Ph & CO2

[onlyme]

Can someone tell me please what is the down side to lowering Ph with a CO2 generator ?

Craig.

[YeW]

Hi Craig -

The down side to the pH drop caused by CO2 is the pH drop itself .

Esp. if you are keeping fish that are sensitive .

Not sure if this is what you are asking - was a bit confused.

[onlyme]

THanks Dave, no, you have just about answered my question. My reason for asking is to adjust my own supply of water. What I buy is very soft Gh=2 to 4, Kh=2 or 3, but often the Ph is quiet alkaline. I dont wish to alter the hardness with say Bi sodium phosphate to lower the Ph so I thought about CO2 to do the job. My down side possibles were other inpurities from the fermentation process or O2 depletion. I reckon for me, a sugary bottle may solve a problem.

Again thanks,

Craig.

[Gigitt]

there should be no extra residue or impurities using a home brew coke bottle CO2 brewer.

Just make sure that any foam produced does not go up the air tube and into the tank... bad!

You can stop this by building a small 600ml coke bottle bubble counter just after the brewer. This will at least do some 'bong' filtering! and trap any brew foam from getting into the tank.

And you can see how fast the CO2 is being produced.

[PHL]

I dont wish to alter the hardness with say Bi sodium phosphate to lower the Ph so I thought about CO2 to do the job. My down side possibles were other inpurities from the fermentation process or O2 depletion. I reckon for me, a sugary bottle may solve a problem.

O2 saturation is independent of CO2 dissolution. BTW, I hope you have plants in there to convert some of the CO2 into O2... If not, you'll have to be very careful with the pH, as there is nothing to use it up, and the pH can crash if the buffering from your kH is totally used up. In such a situation, it might be safer to go with a controller and pressuried CO2, or perhaps use a bell type reactor so the amount of dissolved CO2 never gets excessive as the excess gas can escape, and the dissolution is self limiting.