I checked my pH monitor yesterday and it read 7.68. I immediately calibrated it (7.0-10.0 calibration solution) and found it to be reading bang on. So a bit of a panic, I re-rigged my skimmer air intake hose to an outside source and watched it climb up to 7.96 range. I attribute the problem to air conditioning, with summer here the air conditioning is running full on and the widows are closed tight. I guess the CO2 began to rise in the house and negatively effected my pH.
It's now in an acceptable range for pH again. I read some articles on pH that indicated slow calcification rates with keeping low pH, and if low enough, calcification stops altogether and could even begin dissolving skeleton structure.
This got me to thinking about ReefDVM's CO2 scrubber, very effective but expensive to run. The benefits may be worth the cost in some cases. Healthier reef and better calcification rates? Is a pH of 8.0 as opposed to 8.3 going to make any difference?
