CO2 Media with Outdoor Air

usfpaul82 · Dec 3, 2020

I hooked up a CO2 scrubber but I have the air intake bringing in fresh air from outside. I was hoping bringing in outdoor air would really make the media last a while. Well I’m a few days in and the PH is great, but seems like media is still getting used up quickly. Is it normal for media to be used up so fast even when pulling in outdoor air?

Rp8 · Dec 3, 2020

is it a stand alone scrubber or does it couple with another piece of equipment (I.e. skimmer)?

usfpaul82 · Dec 3, 2020

The scrubbed air is supplying two different places. It’s hooked up to my skimmer Venturi and I also rigged it to hook into my air hole for my durso overflow. I first set it up to only supply my skimmer but that didn’t really help much with PH. Then I realized that my overflow durso is sucking in a lot of air via the hole in the top of the pvc fitting so I rigged it to that. Once I did that the PH really started climbing.

Still a little perplexed about why media would exhaust so fast with outdoor air coming into it

Here it is hooked up to my overflow durso. It’s glued in and also secured with the zip tie to make sure any type of accidental siphon couldn’t happen if it were to come dislodged.

Rp8 · Dec 3, 2020

If it is where you want it and the flow is adjustable and you could turn it down some, it could slow the degradation of the media. you could always add a valve to where the in from outside to the unit to be able to control that. but you wouldn't want to ever completely close it, as it might burn out which ever pump your using.
just manage the flow when you get the ph where you want.
in my non-expert opinion of course...

Rp8 · Dec 3, 2020

I feel like being tapped into the overflow would pull a lot more air, and difficult to control. that's why I like being coupled to skimmer. super easy to manage.