CO2 Scrubber Help

reefin_with_the_fam · Dec 26, 2021

So I just setup a recirculating CO2 scrubber for my 210 gallon tank with the BRS brand CO2 scrubber(not the big version) and media.

Well I burned through it within about two weeks as my pH is back down to 7.8. I was seeing it peak to 8.3 and was really just happy with it getting above 8 consistently.

I am trying to figure out the best way to extend the life of the media, as CO2 is a pretty big issue in my home being we have quite a few dogs, along with my family, and can’t really open the windows.

Would it be best to just pull the air from the garage(no cars are parked in it or used, not very trafficked, and it’s directly behind my tank so it would be easy to pull from it)?

Or should I run a line directly to the outside and pull through the scrubber?

Any insight or experience or lessons learned would be a great help. Thanks!

jmichaelh7 · Dec 27, 2021

Welcome to the co2 chasing number game

plankton · Dec 27, 2021

Yes pull air from outside your house to skimmer intake, buy CO2 monitor on Amazon and get reading of area you keep tank, drip kalkwasser and as someone else said try to achieve stable ph above 7.8 low and not exceed 8.5 high.

My tank running CaRX dosing kalkwasser and running soda lime air intake to skimmer gets me …

DrMMI · Dec 27, 2021

I'm in the same boat with high CO2 in the house. I noticed that when I first started recirculating my scrubber, I burned throught the media pretty quickly initially, but as it scrubed more and more CO2 out of the tank, it started to gradually last longer. Now I change it out probably like once a month. I also dose Randy's sodium hydroxide recipe which helps. I went from a high of 7.8 to lows of 8.0.

saltgogi · Dec 27, 2021

I started using co2 scrubber about a month ago and now my pH is from 8.10-8.35. Drilling hole for air from outside wasn't an option for me and i tried using kalkwasser to balance pH. The only thing is that I would dose A LOT of kalk to keep pH at 8.00 or above and I believe the alk and calcium did more damage than the pH doing good. Now i just use the scrubber at night when the pH drops. I don't recirculate and it's still working fine for me. I'll probably not recirculate because the media is lasting me about a month and i bought 5 gallons worth of media on ebay so it'll last me several years. I don't really know too much difference in growth yet though.