Global Warming…in My Tank Room?
Earlier in the year, I did a Mr. Saltwater Tank TV show on how to fix low pH issues in your tank.
One of the steps was to open your windows to let excess CO2 (carbon dioxide) in your house out and to let fresh 02 (oxygen) in. Here’s a graph of how my tank’s pH reacted to me opening the window in my tank room last week.
Open Window’s Effect on pH
This morning I woke up to pH reading of a miserable 7.64. (Low pH – under 7.70 in your tank can lead to the stress and death of hard corals). Since I was pretty sure high CO2 levels were causing my low pH issues, I wanted to see just how bad the CO2 was in my house to check my theory.
So, I borrowed a CO2 meter from my friends @ Hydro Innovations and here’s what I found out:
Normal CO2 readings for indoor spaces is 350-1000 ppm (parts per million)
My tank room had a CO2 reading of 1854 ppm.
Ouch.
Global Warming on a mirco scale – my tank room!
There is the cause of my low pH issue. The excess CO2 in my house is getting absorbed into my tank, which is dropping my pH.
Since its now summer in southern Texas, I can’t open my windows anymore to flush out the CO2, so to solve my global warming issue, I’ll be adding plants to my fish room to suck up some CO2. I’m also getting my air conditioner checked as A/C units that aren’t pulling in enough fresh air from outside can lead to elevated CO2 levels inside your house.
(I’ve already tried running a CO2 scrubber, but I was spending $25/month in media for it, which was not cost effective at all.)
Look for a post in the future about my results in my local global warming battle!
(If your pH is chronically low, check the CO2 levels in your house, as well as follow the other steps to raising your tank’s pH.)
Browse the Store! Questions?
Wow! Didn’t you run a fresh air line in from outside? Coincidentally, I was having low PH issues and after I saw your video I added plants around my tank. I have some hardy ivy and some other plants around the room and so far it seems to remain stable.
The fresh air line in goes to my skimmer and it helped some -about .01 of pH worth – but that’s it.
There is just too much CO2 in the house that gets absorbed into my tank. Opening the window which moves all that CO2 out is the only fix.
Mimic the earths natural function Use 2 algal scrubbers. Each on after the other for 12 hrs . The alge will then remove almost all the co2 and other polutiants 24 hrs.x. 7
Seems like it’s time for you to try an algae scrubber. Along with it’s many other benefits, removing co2 and boosting PH are both on the list of what it can do for you. Plus it would make a great video!
While plants do indeed utilize CO2 during the day, they utilize O2 at night thus lowering the available O2 when your lights are off and you need it most. Any algae in your tank would also be using O2 at night thus lowering your PH as well.
To combat this you would want plants or algae on a reverse lighting schedule so that when photosynthesis stops when your lights go out in the tank, the plants or algae would take over.
You’d either needs house plants in a dark area lit on a reverse schedule, a refugium lit on a reverse schedule or likewise an algae scrubber on a reverse schedule to really stabilize things.
I’d love to see some tests done!
I am sorry I have to ask …. Is it better to have light on in reverse to your tank or 24 hrs ?????
It looks like I will putting a potted plant next to my tank now to handle that CO2 =) plus the water U take out from my water changes are recycled as nutrient rich water for my plants =P
WIN! WIN!