So it's been pretty well documented that a higher pH will lead to a higher
calcification in corals and thus higher growth.
So in this video,
I'm going to talk about what I have done to raise pH in my
tanks and also some other possible options out there that I haven't tried.
So let's get to it. Okay.
One reason why you may have elevated CO2 levels in a house
is that you have a very well sealed house and really good high quality
windows. Now, what is high CO2 and a house? Well,
I think pretty much anything over 1000 parts per million would be
considered to be high in terms of CO2 levels.
Anything over 2000 to 2,500 parts per million would
be considered potentially unhealthy.
So I think my advice would be to invest in a cheap CO2 meter to
see exactly what you have in your house. But yeah,
I think that's step number one is to kind of assess what you have in terms of
the CO2 levels in a house. So in general,
if you're using a calcium reactor versus using two-part calcium and alkalinity
supplementation, then would that calcium reactor,
you're going to have lower pH since you are injecting
CO2.
Now there's a couple of things you can do when you're using a calcium reactor to
try to reduce the CO2 levels.
One is I have a dual chamber calcium reactor,
and that second chamber helps to absorb the excess CO2.
What I also use is a waltz reactor,
and that cough Wasser will help raise the pH for my established
187 gallon tank.
I do run the two-part and the pH range in the past has been fine.
It's been in the 8.0 to 8.3 range averaging around
8.1. So that's not terrible at all.
What I have tried in the past to raise the pH on this tank is I have
run a airline tubing from the skimmer intake.
And this is actually the, uh,
the tubing right here that I had set up and ran it up against the
wall along the ceiling here.
And you could see the, uh, the end of the hose is right here,
but I hadn't tried running it through this utility window and try to bring fresh
air into the skimmer because I,
I read and heard that that was a way to increase pH,
but it didn't really work for me. I didn't see that elevation in pH.
So I don't know if it had to do with the size of the air intake hose or whether
I just was not getting enough fresh air in, but I, you know,
the issue for me was here in the winter time,
just even cracking that window open a little bit like a quarter of an inch or
whatever, half an inch, tell us,
let a lot of cold air into the basement.
So I didn't really see that as a long-term solution,
but I did want to try it out.
Are there things that you can do that I have not tried is
use a CO2 scrubber and again,
the CO2 scrubber hooks into the air intake on the protein skimmer,
and you've got CO2 absorbing media.
So that's a way to raise the pH by removing the excess CO2.
Another thing you can use are pH additives,
but the problem with those pH additives is that they also raise
alkalinity.
So another thing to consider is the amount of surface agitation that you have on
your tank. I like to have a lot of flow in my tanks and thus,
I do like to have a lot of surface agitation because I believe strong
circulation is very important for SPS,
but if you do have that strong surface agitation,
and you do have high levels of CO2 in your room,
then due to the gas air exchange,
you will have more CO2 absorbed into the tank.
One other thing I wanted to mention,
and I've heard this can help is if you have a lot of plants
in the room, which I don't have any plants down here,
but plants will absorb CO2.
So I have heard that if you have a bunch of plants,
that could be a good way to absorb the CO2 and increase the
pH of the tank. Okay.
Getting back to the new system in which I'm running the calcium reactor,
as well as a loss, or I was concerned,
even though I'm running a dual chamber, Councilman reactor, as well as a Wasser,
that the pH would be a lot lower on this system versus my established system in
which I'm running the two-part. Plus the fact that I'm in Vermont,
the windows are shut very tightly in the winter time.
Obviously, if you can open up the windows and let fresh air in,
that's going to be a big plus in terms of raising the pH and
lowering the amount of CO2 that's trapped inside of the house. But for me,
I really wanted to have a more permanent solution in the winter time where it
could have some good circulation from the outside air inside to
help reduce that CO2. So this is what I came up with.
I invested in, and one of these, this is a air exchange unit,
or like an HVAC unit,
which essentially brings fresh air from the outside via these
ducks to the inside.
And I'm going to give you a quick tour of this air exchange unit.
Okay. So now I am outside the house.
It's the middle March. And as you can see, we still have snow on the ground.
It's a chilly morning here,
but the sun is shining and it's actually supposed to get in the
sixties today. Whew.
Anyway, all.
Right. What you're looking at here is the back of the house with a couple events
and this fan here, this is the intake.
So that's bringing fresh air from the outside, into the house.
And this is the exhaust.
This is taking the air from the outside of the house and
expelling it outside. So now we'll go inside.
The air exchange unit is set up into two different zones.
One zone is the room where I have the two display tanks in
and there are two different vents.
So I'm walking over here and this is the door that will separate
the two different zones.
The fish tank room or the sump room is a whole separate zone. But
this vent right here for this particular zone is the intake.
And then the duct work is behind the wall, obviously.
And this is the exhaust
is this is bringing the, uh,
the fresh air from the outside, into this room.
And that band over there is sucking out.
The.
Highly concentrated heavy-laden CO2 air,
I guess you can say. And in the sump room,
this is the intake bringing in the air,
sucking the air out of the room and around the corner here,
that's the exhaust.
So that's pushing the fresh air back in.
So that's recirculating in this room and again, here's all the duct work,
but real overall I'm very,
very pleased compared to a year ago.
And I've been running this unit for a couple of months now, like I mentioned,
for my established tank where I had the two-part before I had the air
exchange unit going,
my pH was in the eight Oh to 8.3 averaging about 8.1.
But since I've been running this unit compared to the similar period a year ago,
my pH is now up to eight,
two to eight four on that tank averaging, you know, eight, three,
and 0.2 is a big jump in pH because that's measured on a logarithmic
scale. So I'm really, really happy about that for that, uh,
established 187 gallon tank and, you know, for,
for my new tank, which I'm running the, uh, the calcium reactor on,
and I'm not running that calcium reactor full bore right now,
because I barely have any quarrels in it,
but I'm seeing pH values that are going as high as 8.6
and as low as like 8.3.
So I'm very optimistic that that's going to help elevate the pH in that tank,
which is a great since I am running a calcium reactor.
And that was the reason why I actually was running to part on my established
tank from the get-go was because of my concern about the lower pH
has the higher pH on this system resulted in better
coral growth for me on this tank. Yes, absolutely.
I've definitely definitely noticed the increased growth in my SPS on this
system. So very happy about that, for sure.
A couple of last points about this air exchange unit.
This one is a commercial grade industrial grade unit retails for about
1200 bucks.
You can actually get one that should be sufficient probably for half
that price for a smaller area.
The other good thing to note about these units is that it can hook into an HVAC
system and help improve the air quality the entire house.
So that's a big plus if you're trying to convince the spouse or
significant other about making that major investment in a unit
like this, well, that will do it for this video. If you liked it,
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See you next time.