Do CO2 scrubbers work?

[ca1ore]

I'd try adding a grow light to your h380 and see if it helps. I think you'll see a jump in ph and you won't have to leave the door open.

H380 is a grow light, and though pricey is an awesome one at that.

 

[ca1ore]

I did an experiment yesterday and kept the front door open to see if it had any effect. Don't know if it did. The tank is in the middle of the living room, like a peninsula display. The house is just one level.

If I could keep a door and window open during the day I would. But it's southern Arizona, the inside temp would head north of 90 in an hour or two.

Would have thought it'd cool down enough at night, no? Even in CT I only run the fish room blower at night. During the day pH is higher anyhow.

 

[ca1ore]

Maybe your skimmer doesn't, but I have a jebao 9000 running on a lifereef lol. I see an EASY +0.2 with my pH running CO2 scrubber. Combined with fuge lit at night and kalk in ATO I'm able to keep my pH above 8 instead of the 7.7 or even less that it was before.

My skimmer is a 6' beast, so it's not a skimmer problem. Maybe it's a basement fish room problem futzing with the skimmer never makes a whit of difference to my system.

 

[ZAB]

Was looking at bulk reef supply they have macro algae reactor that grows chato. .has any one had any experience with that.. maybe this could be an option..I have been having some of the same issues. .as mentioned above..do not have to much room in sump

 

[SaltLifer]

Yes, the more surface agitation the faster CO2 will move into the water and the less effective removing CO2 via media will be.

Surface agitation promotes gas exchange which allows co2 to exit your water. Co2 is an acid, which means the more you have, the lower your pH will be. That's why a lot of people point a powerheads at the surface. When the co2 escapes, you have less acid in your water, and your pH rises.

 

[Sir Chris]

They absolutely work. There are several factors at play though. Here are a few:

1)Skimmer intake (usually given as liters per hour)
The higher the skimmer intake, the more air pulled through the media per given amount of time. The equates to more CO2 scrubber as well as faster consumption of the media.

2)Air exchange with the room
If you have a lot of surface agitation and air movement you are increasing the exposure of your tank to the high levels of CO2 in your home. The more this happens, the lower the pH of your tank.

I've found a method that works REALLY well for me. I use a lifereef skimmer which recirculates air from the skimmate cup into the venturi intake. Lifereef is designed like this to keep the venturi in a humid environment to prevent clogging with salt creep. I placed my media right in this recirculation so that the media is fed the humid air from the skimmate cup. This makes it so theoretically you are having to scrub way less CO2 since you are only pull the CO2 that is in skimmer vs constantly pulling high CO2 room air. I have noticed a HUGE decrease in media use this way. The second benefit is that CO2 media gets exhausted wayyyy faster when it's dry, so you are always keeping it humid in there with this method.

Now I've brought this up by with depletion of media y not run oxygen tanks as ur feed. Is it 2 pure? With a regulator and all it's not far off from most crazy setups. I know it's simpler for air 2 b drawn through the media at a low pressure but with a simple reg basically what's used for mobile o2 tanks and breathing assistance for the skimmers O2 feed. Thanks and don't rip me if I'm crazy. But I know that already haha

 

[Fritzhamer]

H380 is a grow light, and though pricey is an awesome one at that.

Is it though? I love the BRS investigates, truly. Interesting as they are though, they are commercials for BRS and the products they sell. BRS had a dog in the race with those videos and they were very much pushing the Kessil grow lights as the best option. While they certainly blew the doors off a CFL bulb I'd love to see how it performs vs the more widely used grow bulbs / fixtures.

Surface agitation promotes gas exchange which allows co2 to exit your water. Co2 is an acid, which means the more you have, the lower your pH will be. That's why a lot of people point a powerheads at the surface. When the co2 escapes, you have less acid in your water, and your pH rises.

This can help if the (greater) source of co2 is in the tank (calcium reactor or overcrowded tank). If the (greater) source is the air in your home agitation won't help. Surface agitation will just promote air exchange which will bring your tank into balance with the surrounding air.

 

[Sir Chris]

An

That's why I never want an apex. I have enough stuff to worry about. Maybe the next gen will be called the mother in law.

d I've been looking 2 get a apex for my 75g. Is there a better recorder as that's what I see em as. So u can use it as a record and test if things are off. So this mother in law meaning annoying u but have 2 deal with it. So what would u recommend? Thanks

 

[hart24601]

I am a big fan of keeping pH in the mid 8’s if possible. I use kalk and soda ash for dosing with chaeto reactor for nutrients and personally like to use CO2 media if an outside line isn’t possible, heck I would consider running it even on an outside line. If you use a large diameter hose the difference in airflow to the skimmer is pretty negligible which you can see with an airflow meter if you really want. Side bonus my skimmer was quite loud with the stock silencer and now is finally silent with the BRS media reactor I modified to use.


Now if you are happy with current growth then don’t bother, however have you seen the arguments with lighting and coral growth?? Sometimes it seems that people are ready to fist fight over hypothetical increases in coral growth and this is a pretty easy method to boost growth in most homes. There is also some decent research that concluded bleaching risk is far less when pH is above 8.0 which might be of value to some reefers.

 

[ca1ore]

Surface agitation promotes gas exchange which allows co2 to exit your water. Co2 is an acid, which means the more you have, the lower your pH will be. That's why a lot of people point a powerheads at the surface. When the co2 escapes, you have less acid in your water, and your pH rises.

Not necessarily. Surface agitation promotes gas exchange. If the CO2 level in the air is high, agitation will not allow CO2 to blow off. If it is low, then yes CO2 will be blown off. Co2 is not an acid per se, but it combines in water to form carbonic acid.

 

[ca1ore]

Is it though?

Yes indeed. Used many different kinds of bulbs and the H380 is by far the best at growing chaeto.

 

[Fritzhamer]

Yes indeed. Used many different kinds of bulbs and the H380 is by far the best at growing chaeto.

All kinds of 90 watt horticultural bulbs? That was my issue with the BRS series. It was as much comparing low, medium and high wattage lights as it was CFL, PAR38 and Kessil. Would three PAR38s have produced the same results as the h380?

If the H380 really is the best, I'd expect an AI Hydra 26HD tuned for plant spectrum to outperform the h380. Same with a Radeon (if they can do red and blue). If shimmer isn't needed and you want spread the dense matrix looses its selling point.

The BRS series was deceptive in that they didn't control for wattage variations in the lights making the h380 look like the be all end all of horticulture lights. I think the take away from their experiments was that more watts is better. You need serious lights to outcompete your display lights.

If you take that learned knowledge to horticultural forums (where they know as much about grow lights as we do about reef lights), the h380 is low on the list of recommended plant growing lights.

I love my AP700, I've been in the hobby 30 years and have run everything. I haven't run an h380 but I'm skeptical. The design of the A and H series has great pluses as a display light but to me those pluses are negatives as a grow bulb.

All that being said I bet you could grow some SERIOUS cheato with a six bulb ATI over your sump! . That I would love to see.

 

[ZAB]

80 watt bulbs...lol

 

[XNavyDiver]

Guess when I installed a CO2 scrubber...

 

[XNavyDiver]

Well, CO2 scrubbers work. As you can see from the graphs there was a steady rise. I wish it would have leveled off before I had to head to work, but because it hadn't, I disconnected it until I get home from work. (Thus the decline at 3:30 am) I was envisioning it steadily rising and rising to no end... I would have liked it to level out at 8.3 to 8.4, but as you can see, it blew by those numbers and was heading towards 9.0.