The Jun Bo Investagation Begins

[maxseeley]

As some of you might have noticed, the tank was a little cloudy. This happens every Saturday night. On Saturday night Jun Bo has an event with 500 to 800 people and extremely loud music. By Sunday you can't even see through the aquarium. By Tuesday morning the aquarium is crystal clear.

A couple of things happen:

1.) By about 3 am on Saturday the PH in the aquarium drops to 7.5 - I don't know how accurate this drop is because the PH probe is old an needs to be replaced, something that I am going to do this week.

2.) The calcium and alk. will be through the roof on Sunday. We are going to test these levels every day for a couple of weeks and see if we can spot more of a trend in what is gonig on. I have a hard time believing that these elevated levels are from the addition of kalk. because the kalk. reactor on this tank sucks and doesn't do a very good job.

I am going to try a couple of things to see if we can get a handle on this:

1.) We are going to port the venturi for the skimmer out the roof of the building. It is not possible to blow "fresh" air above the aquarium because the aquarium is open into the ceiling and this would be like pissing in the wind. Plus, they have a hard enough time heating and cooling that place.

2.) We have never gotten Cheato to grow in the refugium, it always dwindles after a peorid of time. Right now we have 50/50 PC's above the refugium. I am going to change these out to 6700K bulbs and try to get Cheato to grow again.

[Dirk Griffin]

I would get the fish some ear plugs

Maybe try a few ph monitors going, so hopefully 2 will give the same readings. That on top of testing will help get a handle to see if the ph swings are that wild.
I would minimize the kalk useage period until you get a handle on what exactly is happining.
Like Julian had said, with that many people coming for a short period of time. The excess co2 levels from all that breathing from that many people could make things spike. Also if they have some possible air conditioning and/or exchange issues, that would compound things very fast.

-Assuming they have multiple air units, maybe the one that handles the middle hallway isn't working very well.
-With the air exchange/condtioner within the tank area, does something get over ridden with the other units kicking in after the party starts. Maybe the other units are much bigger and creates a sort of vacum or barrier, changes the air flow patterns in the building or within the cooling ducts. That slows/halts the "hallways" units down.or at least changes how they normally work with no one there.

[morty]

Something I read in this RHF article from RK mag might offer a hint about why the Ca and Alk levels are so high the day after the pH drops. At lower pH, the solubility of Ca and alk goes way up, maybe this low pH on Sat nights allows (or even causes) the levels to become so high by the next day :confused: (The section is "Calcium Carbonate and pH")

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-06/rhf/index.php#10

[maxseeley]

Something I read in this RHF article from RK mag might offer a hint about why the Ca and Alk levels are so high the day after the pH drops. At lower pH, the solubility of Ca and alk goes way up, maybe this low pH on Sat nights allows (or even causes) the levels to become so high by the next day :confused: (The section is "Calcium Carbonate and pH")

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-06/rhf/index.php#10

That is what is going on - that is not the question. The question is how to keep the PH from dropping.

My theory is that:

1.) Excess CO2 causes the PH to drop (we know for sure that this is happening).
2.) On the night of the event the AC has to work double time to keep it cool. This dries the air causing more water to evaporate. The top off water is feed through a kalk. reactor. The addition of this much kalk. and low ph causes the precipitation after the PH levels go back to normal. I also believe that calcium carbonate is dissociating in the sand bed and causing the calcium levels to rise further. The catch is that even with the addition of this much kalk., the PH is still drastically dropping during the event. So we have to figure out a way to keep the PH up during the event without adding kalk. My hope is that with the venturi ported out the roof of the building, the ph will stay more in line. But we are fighting a large amount of excess CO2.

[David Grigor]

So how long after the event does it take for the CO2 levels in the actual building to get back to normal ? Hours ? days ?

[hypertech]

Can you put a lid on it or something to limit the gas exchange?

[mattb]

That is what is going on - that is not the question. The question is how to keep the PH from dropping.

My theory is that:

1.) Excess CO2 causes the PH to drop (we know for sure that this is happening).
2.) On the night of the event the AC has to work double time to keep it cool. This dries the air causing more water to evaporate. The top off water is feed through a kalk. reactor. The addition of this much kalk. and low ph causes the precipitation after the PH levels go back to normal. I also believe that calcium carbonate is dissociating in the sand bed and causing the calcium levels to rise further. The catch is that even with the addition of this much kalk., the PH is still drastically dropping during the event. So we have to figure out a way to keep the PH up during the event without adding kalk. My hope is that with the venturi ported out the roof of the building, the ph will stay more in line. But we are fighting a large amount of excess CO2.

I think the number 2 is the tough one to figure out what's going on.... You're adding more kalkwasser, but due to the higher H2CO3 levels, your alkalinity spikes, since kalk is balanced, naturally you're Ca is going up. Though, if your pH is really getting down to 7.6 you may be dissolving some sand. Any higher pH and I'd think it doubtful.

I think you've got it pretty much solved by running the air intake to the skimmer outside. Is this a NW? Is this a beckett? How often are you turning over the tank? With a high turnover beckett, I'd think you'd be in good shape. THough with a higher turnover NW you should be fine. Like a stock ER or ASM, and you'd be in trouble, but if it was reefmania, you should be fine...

[mattb]

Oh and 24/7 lit refugia would help....

[Dirk Griffin]

Pull the plug and put some snakes, gecko's and crickets in it.
Would also make a hell of an ant farm :freak6:

[rihanssu]

or a monkey =)

[maxseeley]

It looks like my problems might be solved - I don't think they are doing the bands on the weekend anymore. Went there today and the tank was crystal clear.

[Rox]

Awwww! I was looking forward to seeing a cage-match of the snake fighting the monkey for a handful of crickets.

-Rox