co2 scrubber recirculating ?’s

geckoejon · Aug 21, 2022

Hello,

I have an icecap co2 scrubber that I would like to connect recirculating style…

Are you constantly pulling skimmate/ foam from skimmer? If I put the tube in, it’s bound to pull moisture… How do you deal with that?

how do you connect the scrubber tube to the skimmer lid? Just drill a hole & push it in? Pics?

Projects with Sam · Aug 21, 2022

I got rigid airline tubing and filed one end down, then I heated it up so I could bend a 90 in it. After that I attached flexible airline tubing to it and ran that to a drip-catcher. From the drip catcher it goes to the scrubber.
I made the drip catcher out of an old peanut jar. Basically just put holes in the top and put the airlines in (have to keep it airtight.) You'll still get condensation in the scrubber but the catcher will do a lot.

Shon · Aug 21, 2022

geckoejon said:
how do you connect the scrubber tube to the skimmer lid? Just drill a hole & push it in? Pics?

I bought a 3d attachment https://fishofhex.com/collections/skimmer-co2-scrubber-attachment for mine.. not attached to anything because I am still building my stand, but I did drill, paint and installed overflow yesterday..

Interested in seeing some more moisture traps though. @Projects with Sam no float switch or anything incase the trap fills?

geckoejon · Aug 21, 2022

Projects with Sam said:
I got rigid airline tubing and filed one end down, then I heated it up so I could bend a 90 in it. After that I attached flexible airline tubing to it and ran that to a drip-catcher. From the drip catcher it goes to the scrubber.
I made the drip catcher out of an old peanut jar. Basically just put holes in the top and put the airlines in (have to keep it airtight.) You'll still get condensation in the scrubber but the catcher will do a lot.

That is a great idea & very helpful! Thanks!

@Shon I will check that out. Thanks

Projects with Sam · Aug 21, 2022

Shon said:
I bought a 3d attachment https://fishofhex.com/collections/skimmer-co2-scrubber-attachment for mine.. not attached to anything because I am still building my stand, but I did drill, paint and installed overflow yesterday..

Interested in seeing some more moisture traps though. @Projects with Sam no float switch or anything incase the trap fills?

I have a float switch cutoff; just didn't put it in there. I run my skimmer so it doesn't collect anything. Have it turned all the way down and its really high in my sump. Mainly for air exchange. I had put the float switch in a drainage bucket and had the skimmer draining to that which worked well.

GSnake · Sep 7, 2022

A little moisture is suppose to make the media more effective therefore I did not add a catch to my system. I just installed it this week but I think the floss I put at the bottom of the canister , and regular cleaning when exchanging media will do the trick

J1a · Sep 7, 2022

Unless your skimmer is overflowing,the little bit of bubble is harmless. Like what @GSnake said, moisture improves the scrubber efficiency. In fact, I pour 10 ml or so of water to the bottom of the reactor before I fill it with media.

One thing to take note when doing recirculation is to ensure the intake pipe has large enough diameter (including all the joints). This is so that the in take of the skimmer will not be overly restricted.

Projects with Sam · Sep 7, 2022

J1a said:
Unless your skimmer is overflowing,the little bit of bubble is harmless. Like what @GSnake said, moisture improves the scrubber efficiency. In fact, I pour 10 ml or so of water to the bottom of the reactor before I fill it with media.

One thing to take note when doing recirculation is to ensure the intake pipe has large enough diameter (including all the joints). This is so that the in take of the skimmer will not be overly restricted.

I actually had some issues with the water I had in my CO2 scrubber restricting the flow of air so rather then worry about it I added an aqualifter pump to manually force the air through. it works great.

I did the bubble catcher because the bubbles that made it to the scrubber were making the media all nasty and I was worried about rot.

jmichaelh7 · Nov 8, 2022

I’m having this issue now. Anything To be concerned about ?

piranhaman00 · Nov 8, 2022

Ya you have to play around with the recirculating method, I had lots of trouble with moisture and still do at times, large moisture trap is best bet,

yes you want moist air but if the media gets wet it’s bad.

piranhaman00 · Nov 8, 2022

Also what co2 media are people using? The BRs stuff is junk

nkyreef · Nov 8, 2022

piranhaman00 said:
Also what co2 media are people using? The BRs stuff is junk

I use soda lime ordered from Amazon. It's costly upfront but it will save you some money in the long run. I run a recirculating setup but still have to change it every 7-10 days.

jmichaelh7 · Nov 11, 2022

geckoejon said:
Hello,

I have an icecap co2 scrubber that I would like to connect recirculating style…

Are you constantly pulling skimmate/ foam from skimmer? If I put the tube in, it’s bound to pull moisture… How do you deal with that?

how do you connect the scrubber tube to the skimmer lid? Just drill a hole & push it in? Pics?

How did you fix the issue with waste going into scrubber

jmichaelh7 · Nov 11, 2022

piranhaman00 said:
Ya you have to play around with the recirculating method, I had lots of trouble with moisture and still do at times, large moisture trap is best bet,

yes you want moist air but if the media gets wet it’s bad.

Did you find a solution for the waste going into reactor