Automating co2 scrubber

[DeputyDog95]

Yup. Some use a solenoid. I use motorized ball valve. Use a Y connection (or similar) to pull air from two places. One pulling from scrubber and one pulling from just regular air.

Use the valve on either intake. I use mine on the "regular" air and its always closed, meaning the scrubber is being used the vast majority of the time. The valve will only open if the pH gets too high, to allow regular air to mix in and keep the pH stable.

When i orginally set it up I used two valves. One for each intake, but realized pretty quickly it was redundant.

Good post.

I have two questions...

Why a ball valve over the solenoid?

And if are only using one valve on the fresh air and it's closed, when you open that valve to let fresh air in, aren't you still running some air through the scrubber?

I would think if you wanted to pin your pH and maximize the longevity of the media, you would need two valves so it's only either using fresh air or scrubbed air?

 

[DeputyDog95]

YMMV but I have a closed house in the summer in Cali due to heat so lots of co2. I have a small tank 70G and large skimmer 150ss. I have the dual jumbo BRS scrubber and get 3to4 months per media change. it is massive but I buy big for less frequent maintenance. Also I bought a pharma color changing co2 media for much less than brs just had to buy a huge container... maybe 18 months to two years worth... Finding that was actually what made me do this...

Where did you get that bulk CO2 media and are you still happy with it?

 

[NorthBayReefer]

Valve:

Amazon product ASIN B06WWPZWGZ
Apex dc24 barewire cord:

https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/dc24-to-bare-wire-accessory-cable-neptune-systems.html

Trying to revive this thread. I'm using an Apex too and I like this valve but see the three wire configuration... How did you wire this with your 24VDC on Apex? Hoping someone can jump into this one for me! Thanks in advance.

 

[DeputyDog95]

Trying to revive this thread. I'm using an Apex too and I like this valve but see the three wire configuration... How did you wire this with your 24VDC on Apex? Hoping someone can jump into this one for me! Thanks in advance.

There's another thread that has that info:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/electronic-ball-valve-for-co²-scrubber.893597/