pH and Dehumidifiers

The hose being closed up and CO2 going up can cause low PH which is what Blackraven was saying. But that is sort of a seperate issue if that is going on and does not explain why it is different if the dehumidifier is running or not. Can't really see the relationship between a CA reactor, a dehumidifier and high or low PH with high or low CO2.

 

Pure water at 25 C that has not been exposed to air is 7.
As soon as contact with air occurs CO2 is absorbed forming carbonic acid.

 

I tried the skimmer hose out the window (crack the window a bit) before drilling a hole through my wall....didn't help much so I didn't think it would be worth it because this would also lower my temp quite a bit in the winter here in MA. I know dosing kalk would do the trick, prior to the CA reactor I've used kalk for a long time. But I got away from it because it's a pain mixing it and I always have to worry about it when I go away on vacation or business trips.....but I might have to end up supplementing kalk.

In the past I used it in my ATO but it was always getting the lines clogged up...I have a very simple, very reliable (so far) ATO system now with just RO water and would perfer not to add kalk to it. Is there another way, maybe using a dosing pump to add kalk at night? what do you guys think?

 

As I understand it... calcium reactors lower PH, however, that is not a big deal. Low Ph itself is not too bad, you just want to strive for stable PH.

In Winter a lot of folks get low PH because the house is closed up and CO2 rises in the home. My tank Ph lowered in Winter when I closed up the house from a rock solid 8.3 to 7.8-8.0. I did not really care.

You could supplement kalk as you said... many people do with reactors. However.... ALL, and Kalk are for hardness not for PH control. Higher PH comes with higher hardness... but it is not what it is for. ALK is for carbonate and yes low PH does affect calcium carbonate reactions.

I don't think you are too far out of the ball park. If it was indeed your air it is easily solved. Yet a lot of folks don't mess with it and are fine. If it is your humidifier.... then as I mentioned that's a real head scratcher to me. I'm not getting it. If it's your calcium reactor, well that's just part of calcium reactors. One problem I had with them. Some think they are superior but many have to do other stuff besides the reactor to get things where they want.

Which leads us to dosing two part. You don't have to do any of that supplemental stuff. You either use a stable PH recipe or a high PH recipe. Yet... if your problem is air or something else.... dosing two part does not cure PH problems.... it helps, but does not take care of. I doesed two part and as I mentioned my PH was rock solid at 8.3 in the Summer and as low as 7.8 ion the Winter and I knew what would fix it. Just opening a window on a nice day brought it back to 8.3.

What I really want to say is don't sweat chasing Ph with alk or calk or any other buffered solution. Many things affect PH. Yet carbonate hardness is set and if your alk and calcium are where they need to be then leave that part alone. Keep trying to figure out if there is another outside problem to your low PH. In the end I know a few folks that stopped using a reactor and went back to two part just because they were tired of fighting low PH problems. And no...not all reactor users have low PH problems. Just saying...

Is there anything you can do for your reactor to drive off more CO2 from the effluent if that is indeed a problem?

 

Prior to the CA reactor, I dosed b-ionic then dripped kalk (24x7) for over a year....pH 8.3-8.1, Alk 9-10 dkh and CA 400-420. But then I got busy with work and didn't have time to keep up on a dosing schedule...that's when the CA reactor came into play. I know the problem is related to excess CO2, as I mentioned in one of my earlier post, if I open up a basement window, the pH goes back up to 8.2, however this time of year that's not an option. I also tried extending the skimmer hose and the inlet to my derso stand-pipe to get air from the outside....helped a bit but not as much as opening a window. I even added a 2nd chamber to my CA reactor to try and burn-off excess CO2, didn't help. My corals are fine with the low pH, and my Alk 9 dkh, CA 420-450 and Mg 1300 are where I want them to be, my only concern is that should something happen and pH falls further, it would quickly drop to the danger zone. the next thing I'll be trying is adding an airstone with a air-pump to the effulent cup to try and burn off any excess CO2.

I initially posted this question because I wasn't sure if running the humidifier would lower oxygen levels in my basement, it's probably just coincidence and now the pH is running a bit lower because the windows are closed.

 

Souns reasonable. I'm not advocating you throwing in the towel with the reactor. I didn't use one, but many do and they work well with some benefits two part does not have. However, two part is more than capable or running a demanding SPS system. I used BRS two part.... but would never dose by hand. Had two dosing pumps and it was completely automated. No need for Kalk either. Rock solid PH.

It really sounds like you are on the right track and I would suspect the air stone would help out a lot. After that I would not worry about it too much. The only thing that could drive it down any further is more CO2 either from the reactor or from your house.

 

Now that winter is in full swing, 2 ft of snow outside and temp dropping, my basement is cold and I get less evaporation from the tank....now my pH is back to 7.9-8.2. Maybe it had to do with the amount of evaporation and RO top-off water.