Was hoping for a little help from the experts with a rising PH problem. Although not exactly an "aquarium" my research is exausted and was hoping someone here could help. Here is my scenerio.
I'm a live bait fisherman who uses 2 50 gallon bait tanks to keep Gizzard Shad that I catch from a local lake. The tanks are filled with the lake water where the shad are netted. Both tanks are stocked with 30 8" gizzard shad in each tank. After 3 days I start getting losses in one tank while the other has no loses. Water tests show the only difference is a high ph in the tank with the loses.
The tanks are both filtered and aereated at the same rate but are of different designs. The tank with the loses has a polyfil filter and has a venturi aereator that entrains air into a water stream as the water is pumped out of the filter area back into the tank(subsurface). The water stream in this tank is always below the surface of the water. The only time water has contact with the air is at the surface of the water on the bait side of the tank, and the suface off the water on the filter side of the tank, and when air is entrained into the water stream via the venturi aereator.
The tank with no losses uses a a polyfil/foam pad/activated carbon filter. This filter also has a venturi aereator but the water stream is pumped back into the tank above the surface of the water. This tank has much more water stream flow in contact with the open air.
I'm thinking the difference either has to be the activated carbon in the filter(about 64 in^3 water is gravity fed through a layer of this carbon) or the fact that the water may allow more gas exchange because of more contact with the open air.
What do you guys thinK?
I'm a live bait fisherman who uses 2 50 gallon bait tanks to keep Gizzard Shad that I catch from a local lake. The tanks are filled with the lake water where the shad are netted. Both tanks are stocked with 30 8" gizzard shad in each tank. After 3 days I start getting losses in one tank while the other has no loses. Water tests show the only difference is a high ph in the tank with the loses.
The tanks are both filtered and aereated at the same rate but are of different designs. The tank with the loses has a polyfil filter and has a venturi aereator that entrains air into a water stream as the water is pumped out of the filter area back into the tank(subsurface). The water stream in this tank is always below the surface of the water. The only time water has contact with the air is at the surface of the water on the bait side of the tank, and the suface off the water on the filter side of the tank, and when air is entrained into the water stream via the venturi aereator.
The tank with no losses uses a a polyfil/foam pad/activated carbon filter. This filter also has a venturi aereator but the water stream is pumped back into the tank above the surface of the water. This tank has much more water stream flow in contact with the open air.
I'm thinking the difference either has to be the activated carbon in the filter(about 64 in^3 water is gravity fed through a layer of this carbon) or the fact that the water may allow more gas exchange because of more contact with the open air.
What do you guys thinK?
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