Co2 scrubber/skimmer programming

markster27 · Jul 22, 2019

fattiremike said:
Well, that tiny hole is sucking air. I used 1/4" airline and ran it down behind the tank and under my cabinet. I drilled about a dozen 1/8" holes in the lower quarter of a plastic bottle and filled it 3/4 with scrubber media. Drilled a 1/4" hole in the bottle cap and stuck one end of the airline through the cap and the other end in the durso (which happened to be 1/4"). Boom, ph problem solved and it cost me less that a few bucks to make.

Got it, I plan to run a Y from the input into the scrubber and attach a hose to it that will go to tiny hole on the cap, thanks.

markster27 · Jul 23, 2019

markster27 said:
Got it, I plan to run a Y from the input into the scrubber and attach a hose to it that will go to tiny hole on the cap, thanks.

I tried that and did not get any noticeable change in pH and now it is so restricted I am getting a lower water level in the overflow and now have that noise. With the
CO2 scrubber on the skimmer, I did see an increase but only from 7.86 to 8.05 and now in the morning, I start off at 7.86.

fattiremike · Jul 23, 2019

Well, keep experimenting and you will find out what the cause is. I get it with the flow and the noise. I ended up drilling two more holes in each durso, so I am now running 6 water bottle scrubbers. I figured that its nothing but a couple of dollar pvc fitting so I had nothing to lose. Now I am dealing with ph that will climb too high. I put a T fitting with a valve on my skimmer that I have to open manually, but just ordered a motorized ball valve to automate that. Hopefully the programming won't be to crazy. What salt mix do you use? What do you use for a buffer? Also, how do your critters look? Sometimes, chasing numbers is just that, chasing numbers. Before I got the Apex, I could just imagine what crazy numbers I had.......

fattiremike · Jul 24, 2019

Are you using a calcium reactor? If so, where is the effluent going?

markster27 · Jul 24, 2019

fattiremike said:
Well, keep experimenting and you will find out what the cause is. I get it with the flow and the noise. I ended up drilling two more holes in each durso, so I am now running 6 water bottle scrubbers. I figured that its nothing but a couple of dollar pvc fitting so I had nothing to lose. Now I am dealing with ph that will climb too high. I put a T fitting with a valve on my skimmer that I have to open manually, but just ordered a motorized ball valve to automate that. Hopefully the programming won't be to crazy. What salt mix do you use? What do you use for a buffer? Also, how do your critters look? Sometimes, chasing numbers is just that, chasing numbers. Before I got the Apex, I could just imagine what crazy numbers I had.......

I ended up poking more holes in the one water bottle and it seemed to help the overflow issue. The pH is sticking around 8 as a high and 7.85 for a low after that. I am using TM Reef 75% with Red Sea Coral Pro black bucket 25% and add a tblspn of BRS soda ash to raise alk in a 20 gal water change/per week for a 125 gal reef. I dose BRS two part daily and trace elements weekly. I never used to do any dosing until I started getting SPS frags. Everything looks great and I can see the frags growing. I guess I was motivated by the BRS study on pH and SPS coral growth to get up to 8.2. The air quality monitor showed 509 CO2 by the tank. Going to be off tomorrow and a cooler morning here in San Antonio TX so going to open up the house to see what that does. I do have a Ca reactor and pH monitor set to 6.7 and it drips into the return side of the sump.

markster27 · Jul 24, 2019

markster27 said:
I ended up poking more holes in the one water bottle and it seemed to help the overflow issue. The pH is sticking around 8 as a high and 7.85 for a low after that. I am using TM Reef 75% with Red Sea Coral Pro black bucket 25% and add a tblspn of BRS soda ash to raise alk in a 20 gal water change/per week for a 125 gal reef. I dose BRS two part daily and trace elements weekly. I never used to do any dosing until I started getting SPS frags. Everything looks great and I can see the frags growing. I guess I was motivated by the BRS study on pH and SPS coral growth to get up to 8.2. The air quality monitor showed 509 CO2 by the tank. Going to be off tomorrow and a cooler morning here in San Antonio TX so going to open up the house to see what that does. I do have a Ca reactor and pH monitor set to 6.7 and it drips into the return side of the sump.

Also, I realized two issues I made with the scrubber. I might have the tubing on the wrong side and I wet the media instead of placing the water in the bottom of the canister. Going to fix those two when I get home.

fattiremike · Jul 25, 2019

Is there a way to get your calcium reactor effluent into the skimmer? The effluent is really low in ph (or should be) in order to get the aragonite to dissolve. If you can get it into the skimmer to help it off-gas, that may help a bunch. My skimmer has a john guest valve for just that purpose, but putting the drip right above the skimmer inlet would work just the same.

markster27 · Jul 26, 2019

fattiremike said:
Is there a way to get your calcium reactor effluent into the skimmer? The effluent is really low in ph (or should be) in order to get the aragonite to dissolve. If you can get it into the skimmer to help it off-gas, that may help a bunch. My skimmer has a john guest valve for just that purpose, but putting the drip right above the skimmer inlet would work just the same.

I can try to move it just above the pump skimmer, I am curious how the value you have on your skimmer, which model is that? I have a Reef Octopus classic 200INT with upgraded varous2 pump so that I have a float switch in the cup

fattiremike · Jul 26, 2019

I have a very old Aqua C. They are out of business. I don't consider my skimmer a skimmer anymore. It is a reaction chamber. I am dosing ozone, dripping in reactor effluent, and am using it to control my ph as well. It still skims, of course, but that is a by-product of everything else I use it for. I have drilled it full of holes and put john guest fittings in it, but it did come with a john guest for reactor effluent or c02 when I purchased it. My system is nothing to look at, I have wires and hoses going everywhere. But, it is all plumbed through the wall into the garage, so the mess is out there. One day I will have time to sort it all out and make it pretty. The Acros in the tank were put in there in December of 2018. The bubble and the green scroll are close to 20 years old.

SuncrestReef · Jul 27, 2019

fattiremike said:
I am struggling through learning all of the code programming myself. The vFeeder is the virtual outlet for my automatic feeders. FeedA is the feed mode when I touch the A feed mode to trigger the vFeeder, which turns off my return pump, skimmer and MP40qd's. Hope that answers your question.

You might benefit from reading through my 8-part Apex programming tutorial series here on R2R. It covers a variety of topics from the basics to more advanced usage, with lots of practical examples:

Part 1 Introduction
Part 2 Timers
Part 3 Automatic Top-Off Kit (ATK)
Part 4 Power Monitoring
Part 5 Virtual Outputs
Part 6 Alarms
Part 7 Feed Cycles
Part 8 Lunar Schedule and Lighting Profiles (Conclusion)

fattiremike · Jul 27, 2019

SuncrestReef said:
You might benefit from reading through my 8-part Apex programming tutorial series here on R2R. It covers a variety of topics from the basics to more advanced usage, with lots of practical examples:

Part 1 Introduction
Part 2 Timers
Part 3 Automatic Top-Off Kit (ATK)
Part 4 Power Monitoring
Part 5 Virtual Outputs
Part 6 Alarms
Part 7 Feed Cycles
Part 8 Lunar Schedule and Lighting Profiles (Conclusion)

Thanks, I will check it out.