I ran a completely unscientific experiment at home recently, and I thought I would share this anecdotal information for what it's worth.
My aquarium is a Reefer 170 (~40 gal), Alkalinity is 10 dKH, temp 79'F, salinity 35 ppt
The tank's PH has been 7.6 since I set it up in May of this year, 4 months later still 7.6. I get you shouldn't chase PH, but I figure 7.6 is on the low end for a reef tank.
I added CDX media with air recirculating through the skimmer/media a few weeks ago, no effect on PH, still 7.6. Between the return flow water breaking the surface and sump, I gather the contribution of CDX media to raising PH is being cancelled out.
Just doing liquid (red sea) PH tests at this point, but the color difference is obvious.
I am using Red Sea Coral Pro salt and a new saltwater mix at 35 ppt runs about PH 8.2
The house has an HRV system, this is for controlling the humidity in the fall, winter and spring. In the winter heating season it is most useful so windows stay free of condensation.
It also exchanges stale indoor air with fresh air, and saves energy in the heating or cooling season over say opening a window or running an exhaust fan to do the same thing.
So from May until now the HRV system has been off, AC on, windows closed.
I know the air was stale somewhat so I decided to run the HRV on low 24/7 for a few days to make the air as fresh as possible.
To my surprise I checked the aquarium PH and it was up to 8.2.
Calculators online show the CO2 in the tank going from about 3.3 ppm before to 0.7 ppm after.
I don't know what the CO2 level in air has been, since I don't have a monitor for this.
Some previous forum searches led me to the Tongy CO2 meter, so the plan is to wire this in parallel with the humidistat that controls the HRV.
This way the HRV only runs when it needs to - either to lower the humidity or lower the CO2 level in the house.
I figure the result should be a rock solid PH 24/7, depending on what I set the CO2 meter/controller to, not running 24/7 it might be closer to 8.0
My aquarium is a Reefer 170 (~40 gal), Alkalinity is 10 dKH, temp 79'F, salinity 35 ppt
The tank's PH has been 7.6 since I set it up in May of this year, 4 months later still 7.6. I get you shouldn't chase PH, but I figure 7.6 is on the low end for a reef tank.
I added CDX media with air recirculating through the skimmer/media a few weeks ago, no effect on PH, still 7.6. Between the return flow water breaking the surface and sump, I gather the contribution of CDX media to raising PH is being cancelled out.
Just doing liquid (red sea) PH tests at this point, but the color difference is obvious.
I am using Red Sea Coral Pro salt and a new saltwater mix at 35 ppt runs about PH 8.2
The house has an HRV system, this is for controlling the humidity in the fall, winter and spring. In the winter heating season it is most useful so windows stay free of condensation.
It also exchanges stale indoor air with fresh air, and saves energy in the heating or cooling season over say opening a window or running an exhaust fan to do the same thing.
So from May until now the HRV system has been off, AC on, windows closed.
I know the air was stale somewhat so I decided to run the HRV on low 24/7 for a few days to make the air as fresh as possible.
To my surprise I checked the aquarium PH and it was up to 8.2.
Calculators online show the CO2 in the tank going from about 3.3 ppm before to 0.7 ppm after.
I don't know what the CO2 level in air has been, since I don't have a monitor for this.
Some previous forum searches led me to the Tongy CO2 meter, so the plan is to wire this in parallel with the humidistat that controls the HRV.
This way the HRV only runs when it needs to - either to lower the humidity or lower the CO2 level in the house.
I figure the result should be a rock solid PH 24/7, depending on what I set the CO2 meter/controller to, not running 24/7 it might be closer to 8.0
