This is what happens when you fix co2 in your house

Scurvy

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Nice outside of the box idea for ventilation.

We keep a window vent fan running in a spare bedroom more or less year round for this same affect. That room obviously loses warm/cool air depending on the season but it makes a big difference in an average size town house. Our stove isn't vented outdoors as yours is or Id try it.
 

DarthSimon

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Awesome read and great job figuring this out...
 

scriptmonkey

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I'm not sure if I am posting this in the right section but let's do it !

I had a lot of problems with corals (almost dying to dying) in the summer time when the AC was turned on into a perfectly sealed house.
I had pH drop to 7.6 some times.

I read a lot about co2 but I also read a lot about "don't chase pH"
I decided to do some experiment but I had no co2 reference to base my experiment on.

I was convinced that my problems was caused by co2 but I could not prove it.
So I decided to buy a co2 monitor.
To my surprise, I found out that the co2 level in my house was over 2000ppm compared to around ~350ppm outside.

I then tried to fix this and the easiest method i found was to just keep the stove vent hood running to the lowest setting.
That way I managed to keep the co2 level under 1000ppm.

co2 level under 1000ppm leaded to a minimum pH of 8.0
On August 30th, we finally opened the windows, AC was not needed anymore and that made the co2 level stay under 500ppm.

If you can see on the image below, the first half is with the co2 level under 1000ppm and the second half is with the windows open co2 under 500ppm.
As you can see, with the windows open, the pH is pretty stable with a variance of only 0.08 pH
I also have to say that I have a reverse lighting caulerpa refugium, that must also help with pH stability I am guessing at night.

So.... did this make a difference ? OMG you can't believe how huge it made a difference !
All my corals are now opened like crazy and growing like never before !
I had to increase my KH dosing like never before, i'm now consuming 0.5 dKH per day where I was almost not dosing before !

phwithvalues.jpg


In the image, each little peak is from day/night cycle.
In the first half, the large section with higher pH is with windows open on cooler days.
In the first half, the large section with lower pH is with the AC on on hot days.

May I ask what your alkalinity is because that could also play into PH.
 

W1ngz

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hmmm, the hot stove is a traduction i made from the french word: "fan de poêle"
hahaha, I never would have guessed that. Online translation is terrible sometimes.
Next time you need help translating french to english, drop me a PM. Je suis à l'aise dans les deux langues. ;)
 
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SCiMMiA

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hahaha, I never would have guessed that. Online translation is terrible sometimes.
Next time you need help translating french to english, drop me a PM. Je suis à l'aise dans les deux langues. ;)

Hahaha thanks !
 

Silver14SS

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My sump is in my basement....

I ran airline tubing from my skimmer air port up and thru an exterior wall. My skimmer now exclusively pulls outside air 24/7/365. I was worried about pulling 10degree air during the Winter would cause my tank heaters to never to off...BUT never saw a jump in heater use thru my Apex logging.

I would say....if you have the ability to hook your skimmer up to draw outside air.... D O - I T

I did something similar but it was easier for me to run the air line up to the attic instead of outside, pH increased .5
 

TheKingInYellow

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Good read, I am dealing with the same issue. Not sure what the household CO2 is but I suspect it's my issue. Tank struggles to hit 8.0 even though Alk is at 9.5+

I ordered a scrubber but I might have to consider external air. Only issue is it hits -40 here in the winter :/

My house does have a central exhaust but again you don't want to be dumping your warm air in the winter. 1200sqft house with a family of 4 and 3 large dogs really pumps out the CO2.

I wonder if adding more houseplants would actually help?
 
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SCiMMiA

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Good read, I am dealing with the same issue. Not sure what the household CO2 is but I suspect it's my issue. Tank struggles to hit 8.0 even though Alk is at 9.5+

I ordered a scrubber but I might have to consider external air. Only issue is it hits -40 here in the winter :/

My house does have a central exhaust but again you don't want to be dumping your warm air in the winter. 1200sqft house with a family of 4 and 3 large dogs really pumps out the CO2.

I wonder if adding more houseplants would actually help?


In winter I never have problems, it gets down to -40 Celcius here and the air exchanger built-in the house takes care of the co2.

I'm not sure about the plants, I think it would help in the daytime but make it worst at night since the plants breath like us at night... o2 in, co2 out.
 

Brian_68

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In winter I never have problems, it gets down to -40 Celcius here and the air exchanger built-in the house takes care of the co2.

I'm not sure about the plants, I think it would help in the daytime but make it worst at night since the plants breath like us at night... o2 in, co2 out.
An air exchanger is the proper way to do it as it conserves the heat before sending it outside unlike a direct fan, but they are expensive to install. Regardless of whether it is for your tank or for your family's health you want to keep co2 levels to a reasonable level indoors. Above 2000 ppm has been shown to affect mental ability. Just experience a long work meeting with lots of people in a confined room, the drowsiness could be out of boredom but many cases it is excess co2. Tight houses are a trap depending on how many live there your cooking methods and outside air exhange.
 

TheKingInYellow

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Yeah I only have a central exhaust, not a heat exchanger. I might just have to live with the scrubber for now, this is pretty grim at the moment:

1568306707616.png


Fortunately I only have my first fish in this tank at the moment, and no corals.
 

Daniel@R2R

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Very good discussion
 
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SCiMMiA

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Yeah I only have a central exhaust, not a heat exchanger. I might just have to live with the scrubber for now, this is pretty grim at the moment:

1568306707616.png


Fortunately I only have my first fish in this tank at the moment, and no corals.


At 7.6 you must definitly be at 2000ppm+ of co2.
7.6 is the pH I had with 2000ppm @ 8.4dKH
 

TheKingInYellow

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At 7.6 you must definitly be at 2000ppm+ of co2.
7.6 is the pH I had with 2000ppm @ 8.4dKH

Yeah, I don't have any way to tell but it's a newer house in a cold climate so it's well sealed.

I'll just have to bite the bullet and crack the humidistat back so that we vent air more aggressively. I did order a CO2 scrubber as well, not like I started a Reef tank to save money :D
 
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