How far can I run airline for Skimmer?

[aaron186]

I’m having pH trouble. I’m running a recirculating CO2 scrubber on my skimmer and dosing soda ash and still can’t get my pH above 7.95. I bought a CO2 meter and my household CO2 is about 1100 ppm which is pretty high. I live in Florida so keeping a window open isn’t really possible without crushing my AC.

I’m running dosing lines to my garage for water changes so it wouldn’t be too difficult to run another air line to the tank. But it’s about a 30-40 foot run. Is this too long to run an outside airline to my skimmer? My skimmer is a RO Elite 150SSS and I’m currently running the pump on the lowest setting to skim dry.

 

[The_Paradox]

As long as you use large enough diameter and avoid small radiuses you should be fine. Think something like 3/8id stepped down at the skimmer. You may want to try a window first though even if just for a day. Lowering CO2 will have an effect but not as large as most people think. It might not be worth the trouble.

 

[aaron186]

As long as you use large enough diameter and avoid small radiuses you should be fine. Think something like 3/8id stepped down at the skimmer. You may want to try a window first though even if just for a day. Lowering CO2 will have an effect but not as large as most people think. It might not be worth the trouble.

Yea I’m doing that currently. I have a big slider by the tank. How long do you think I need to leave it open before I get a result?

 

[Gill the 3rd]

My PH jumped by .2 when I ran the line outside. It took a day or two to see it on my PH monitor. I ran 3/8 ID tubing about 30 ft.

 

[CasperOe]

Yea I’m doing that currently. I have a big slider by the tank. How long do you think I need to leave it open before I get a result?

As for how long you need to keep the slider open to see a result you can quite easily measure by taking a number pH readings; it's hard to give you an estimate!

Do you have a probe on the tank by any chance for continuous pH monitoring?

 

[aaron186]

As for how long you need to keep the slider open to see a result you can quite easily measure by taking a number pH readings; it's hard to give you an estimate!

Do you have a probe on the tank by any chance for continuous pH monitoring?

Yea got an apex. Been open for 30 mins with a fan running. The CO2 on my meter dropped to 700 ppm but no change in tank. I am running a recirculating CO2 scrubber currently though. Not sure if taking that off and just running the scrubber open to room air will make a difference.

 

[CasperOe]

Yea got an apex. Been open for 30 mins with a fan running. The CO2 on my meter dropped to 700 ppm but no change in tank. I am running a recirculating CO2 scrubber currently though. Not sure if taking that off and just running the scrubber open to room air will make a difference.

Why don't you give it a go! Just remember, that when you try new things- take it slow and only do one thing at the same time so that you know what actually makes a difference.

If you have easy access, I would run a line outside as discussed in the thread above! I did not have that opportunity, and I am already running ozone on my skimmer so I actually run a CO2 scrupper powered by an air pump / air stone straight into my sump.

This gives me about 0.15-0.20 on pH only turning on when pH drops to 8 and off again at 8.2

 

[aaron186]

Why don't you give it a go! Just remember, that when you try new things- take it slow and only do one thing at the same time so that you know what actually makes a difference.

If you have easy access, I would run a line outside as discussed in the thread above! I did not have that opportunity, and I am already running ozone on my skimmer so I actually run a CO2 scrupper powered by an air pump / air stone straight into my sump.

This gives me about 0.15-0.20 on pH only turning on when pH drops to 8 and off again at 8.2

 

[aaron186]

Interesting. Does that make any noise? I wonder if I could do that from my garage and save some sump space

 

[Gill the 3rd]

Yea got an apex. Been open for 30 mins with a fan running. The CO2 on my meter dropped to 700 ppm but no change in tank. I am running a recirculating CO2 scrubber currently though. Not sure if taking that off and just running the scrubber open to room air will make a difference.

I ran a recirc scrubber initially to get my PH to 8.3. I decided I didn't want to keep replacing the media and ran my line outside and got 8.3, so I took out my recirc scrubber.

 

[CasperOe]

Interesting. Does that make any noise? I wonder if I could do that from my garage and save some sump space

Well, yeah- it makes the noice of the air pump and the bubbles.. I have my tank in a different room from the main living room so it's not too much of an issue!

 

[RichReef]

Mine runs about 30 feet. It's 3/8 RO/DI line. The only thing is you have to keep it on a downward slope towards the skimmer or you could get condensation in the line and stop the air flow. It doesn't have to be a perfect slope. You just don't want an area that can accumulate enough water that the skimmer suction can't clear it out.

 

[aaron186]

Mine runs about 30 feet. It's 3/8 RO/DI line. The only thing is you have to keep it on a downward slope towards the skimmer or you could get condensation in the line and stop the air flow. It doesn't have to be a perfect slope. You just don't want an area that can accumulate enough water that the skimmer suction can't clear it out.

That might be a problem. I have my lines run through the walls and the holes are kinda low. Even with scrubber mounted high in garage it will make a U shape

 

[RichReef]

That might be a problem. I have my lines run through the walls and the holes are kinda low. Even with scrubber mounted high in garage it will make a U shape

When I first set mine up I had this problem. The condensation built up and stopped the flow so I had to redo it. The best thing about the condensation is it kept my skimmer intake free of salt build up. Living in the central east humidity gets pretty high and my house was cool enough to condense it to water.

 

[aaron186]

I’m in Florida so that’s probably a deal breaker for me. Thanks

 

[PeterErc]

I ran 1/2” pvc up inside of the wall, through the attic and dropped outside in the soffit. I did not put one in but a condensate trap may be helpful. Can install a tee at the end of a drop. Use a piece of pipe for the a cap, ball valve, or tap into a plastic water bottle or something visible to see if it needs to be emptied. I also thought of passing the through a carbon filter but never got that far either. Another thought was to tie the overflow stand pipe vents in so that was fresh intake. As mentioned earlier, nope not yet.
Sometimes I remember to disconnect the skimmer when I fire up the smoker, sometimes not.
I don’t monitor ph, live in Fl., so it can’t hurt unless my wife gets wild and starts trying to kill something with bug spray. Never can tell with her lol