Electronic ball valve for CO² scrubber

[DeputyDog95]

If you are staying close to 8.3 I don’t think I would change anything though. That’s excellent PH. I’m just playing around with things that I probably shouldn’t be lol.

As my wife keeps telling me on a routine basis because of my obsessive behavior with everything... "The enemy of good is perfection."

 

[DeputyDog95]

For what it’s worth. I did peg my PH but couldn’t keep my Alk down. I think you have enough Alk usage to peg it without Alk raising. I only have 4-5 SPS frags and some LPs so my tank doesn’t use a lot of Alk right now.

Maybe.

My tank is only SPS and there is a lot of it. Half frags, half small colonies. My target dkh is 8.5, so I'm not sure that will get me to a "peg" point. But I like that number because it's above NSW so if it dips for some reason, not getting into dangerous territory. And if it gets too high and my nutrients drop, I don't smoke the whole tank. Happy medium. I think BRS recommends 9 or 10 for SPS... I can't remember now. But I'm comfortable here and 8.5 also allows for a little margin of error with my testing. Maybe it's 8, maybe it's 9? Good number either way

 

[shakey]

T

Not sure I'm ready to go there yet with the sodium hydroxide. You're not the first person to mention it. I'll have to do more research and get a better understanding of how it all works.

Right now, I seem to be holding steady at a base of 8.1 and a peak of 8.3. Which is pretty good and from what I've read online, and is identical to the great barrier reef in the summer. If it's good enough for the GBR, it should be good enough for me All kidding aside, this is a massive jump from 7.8 to 8.1 and I'm seeing the results in a week with a 40% increase in Alk consumption. Heck, I even saw hermit crabs spawning last night after the lights went out. I've had snails do it, but this is a first for me with hermit crabs.

Thats awesome! I think you are good with 8.1-8.3 fir sure.

 

[piranhaman00]

I have two 3/4” electronic ball valves connected to the apex dc24 connector if anyone is interested

 

[DeputyDog95]

T

Thats awesome! I think you are good with 8.1-8.3 fir sure.

The chart doesn't line up with the days of the week (Mon through Sun). The peaks here are Sat and Sun. I was just moving the slider around and took a screenshot. This is a typical week prior to the scrubber:

Lots of wo tenth swings still, but much better numbers. This is the past week since installing the scrubber:

With a new average of 8.2, that is pretty darn good and significantly better than my previous average of 7.9.



What will be interesting to see is how it looks over the weekend when none of us "mouth breathers" are here It's always spiked on weekends prior to the scrubber.

However...

If the lows are higher and highs are higher (I have the solenoid set to 8.35 at the moment), is it safe to assume my double jumbo cannister is still not enough to compensate for the C02 production while the office is occupied?

If so, maybe add another double cannister? I think my solenoid has kicked over to ambient, maybe once or twice since installing it and it's pretty much scrubbing full time.

 

[shakey]

The chart doesn't line up with the days of the week (Mon through Sun). The peaks here are Sat and Sun. I was just moving the slider around and took a screenshot. This is a typical week prior to the scrubber:

Lots of wo tenth swings still, but much better numbers. This is the past week since installing the scrubber:

With a new average of 8.2, that is pretty darn good and significantly better than my previous average of 7.9.



What will be interesting to see is how it looks over the weekend when none of us "mouth breathers" are here It's always spiked on weekends prior to the scrubber.

However...

If the lows are higher and highs are higher (I have the solenoid set to 8.35 at the moment), is it safe to assume my double jumbo cannister is still not enough to compensate for the C02 production while the office is occupied?

If so, maybe add another double cannister? I think my solenoid has kicked over to ambient, maybe once or twice since installing it and it's pretty much scrubbing full time.

I don’t think another canister will help. It would just restrict the air more. If you had one canister I think it would be essentially the same. You can swap out canisters to ensure you use up anll the life and it will last longer with 2 canisters though. From what I’ve read .2 is about what everyone gets from it. You are there. After this weekend if your PH gets higher it may not fall off as much next week this possibly will let your PH remain a little higher. Next week take a look at your average.

 

[DeputyDog95]

I don’t think another canister will help. It would just restrict the air more. If you had one canister I think it would be essentially the same. You can swap out canisters to ensure you use up anll the life and it will last longer with 2 canisters though. From what I’ve read .2 is about what everyone gets from it. You are there. After this weekend if your PH gets higher it may not fall off as much next week this possibly will let your PH remain a little higher. Next week take a look at your average.

Sounds like plan!

 

[DeputyDog95]

So I learned something new today.

Water that has been in the cannister with the media is a little caustic.

Even though I have been draining that intake hose daily... I noticed this afternoon there was some pressure loss in the skimmer and further inspection showed there was about an inch of build up of water in the bottom of canister 1 (of 2). When the water starts to build up in the lower portion of the air intake line, it starts to percolate under the pressure and forces it up. Some must be actually blasting up and over into the cannister.

Anyway, when I opened the drain on the bottom of canister 1, I got some of the water on my hands. Unpleasant to say the least. It must have gotten high enough to mix with the lower part of the media. It stings slightly and now my fingers feel like I have been handling liquid chlorine or something comparable. Not a big deal, but not something I care to repeat on a regular basis.

This is obviously going to take some careful daily maintenance on my part until I can install the empty reactor chamber next week in line below the scrubber to catch the moisture.

 

[shakey]

Mine builds up water too. it really doesn't seem to hurt anything. I've had water up on media a little. Just moisture from the air being pulled through. if you you put one empty canister before it it will keep a lot of moisture out.

 

[DeputyDog95]

Apologies for so many posts, but I'm sure as this becomes more popular, people will be revisiting this thread and there should be lots of helpful info in here.

So, this was my second weekend in a row with the scrubber running. I set the solenoid to 8.4 to see if I could get it that high. I couldn't...

As you can see from the graph, the weekend performance is much better. The pH goes up faster and gets higher. Similar to weekend performance before the scrubber, just with better numbers. Still significantly improved over pre scrubber performance, but I would like to try and get some consistency across all 7 days.

Clearly, the C02 while the office is occupied, is too much for my scrubber setup. Not that the numbers are bad... It would just be nice if I had the same highs, lows, and rise/fall every single day.

Maybe an air exchanger added to my office AC system? Not terribly expensive and allegedly do a great job of replacing the inside air with outside air. Considering how much time I spend in there, could be some health benefits too for the occupants.

So I had an unexpected wrinkle yesterday....

The BRS generic C02 scrubber canister showed up yesterday and I installed it promptly as a water catch can. Just a thrown together install to see how it worked before permanently mounting it to the wall, cutting lines to fit, etc....

Seemed to be ok and it had captured some liquid over 24 hours and the water in the inlet line was no longer building up. Still very humid, but you couldn't see any actual accumulation.

As I was leaving the office yesterday (Tues), I did my daily once over on the whole setup to make sure everything is ok and I immediately noticed that canister 1 was dripping and had accumulated a small puddle on the floor. I grabbed a paper towel to mop the floor and when I went to check the drain cap on the bottom of the canister, it came right off in my hands with the male thread from the bottom of the canister. Per usual, the liquid was caustic and caused some minor irritation/tingling.

I checked canister 2 of course, and that drain cap came right off in my hand as well with the male thread from the canister still inside the cap too. Fortunately I was prepared for that and had a pyrex container underneath to catch any liquid.

I reached out to BRS and they seemed to know exactly what was going on and suggested a water catch canister before the scrubber. I explained that I had already done that, but the scrubber had already been running for a week in recirc before the water in the lines became an issue.

Apparently if enough moisture gets in the media, it creates Kalk. And it would seem that those male threaded fittings are glued into the bottom of the canister and the Kalk must have dissolved the glue. I asked the BRS rep how to prevent this from happening again. He said I should have had a catch canister installed from the very beginning. I told him this would be good information to share on the website and videos they've produced, and I would have happily installed the water catch canister from Day 1 had I known it was a thing.

I'm guessing I'm not the first person who has made a call like this as he immediately offered to replace the canisters and send more media. Great customer service.! So for now, I'm just drawing in ambient air to bypass the scrubber and I have paper towels stuffed in the canister drain holes to plug them and stop any moisture form dripping out.

So question.

Ideally, where would the catch canister be most effective? Immediately after the skimmer before any significant moisture can collect in the lines to begin with?

 

[shakey]

Yes, I would think immediately after skimmer.
That is really a troubling problem though. I’m not sure you can keep it from building up moisture in those reactors even with a moisture catching container.
I would keep an eye on it.
My reactor does not have drains so it’s not a problem for me.
I was jealous of your drains as I have to unscrew my reactor and pour excess water down drain when it builds up, but now I’m kinda glad mine doesn’t have the drains.
Keep us posted and like you said this is definitely good info for the thread and future.

 

[DeputyDog95]

Yes, I would think immediately after skimmer.
That is really a troubling problem though. I’m not sure you can keep it from building up moisture in those reactors even with a moisture catching container.
I would keep an eye on it.
My reactor does not have drains so it’s not a problem for me.
I was jealous of your drains as I have to unscrew my reactor and pour excess water down drain when it builds up, but now I’m kinda glad mine doesn’t have the drains.
Keep us posted and like you said this is definitely good info for the thread and future.

I thought the drains were a good idea until this happened... Super convenient, in theory.

However, with the threads apparently not being molding into the canister, it's a weak point and the glue is easily dissolved.

Given the choice, I would rather unscrew and dump than continue to be concerned about this.

If it happens again, I'm going to have to look into a way of sealing those drain plugs off.

 

[DeputyDog95]

Update on my setup.

The new scrubber canisters will be here on Monday. Right now I have rolled up paper towels stuffed into the drain holes and paper towels folded up and attached to the bottom using rubber bands as a "just in case" they leak again.

Oddly enough, I didn't noticed a difference in scrubber performance in the 24 hours I was simply scrubbing ambient air while trying to figure out what to do next after the drain plugs fell off. I can only assume I would have burned through media quicker had I left it running like that, but I didn't see a boost in the highs, lows, or acceleration to the high pH point.

So I installed the catch can about 3 feet below the scrubbers. The catch can was also slightly lower than the air line from the stand running to it to promote condensation to "fall into" the canister. There really wasn't much condensation in the lines near the skimmer itself, hence installing it further downline. I can only assume with the office ambient air being on average, 75 degrees, that the warm moist skimmer air was building condensation as it passed further down the cooler, scrubber air intake line.

However, what I was finding was that the line coming out of the catch can was starting to build visible water and percolating it up towards the scrubber intake again. I "think" as the air passed through the intake, that the flow was picking up moisture evaporating in the can, and it was likely getting lodged in the horizontally level catch can exit elbow.

For grins, I loosened one of the catch can mounting screws and tilted the can about 30 degrees to promote "self draining" of the can exit elbow. I think (knock on wood), that seemed to do the trick. The bubbling immediately went away and the condensation in the exit line from the can to the scrubber dropped by about 50%. Time will tell, but I'm feeling like I may have figured this out. As added insurance, I programmed the skimmer to turn off for 2 mins at 1am and 1pm to allow complete drainage back into the can in case there is some buildup. I can always add more "turn offs" if need be. We'll see!

 

[Pvtgloss]

Just installed mine a few nights ago. I already had a recirculating scrubber. My problem was that my skimmer was programed to shut off above 8.3 so pH wouldn't rise too much, so the skimmer was shut off all the time.
It's definitely more consistent but the dang thing is kinda loud and was turning on and off every 30secs. So i added a Defer line and now it goes off every 2 minutes. I guess that was the intention though. I may add a line- if Output skimmer off then off so it don't turn on and off when I'm in Maintenance or feed mode.

 

[DeputyDog95]

Just installed mine a few nights ago. I already had a recirculating scrubber. My problem was that my skimmer was programed to shut off above 8.3 so pH wouldn't rise too much, so the skimmer was shut off all the time.
It's definitely more consistent but the dang thing is kinda loud and was turning on and off every 30secs. So i added a Defer line and now it goes off every 2 minutes. I guess that was the intention though. I may add a line- if Output skimmer off then off so it don't turn on and off when I'm in Maintenance or feed mode.

How long a time period is that graph? An hour?

 

[drtechno]

Ya I installed a water catch canister before the scrubber / just after the skimmer. It seems to be acculmulating water nicely so far. Since it doesn't have any drains on the bottom, it will be more difficult to drain but I guess I won't have to deal with threads becoming unglued? In any case, was just using a canister I already had available. Will probably switch to a screw off canister type setup like the picture above

 

[DeputyDog95]

That's me with the screw type cannister above. It's mounted level again. I found I was just forcing more water into the intake elbow, which I guess is better than the output elbow, but likely slowing airflow with the resistance.

So I have the skimmer turn off for 1 min, twice a day, 12 hours apart and that seems to keep the water in the output line from accumulating to the point where the actual visible liquid is accumulating in the scrubber.

 

[spockagain34]

You would need to connect black and red to the 24v output of your apex. This valve is powered open / non-powered closed.

You can use the other wires with a brake out box or din connector to send open closed status signals to the apex.

I wish I wasn't such a dunce, I can't believe there isn't a video out there showing how to wire and program this yet? Anyway, I've got this valve with Red, Black, White, Green (open signal), and Yellow (closed signal) wires, basically this chart with the BL swapped with Green. So the Red and Black would still be going to the 24v power on the Apex and then the Green and Yellow wires are somehow being wired into a breakout box to control the position of the valve?

 

[Pvtgloss]

I wish I wasn't such a dunce, I can't believe there isn't a video out there showing how to wire and program this yet? Anyway, I've got this valve with Red, Black, White, Green (open signal), and Yellow (closed signal) wires, basically this chart with the BL swapped with Green. So the Red and Black would still be going to the 24v power on the Apex and then the Green and Yellow wires are somehow being wired into a breakout box to control the position of the valve?

The solenoid I used was 12-24vdc

I only used the red and black and wired them directly to my 24vdc plug that I plugged into my 24vdc port. I didn't use a break out box. Then I programed the 24v switch.