Reef Chemistry Question of the Day #297: Effect of YOUR diet on your reef tank!

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Reef Chemistry Question of the Day 297

Unlike nearly other reef chemistry question of the day, I don't even know what direction this answer will come out, and we can discover it together!

Suppose you decide to have a late night drink in your living room while you watch your reef aquarium. You are very tired and are just barely staying awake.

It takes you 15 minutes to drink a 12 oz can of Coke.

Which of the following statements best describes these two sources of CO2 in your living room during this time period, and hence on the pH lowering effect you notice?

A. The Coke delivered more than twice as much CO2 as your breathing would have in the absence of the drink.
B. The Coke delivered about as much CO2 as breathing would have in the absence of the drink.
C. The Coke delivered less than half as much CO2 as your breathing would have in the absence of the drink.

Assume that all of the CO2 from the Coke ended up in the room by the end of the 15 minutes. Also assume, whether it is true or not, that you are average in all respects that impact your CO2 production. lol

Good luck, and feel free to guess as I don't expect most folks will just "know" this answer, nor do I think one can just google it.

I have a guess too, but I won't provide it yet.

PS, maybe someone with active Chat GPT or other AI access can ask it this question. Might be amusing.

Previous Reef Chemistry Question of the day:

Reef Chemistry Question of the Day #296; Weather and Your Reef Tank

Weather can impact reef tanks in a variety of ways. Today, we explore how storms might impact it in one particular way. Suppose that you live in a very sturdy home (no damage from any hurricane) with a very good ventilation system (inside air has normal level of CO2) and a backup power supply...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[TinyReefObsession]

I have no idea haha definitely watching this thread to see where it goes!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Oh well, my guess was wrong. lol

 

[BZOFIQ]

None of the above - Pepsi fan here.

 

[Mr. Roboto]

Does the coke's CO2 off gas change mixed with Crown Royal?

 

[penguinexdeus]

guessing less than half... i don't think there's a lot of CO2 in a can of soda (couple exhales maybe?). And a good amount is probably going to the stomach (at least until a good burp...)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Does the coke's CO2 off gas change mixed with Crown Royal?

Nope. lol

 

[a.ocellaris]

Per ChatGPT:

Let's break this down:

1. You're drinking a 12 oz can of Coke, which takes 15 minutes.
2. The Coke contains CO2, and we want to compare this to the CO2 produced by your breathing during the same time.

Assuming average conditions:

A. The Coke delivered more than twice as much CO2 as your breathing would have in the absence of the drink.
B. The Coke delivered about as much CO2 as breathing would have in the absence of the drink.
C. The Coke delivered less than half as much CO2 as your breathing would have in the absence of the drink.

To answer this, we need to compare the CO2 in the Coke to the CO2 you would exhale in 15 minutes. The CO2 production from breathing is relatively constant, so let's calculate it:

Assuming an average adult at rest exhales about 0.4 liters of CO2 per minute, in 15 minutes, your breathing would produce approximately 6 liters of CO2 (0.4 L/min x 15 min).

Now, let's consider the Coke. It contains CO2, but a 12 oz can of Coke doesn't contain more than 6 liters of CO2. So, the Coke delivered less CO2 than your breathing would have in the absence of the drink.

So, the best answer is:

C. The Coke delivered less than half as much CO2 as your breathing would have in the absence of the drink.

 

[Slocke]

Average humans produces 2.5lbs of CO2 per day. Convert that to grams because BU is a stupid system then divide by 96 and you get an average production of 11.8 grams in 15 minutes. A can of coke contains 2.5 grams of CO2.

In other words you'd need to drink almost 5 cans of coke in 15 minutes to equal your exhalation. More exactly you'd need to drink a good 18.9 cans of coke per hour.

Unfortunately drinking 18.9 cans of coke in an hour is sure to increase your metabolic rate as your body panics with all that sugar and caffeine thus increasing your exhalation of CO2 which means you need to drink even more coke to keep up. Its a vicious cycle.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Unfortunately drinking 18.9 cans of coke in an hour is sure to increase your metabolic rate as your body panics with all that sugar and caffeine thus increasing your exhalation of CO2 which means you need to drink even more coke to keep up. Its a vicious cycle.

I think we should experimentally test that idea.

Any volunteers?

 

[jda]

Most of the co2 from the Coke never makes it into the body since it mostly off-gasses in the drinking process. There is more co2 in the room, but a small amount compared to a human or a pet... so less than half of the co2 produce by a human (answer C.), but not from the human.

 

[Marquarium]

im never going to let anyone drink coke in my house again

 

[MnFish1]

Reef Chemistry Question of the Day 297

Unlike nearly other reef chemistry question of the day, I don't even know what direction this answer will come out, and we can discover it together!

Suppose you decide to have a late night drink in your living room while you watch your reef aquarium. You are very tired and are just barely staying awake.

It takes you 15 minutes to drink a 12 oz can of Coke.

Which of the following statements best describes these two sources of CO2 in your living room during this time period, and hence on the pH lowering effect you notice?

A. The Coke delivered more than twice as much CO2 as your breathing would have in the absence of the drink.
B. The Coke delivered about as much CO2 as breathing would have in the absence of the drink.
C. The Coke delivered less than half as much CO2 as your breathing would have in the absence of the drink.

Assume that all of the CO2 from the Coke ended up in the room by the end of the 15 minutes. Also assume, whether it is true or not, that you are average in all respects that impact your CO2 production. lol

Good luck, and feel free to guess as I don't expect most folks will just "know" this answer, nor do I think one can just google it.

I have a guess too, but I won't provide it yet.

PS, maybe someone with active Chat GPT or other AI access can ask it this question. Might be amusing.

Previous Reef Chemistry Question of the day:

Reef Chemistry Question of the Day #296; Weather and Your Reef Tank

Weather can impact reef tanks in a variety of ways. Today, we explore how storms might impact it in one particular way. Suppose that you live in a very sturdy home (no damage from any hurricane) with a very good ventilation system (inside air has normal level of CO2) and a backup power supply...

www.reef2reef.com

C Edit. C by a wide margin

 

[Reefer Matt]

I think we should experimentally test that idea.

Any volunteers?

I used to do close to that with beer in my drinking days.
I agree on "C".

 

[KrisReef]

I think we should experimentally test that idea.

Any volunteers?

Maybe. Can we add in a Crown Royal mix test group?

(This was a very interesting question today. Thanks for stimulating my mind with A.I. Coke!)

 

[taricha]

Here's an experiment that might help (or mislead).
If you put a straw down into a bottle or can of coke but not into the liquid - just the headspace above the liquid - and try to breathe in through the straw, you'll have difficulty. A strong cough reflex pretty much immediately because the concentration of CO2 in that space above the soda is far higher than your lungs are accustomed to.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

And the answer is...

Let's look at this more closely.

Average CO2 production isn't really the best number to use here, since obviously there is a huge amount more CO2 production when active than when not active. In this question, you have nearly fallen asleep, so the issue is how much difference does that make.

When sleeping, average people exhale about 11 L/h:

Emission rate of carbon dioxide while sleeping - PubMed

Humans emit carbon dioxide (CO₂ ) as a product of their metabolism. Its concentration in buildings is used as a marker of ventilation rate (VR) and degree of mixing of supply air, and indoor air quality (IAQ). The CO₂ emission rate (CER) may be used to estimate the...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

"The average CER was 11.0 ± 1.4 L/h per person and was 8% higher for males than for females (P < 0.05)."

In the 15 minutes of this question, that results in production of 2.75 L of CO2 (less if you are female, more if you are male).

This paper tests cola and finds about 3.1 g CO2/L of cola which is similar to the range of 2-3 that most people report:

A reagent-free SIA module for monitoring of sugar, color and dissolved CO2 content in soft drinks - PubMed

This work presents a new sequential injection analysis (SIA) method and a module for simultaneous and real-time monitoring of three key parameters for the beverage industry, i.e., the sugar content (measured in Brix), color and dissolved CO(2). Detection of the light reflection at the liquid...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

At room temperature and pressure, one mole of CO2 (44 g) occupies 22.4 L (as does one mole of any gas).

Thus, 3.1 g of CO2 = 0.07 moles = 1.6 liters of CO2.

The CO2 exhaled (2.75 L), is 1.7x the amount int eh can.

Now, of course, this cola value is at the high end of data for cola's, and being nearly asleep is not the same as actually being asleep, and the action of drinking the Coke takes some energy itself, producing some extra CO2. All those things considered, the ratio probably exceeds 2, but is less likely to if you are female.

I conclude that in this scenario, the best answer is likely to be, but not guaranteed to be:

Which of the following statements best describes these two sources of CO2 in your living room during this time period, and hence on the pH lowering effect you notice?

A. The Coke delivered more than twice as much CO2 as your breathing would have in the absence of the drink.
B. The Coke delivered about as much CO2 as breathing would have in the absence of the drink.
C. The Coke delivered less than half as much CO2 as your breathing would have in the absence of the drink.