Global Warming…in My Tank Room?

June 6, 2010

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.)

Posted in Reef Enthusiast, Reef Junkie, Tank Dabbler