CO2 Recirculating Scrubber crash?

f8thless · Dec 12, 2022

Hi guys,

I have a question. I went away for a couple of days and of course something always happens when you're away. I was getting all kinds of alerts from my Apex. It turns out that my recirculating CO2 scrubber somehow sucked up a lot of water and was full when I returned so I'm guessing it dumped some soda wash water in while I was away. I believe my Alk and pH spiked for a little bit but nothing catastrophic (thank God). It's been about a week now and I've been doing some water changes and things look fine.

My issue is that it seems like my ALK and Calc consumption has gone through the roof. I'm not quite sure if this is normal and whether there are other remedies. I'm hoping someone can chime in.

Thanks!

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 13, 2022

Once a calcium carbonate precipitation event is initiated (due to high alk and pH, for example), you need to break the cycle because the surfaces of any precipitate act as good seed crystals for more precipitation until soemthing gets onto those surfaces and blocks further precipitation.

Here's my generic advice for such scenarios:

1. Stop all efforts to boost pH.
2. Stop dosing alk for a bit and let it decline.
3. Reduce pH by switching to a low pH alk mix like sodium bicarbonate, or a calcium organic such as Tropic Marin All for Reef.
4. Ensure magnesium is normal to high.
5. Keep organics and phosphate on the high side.

After a few days of not dosing alk, restart slowly, adding additives to a very high flow area so it mixes in fast.

f8thless · Dec 13, 2022

Hi Randy, thanks for chiming in. My ALK is around 7.5 and calcium at 360 while dosing 2 part of about 200ml each. Pre crash was about 150ml a day. pH is about 8.1 - 8.3 throughout the day. I turned off the scrubber as you advised but should I still stop dosing the 2 part? Just worried that it would cause the parameters to plummet.

Thanks!