#AskBRStv - CO2 scrubber automation

[VJV]

Hi,

@randyBRS I wonder if you guys have looked into this idea that I have. I want to raise my nighttime pH and keep it at or above 8.0. I have used CO2 scrubbers but to me they have two issues:

1. When you replace the media you have a big bump in pH in a relatively short period of time, and than over a month as the media is consumed, it slowly goes back to the previous value creating a seesaw effect and (I believe) additional instability, as the corals keep adapting to higher and lower average pH levels;
2. In my house (family of 6 plus housekeeper) CO2 levels overnight rise quickly to +1000ppm in the evening when windows are closed, so media exhausts relatively quickly.

What I would like to do would be to split the skimmer air intake into two, one going to the scrubber and another simply drawing air from outside, and using a solenoid in each tube. With this, I could program it to draw air from the scrubber (open the solenoid for the scrubber and close the solenoid for the open air hose) if pH was below say 8.0, and vice versa if pH was above 8.1, for example. Or simply program it so that it uses "scrubbed air" during the evening and "normal" air during lights on.

This would likely allow to extend the life of the media by using it only when required, and not all the time. The problem is, the skimmer air intake is 7/10mm so I do not know any solenoids that could actually work with that diameter hose.

Have you looked into this?