Its been a while so thought I would drop back into this thread and provide a mini update. As you can see, the scrubber is still doing a fantastic job.
I still run two canisters in my C02 scrubber setup. As soon as see the pH begins to drop below its normal range (8.20 to 8.30 in the winter), I remove the oldest Soda Lime media, in the first scrubber canister, move the Soda Lime media from the second scrubber canister into the first one and then fill the second canister with new Soda Lime media. This is normally every 2 weeks or so. As you can see from the picture, the media on the left in the first canister is exhausted (white in color). It is this media I remove and throw away and then move the media in the second canister (pink in color) to the first canister and then refill the second, now empty canister with new Soda Lime media.
By doing this, I constantly have fresh Soda Lime capable of pulling out the C02 from the air going into the skimmer. Having two canisters allows me to keep my pH between a 0.10 high and low range. I no longer just dose Alkalinity at night and let my Apex DOS dose Alkalinity during an entire 24 hour period to keep the level of Alkalinity stable during the entire day and night. However, I am sure if I switched back to just dosing Alkalinity at night, I could remove the 0.10 drop in pH. I guess the question is, what is more important to our livestock, rock solid stability of Alkalinity or of pH? I do not know the answer to that question but as the pH is only dropping 0.10 during the night, I opted to stabilise Alkalinity but would be interested in any research around the uptake of Alkalinity.
The canisters I use do not really allow me to add water to the bottom of them so cannot add moisture to help extend the life of the Soda Lime media. I know I could replace the canisters themselves or add something in-line to add the moisture but I became lazy since finding a cheap place to buy Soda Lime! As I am sure many of you know, divers use this media for their re breathers so I now purchase it direct from them in 5 litre containers and this lasts me a long time. Maybe in the future, I will change the canisters with slightly larger ones like the ones that hold the 10" RO cartridges but this setup is working for me at the moment.
Since updating this post last time, I have changed my skimmer to a Nyos 120 which I LOVE! As you can see from this picture, I am now connecting the C02 Scrubbers to the air silencer on the skimmer. Although I am probably restricting a bit of air not bypassing the silencer, I use the Nyos to control the amount of air to tune in the skimmer but I may change this at some point.
Lastly, as you will see from the recent pH measurements, my pH is below my normal range. This has nothing to do with the C02 scrubber. I have been battling with hair algae for some time (please see my thread here -
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/my-experience-battling-green-hair-algae-gha.417917/). Well, due to my own stupidity, I drove my Nitrates and Phosphate too low for too long and now have Dinos. Part of my action plan to get rid of them is to switch my lighting to just the blues and reduce the duration of the light. This is obviously reducing the growth rate of corals and their ability to take up C02 thus dropping my pH but all that is for another thread!
Well, I think that is everything. I would like to say that for me personally, I would never be without a C02 scrubber ever again. The second I take it off line, my pH is affected. Maybe it is the house I live in being over 200 years old but it certainly does not allow the C02 build up to escape and my aquarium absorbs this. If anyone is on the fence, give it go with some home made canister and some Soda Lime and see how it works for you.
Hope the above helps someone as this forum has really helped me.
