CO2 Scrubber or outside line...or both?

[Onthefly]

I have a new Marine X 90.3 going through a 4 month cycle right now....so, this is really a question about the future.

Living in Philly, I'm anticipating in-house CO2 levels to be pretty high. We have the house buttoned up tightly in the Winter and Summer, so I'm looking for preemptive measures to keep my pH as stabile as possible.

Options:
1) Run a CO2 scrubber......my tank is skimmerless, but I could a) run a small skimmer and just set it "wet", or b) I could run a bubbler and "scrub" the tank at night
2) Run an outside line......same concerns as above.
3) Run both.

I also have a ATS (not yet running during the cycle) that will be on a reverse light cycle....

Thoughts?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Both is more effective than either alone. Either alone may be adequate.

 

[Minhaj Qazi]

Both is more effective than either alone. Either alone may be adequate.

Hi @Randy Holmes-Farley. I consider you as Mentor and Teacher. Specially your Vinegar regime i followed for 16 weeks has allowed me to run my Reef without Filter Socks now (also means No3 Dont Rise despite 8 times feeding a day) and without GFO etc. So thx for that.
Here I Like to know how much you weigh in PH for reef and is it worth running CO2 Scrbr or Air Line will be sufficient in Sump or Skimmer to keep it hover near 7.8 Only. What are its Negatives if near 7.80 and Whats good if kept 8.4.?
Regards

 

[arking_mark]

Just my observations from getting my pH in a better place.

• I started with daily 7.8-7.9 pH
• I switched to Kalk dosing which took me up to 8ish
• I added a skimmer for aeration which took me to 8.1ish
• I added a CO2 scrubber which took me to 8.3ish
• I plan on making the scrubber recirculating to reduce CO2 scrubber media consumption
• There are high-ph 2-part that can be used as well to increase and stabilize pH
• Getting outside air was not an option for me

Very happy with Alk + Skimmer + CO2 Scrubber

 

[Gtinnel]

I went with an outside airline because for the location of my tank it was easy to do. The advantage is that I don't need to continually buy or replace media making maintenance basically nothing. There are two downsides that I've noticed, the first is when it's very could outside my heaters have to run more often or I'll need to upgrade to bigger heaters, the other down side is that you have to make sure nothing unwanted enters your tank that way, like pesticides.

 

[Shannon_Hill]

I have my sump and equipment in an enclosed room in the basement, so PH became a problem. I currently use both, a BRS CO2 scrubber and I have fresh air pumped in via a small air pump upstairs. Together, they do a fantastic job at keeping my PH in range.

 

[trmiv]

I do both and dose Randy’s high ph 2-part and run a tunze algae reactor in reverse cycle just to get my ph to peak at 8.25. Maybe start with the cheapest option of an outside line and then add on more from there. That’s what I did.