I plan on putting an AIO tank in my laundry which happens to gets dusty/linty, well because it's laundry room hahah. I was thinking of getting a polycarbonate lid to help prevent dust/lint from getting in the tank. Would using a protein skimmer take care of any gas exchange needs and keep my pH at a reasonable number, or is a lid a bad idea? Or am I being overly cautious about dust/list getting in the tank?
Skimmer Gas Exchange/pH
- Thread starter dangalang
- Start date
Can't comment on laundry room dust, but I can't imagine it being good.....
The skimmer will help with PH and gas exchange quite a bit if it's a small tank, but you could also try air bubblers, surface agitation, etc -- but the skimmer is probably the most bang for your buck and you can use it with a Co2 reactor if it alone doesn't work.
Alexander1312
Supporting Member
The skimmer does not increase the PH in the tank if the room air is high in CO2. In fact, it would accelerate the issue even pushing more CO2 into the water and lowering the PH. A CO2 scrubber would help as Bruce already mentioned. Also, honestly, reef tanks are already difficult enough in a normal room, and I would suggest keeping it simple and not moving it into a room with known issues.
Curious. I was under the impression that the rapid gas exchange released by the skimmer microbubbles in and of itself does alter the PH in much the same way that rapid surface agitation does. Is this not correct?
From my understanding, it sounds like the skimmer will provide gas exchange no matter what and if you have high CO2 in the room, then you're gas exchanging excess CO2 into the water, which would lower pH.
My chemical engineering example for this is if you're in an elevator full of farts, having a fan blowing on you will just make it smell like farts faster. You'll need an air source sparging in that is a lower concentration of CO2 than the tank to drop levels.
I like this analogy best hahah
If the air input to the skimmer is in the same room, you won’t be avoiding the dust/lint getting into the tank.
An adequate protein skimmer will give you enough gas exchange to avoid dangerous situations like low oxygen, but won’t be as good as skimmer plus tank/sump surface exchange.
Regarding CO2, more gas exchange gets you closer to equilibrium, which for reef-like saltwater is pH around 8.3 outdoors, and less than that if the CO2 level is higher than outdoors, which it almost always is, sometimes much higher. There are calculators online if you really want to know the effects. But the bottom line is it probably doesn’t matter as much as other things like your stocking level and what additives you are using.
People do that in the context of using CO2 removal media, to reduce the usage of the media while still getting the pH boost. I haven’t heard of it in this context with a tight fitting lid, doesn’t seem like a good idea since you want gas exchange with the surround air.