Will a nano-skimmer help raise ph?

Stuckita · Oct 21, 2023

my ph is a little low, about 7.7. Yesterday I opened the windows all day and it raised to 8 or so (Salifert and api test).

Will a nano-skimmer for a 30g AIO help with this?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 21, 2023

If opening the windows helps, the room has excess CO2 in it. If you use a skimmer that uses that air, the pH may decline, not rise.

You can determine in advance of getting a skimmer how aeration will help by using this test:

pH and the Reef Aquarium - REEFEDITION

by Randy Holmes-Farley For many aquarists, pH is not something that they have much experience with aside from their aquarium. For many, pH is almost a black box measurement: something to be considered, but whose physical meaning makes little sense to them. This article will Read more here...

www.reefedition.com

The Aeration Test

Some of the possible causes of low pH listed above require an effort to diagnose. Problems 3 and 4 are quite common, and here is a way to distinguish them. Remove a cup of tank water and measure its pH. Then aerate it for an hour with an airstone using outside air. Its pH should rise if it is unusually low for the measured alkalinity (Figure 2). Then repeat the same experiment on a new cup of water using inside air. If its pH also rises, then the aquarium’s pH will rise simply with more aeration because it is only the aquarium that contains excess carbon dioxide. If the pH does not rise in the cup (or rises very little) when aerating with indoor air, then that air likely contains excess CO2, and more aeration with that same air will not solve the low pH problem (although aeration with fresher air should). Be careful implementing this test if the outside aeration test results in a large temperature change (more than 5°C or 10°F), because such changes alone impact pH measurements.

Stuckita · Oct 21, 2023

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
If opening the windows helps, the room has excess CO2 in it. If you use a skimmer that uses that air, the pH may decline, not rise.

You can determine in advance of getting a skimmer how aeration will help by using this test:

pH and the Reef Aquarium - REEFEDITION

by Randy Holmes-Farley For many aquarists, pH is not something that they have much experience with aside from their aquarium. For many, pH is almost a black box measurement: something to be considered, but whose physical meaning makes little sense to them. This article will Read more here...

www.reefedition.com

The Aeration Test

Some of the possible causes of low pH listed above require an effort to diagnose. Problems 3 and 4 are quite common, and here is a way to distinguish them. Remove a cup of tank water and measure its pH. Then aerate it for an hour with an airstone using outside air. Its pH should rise if it is unusually low for the measured alkalinity (Figure 2). Then repeat the same experiment on a new cup of water using inside air. If its pH also rises, then the aquarium’s pH will rise simply with more aeration because it is only the aquarium that contains excess carbon dioxide. If the pH does not rise in the cup (or rises very little) when aerating with indoor air, then that air likely contains excess CO2, and more aeration with that same air will not solve the low pH problem (although aeration with fresher air should). Be careful implementing this test if the outside aeration test results in a large temperature change (more than 5°C or 10°F), because such changes alone impact pH measurements.

I heard there were c02 scrubbers or the ability to run outside air. Do those features exist on any nano-skimmers?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 21, 2023

Stuckita said:
I heard there were c02 scrubbers or the ability to run outside air. Do those features exist on any nano-skimmers?

Those features are mostly unrelated to the skimmer. As long as you can attach tubing to the skimmer air inlet, you can potentially use something like that. They just need to have enough air pull strength.