Fishy Business

questions on (lack of) airflow, cooling fans and other related matters

Interesting enough I had taken off one of the cabinet doors up top off to allow more airflow. The goal was to see if PH would rise with additional airflow. Interestingly not -which maybe dictates water chiller over fans..
 
L/B Block said:
Interesting enough I had taken off one of the cabinet doors up top off to allow more airflow. The goal was to see if PH would rise with additional airflow. Interestingly not -which maybe dictates water chiller over fans..
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If I’m reading this correctly. You removed a door but did nothing else ? Correct ?
If that’s the case. Ph would be minimal. Reason being. Ph needs air/gas exchange. The air in the cabinet is still stagnant. Less stagnant but never the less stagnant. You would still need to put a fan in the cabinet to physically move the air. Even better is air flow thru the cabinet. Either up or across. Having said that, don’t expect much. It’s like the fresh air to the skimmer. Baby steps.
 
Your tanks absorbing the Co2 inside the house forming carbonic acid keeping your PH low so dilution is the solution from outside air to help raise PH. Interesting is that the more surface agitation ur tank will absorb more Co2.. Airline to skimmer via Co2 scrubber may work.. Open your windows in house plus the cabinet door to for a whole day and see if ur ph raises
 
Turkeysammich said:
If I’m reading this correctly. You removed a door but did nothing else ? Correct ?
If that’s the case. Ph would be minimal. Reason being. Ph needs air/gas exchange. The air in the cabinet is still stagnant. Less stagnant but never the less stagnant. You would still need to put a fan in the cabinet to physically move the air. Even better is air flow thru the cabinet. Either up or across. Having said that, don’t expect much. It’s like the fresh air to the skimmer. Baby steps.
Click to expand...


You are reading that correctly. I have had used a fan in the past with a cabinet open that def boosts the PH in addition to the main quest to reduce temp. This was just to see if there was a real difference in CO2 with that door open even with the circulation pump doing a pretty good job pushing water at the surface.

Long story short -either do what @PjFish recommends -piping in fresh air somehow or use of kalk/CO2 scrubber
 
Had a bud hastily install a dryer vent with fan through his exterior wall to his tank canopy just for PH.. Problem was his average summer temp was 105 in Phoenix lol..
 
L/B Block said:
Oof. Sometimes I think it really is difficult to get the chemistry right sometimes
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If you're having stale air issues, you can install an HRV unit. The practical example is a fart in an elevator. Turning on a fan won't reduce the smell, it's just going to spread it around. You need to open the door or a vent outside to exchange the air.
 
Def an idea to consider -although they don’t seem cheap!
Things I have observed
1) cabinet enclosed -no opening -temp increases -low PH
2) cabinet open - temp lower -no change in PH
3) cabinet open with fan -really drops the temp and increases PH

More to consider..
 
Some more testing by a simple "Open the window" test -Even with the cabinet sealed with an open window -it increases the PH by nearly .08 from average 7.95 to 8.03. So the issue is the room CO2 content not the cabinet. One thing I did was also run a hose from skimmer to same open window. PH was essentially the same but it did bring in cooler air and kept the temp down. Now I want to see if I can emulate the CO2 w/ windows closed but able to run the hose to an outside area to skimmer.
 
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