When do you replace CO2 media?

[Cantusaurus]

I've been using a CO2 scrubber for a little while, and I'm pretty sure my pH has been better. My question is when should I replace the media? Only about half an inch of media is used up at the bottom. I get that it most likely will not be as effective, but if it's a small change should I leave it longer? Or should I replace half of it?

I hate having to buy more media, and with my setup I really do not want to make it recirculating since it overflows super often.

Any other tips would be greatly appreciated. I made a drain for the overflow of my skimmer, but I lost about half a gallon of water from my tank, and I don't want that happening since I have an ATO.

 

[keatonmjenkins]

It all depends really. I replace mine about once every 2 months but the media is about 90% changed at that point and I can see my PH swings at night getting wider.

 

[Joe31415]

Between the scrubber being in a dark area and the dark blue plastic making it hard to see the color of the media, I usually just replace it when I notice the pH isn't reliably staying above 8.0.

 

[keatonmjenkins]

Yea that's really all you can do, if you can get the recirculating down it will extend it a lot longer. I am looking to add a kalk drip so that I can ease up on the media and wont spend as much money too, maybe get rid of the CO2 altogether.

 

[Cantusaurus]

Yea that's really all you can do, if you can get the recirculating down it will extend it a lot longer. I am looking to add a kalk drip so that I can ease up on the media and wont spend as much money too, maybe get rid of the CO2 altogether.

Yeah, that's a good point. I did think of doing the Kalk method, but I'm not so sure about it. Space wise I'm not crazy about it, and I'm just not too educated on kalk and don't want to keep buying supplies to make it work. I have a dosing pump though.
I might just put my skimmer on a timer, and that'll help preserve the media life.