This thread probably wont pertain to alot of people but I just wanted to share my recent experience.
Some reefers are plagued with low Ph and try everything to figure it out just short of opening a window.
First a little back ground.
My system is located in my laundry room. Its 170G total and heavily loaded with fish and a mix of corals. The room is ventilated with a fresh air vent rated at 80CFM and a bath fan rated for 110CFM. As you can see, the vent cant keep up with the bath fan so air is sucked under the door thus removing heat from inside my house. The bathfan is controlled by a coolingstat (mounted to the ceiling) that turns it on when the temperature reaches a set point. I keep it set at 80F. My intentintion for the fan was to remove heat and humidity. Since its winter and Im always trying to save electricity.............. thats where this begins.
Last night while cleaning my skimmer cup I heard the fan running and felt that the room was cold. My fan runs almost 24/7 and I have always felt that it doesnt work like I intended. The room is either cold or very humid. There is no in between. I set it to 85F and finished my chores. About an hour later I walked by and noticed the Ph was reading 7.89 on my AC Jr. and knew something was wrong because a while earlier it read 8.21. I started looking for failed equipment. Nothing turned up. Then I realized it was lack of O2 in the room. The Ph on this tank typically swings from 8 to 8.2 from AM to PM. After lights out it takes about 6 hours for it to drop the two tenths. Last night, the Ph dropped three tenths in one hour with the lights on.
Apparently for me, the ventilation fan is just as critical as my pumps and lights.:shock:
Some reefers are plagued with low Ph and try everything to figure it out just short of opening a window.
First a little back ground.
My system is located in my laundry room. Its 170G total and heavily loaded with fish and a mix of corals. The room is ventilated with a fresh air vent rated at 80CFM and a bath fan rated for 110CFM. As you can see, the vent cant keep up with the bath fan so air is sucked under the door thus removing heat from inside my house. The bathfan is controlled by a coolingstat (mounted to the ceiling) that turns it on when the temperature reaches a set point. I keep it set at 80F. My intentintion for the fan was to remove heat and humidity. Since its winter and Im always trying to save electricity.............. thats where this begins.
Last night while cleaning my skimmer cup I heard the fan running and felt that the room was cold. My fan runs almost 24/7 and I have always felt that it doesnt work like I intended. The room is either cold or very humid. There is no in between. I set it to 85F and finished my chores. About an hour later I walked by and noticed the Ph was reading 7.89 on my AC Jr. and knew something was wrong because a while earlier it read 8.21. I started looking for failed equipment. Nothing turned up. Then I realized it was lack of O2 in the room. The Ph on this tank typically swings from 8 to 8.2 from AM to PM. After lights out it takes about 6 hours for it to drop the two tenths. Last night, the Ph dropped three tenths in one hour with the lights on.
Apparently for me, the ventilation fan is just as critical as my pumps and lights.:shock:
..it rarely gets below 30 degrees here.. i prefer a cold house..i have kept mine open as much as possible..it is hard to as last week it was in the 70's:shock: the summer is near 100 degrees..too hot to open up the house.. i have it open right now.. i try to do it once a day for my tank
