You mentioned it was the excess co2 in my room.

Seems for myself and others in this situation the only solution is an air exchanger (seriously considering) or adding a sizeable Fuge split in half to allow one side to run during the day and other at night with each on differing light schedules based on tank demands. Latter seems easy enough if one has the room but an air exchanger likely best as it also benefits the humans and other pets in the entire house.