Sharing- CO2 scrubber upgrade

MPS · Jul 2, 2019

I’ve been running a CO2 scrubber for about 9 months with limited success at raising the PH in the tank. I’ve recently learned that the media works better when damp. Adding a few CCs of RO water in the intake every day wasn’t working so I rigged this up. Now it’s working too well‍

. My PH was 8.1 peak at best. One day after putting this in place, the PH is hitting 8.45+. Now I have to shut the skimmer down for a few hours in the day when the ph peaks.
Has anybody else implemented something like this? Did you see similar results?

MarineMalecki · Jul 2, 2019

I implemented something very similar for the exact same reason! I did see about a .2 - .3 increase in pH. Mine never reached the level yours did, but was a big improvement overall for me!

MPS · Jul 3, 2019

MarineMalecki said:
I implemented something very similar for the exact same reason! I did see about a .2 - .3 increase in pH. Mine never reached the level yours did, but was a big improvement overall for me!

Right on! Thanks for the note. Have you been able to get your PH to stabilize or does it still swing between day and night?

LARedstickreefer · Jul 3, 2019

You can actually pull your air from the skimmer cup. Just be sure your cup doesn’t overflow and into the scrubber.

MarineMalecki · Jul 3, 2019

MPS said:
Right on! Thanks for the note. Have you been able to get your PH to stabilize or does it still swing between day and night?

my pH still goes through swings between day/night, but it's buffered since I run my fuge light cycle opposite my DT schedule. Overall I've been quite pleased.

Only challenge for me is finding an economical source of the CO2 absorption media - what do you use for yours?

MPS · Jul 5, 2019

MarineMalecki said:
my pH still goes through swings between day/night, but it's buffered since I run my fuge light cycle opposite my DT schedule. Overall I've been quite pleased.

Only challenge for me is finding an economical source of the CO2 absorption media - what do you use for yours?

I get mine from BRS. Up until now it wasn’t working well so it never needed changed. We’ll see how quickly it starts to go now.

sergifed91 · Jul 30, 2019

I have had mine running recirculating the air from the skimmer and no effect what so ever. I don't know if it's bad media or if I'm doing something wrong and not working. I have 2 teaspoons of water in the container not touching the media to keep the air moist. might hook up a jar with water and and have the air pass through the jar into the co2 scrubber and then back to the air intake of the skimmer to see if that has any effect.

NeverlosT · Jul 30, 2019

woah never heard this and always had mediocre results with my scrubber, gotta try this!

ESH · Jul 30, 2019

My life reef skimmer has a tube to connect the skimmer cup to the Venturi, which keeps calcium/salt deposits from building up. I found with my c02 scrubber attached, I was having to knock out the salt on a bi weekly basis. I recently read about others doing a sort of closed loop induction between the skimmer cup and scrubber. So I’m currently trying something similar, though connected to my skimmer cup before the Venturi. Water vapor appears to be making its way through, and the pH swing is similar to what I had before without this. I believe the water helps extend the media’s life. In my setup there is a hole in the top of the skimmer cup. I believe others are running something like this without this. I don’t know the exact benefit of having it sealed or open to drawing in outside air.