Awesome! Do you know how much your consumption of Alk and Ca has gone up by since adding the CO2 scrubber?
Honestly, nothing significant. But I still just have a few sps frags. Only thing really consuming anything in my tank is coralline lol
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Awesome! Do you know how much your consumption of Alk and Ca has gone up by since adding the CO2 scrubber?
So my question is, are two ball valves necessary or can one be configured to both draw from the scrubber given a ph window and then move to position two and draw from outside air?
I have honestly considered getting a co2 scrubber but at the same time, my pH is already much higher than average. my typical daytime pH is like 8.5 to 8.6+, and a night time low of 8.1-8.2
I have a hardcore smoker in the house, so my window is literally open 25/8, so that definitely helps the pH quite a bit.
At those levels, I wouldn't waste my money on a CO2 scrubber.
Leave them open. Otherwise you’ll suck all water instead of air because of the vacuum
I'm not sure that if you have too much moisture and if that has a negative effect with the CO2 media? The bags I have say high humidity and the data I found online said 77% humidity.
A test I've wanted to do is to add a humidity sensor in the mix. I have seen that if there is too much condensation in the lines that will negatively affect pH. When this happens I've noticed that the media will clump together. Drilling a hole in the line to allow fresh drier air does help. I think that the media can become saturated with moisture lessening the ability to scrub CO2.
A test I've wanted to do is to add a humidity sensor in the mix. I have seen that if there is too much condensation in the lines that will negatively affect pH. When this happens I've noticed that the media will clump together. Drilling a hole in the line to allow fresh drier air does help. I think that the media can become saturated with moisture lessening the ability to scrub CO2.
@JDowns ...
Found this thread as I picked back up my coursework for rebreather diving certification, and had a few thoughts.
There are a few axioms that apply to co2 scrubbers in rebreathers that you might be able to use here.
1. Temp for longest life. Keeping the absorbent warmer is a sure-fire way to increase efficiency and longevity. I'm thinking about mounting mine in the sump itself to add a few degrees and stabilize the temp.
2. Temp for monitoring depletion. While scrubbing, heat is generated. At about 90-95% depletion, there is a significant drop in heat produced, and therefore absorbent media temp. Rebreather manufacturers use this, so we should be able to as well.
3. Media shape / grade. The finer the media, the longer it lasts. I've heard (but cannot confirm) Intersorb 812 gives greater longevity than Sofnolime 797 or most medical-grade soda lime. No idea what the grade/mesh size of the BRS media is, so I can't compare.
4. Humidity control.
Rebreathers have water traps, but I don't think they'd work for continuous duty. Shooting for about 60-70% RH on the inlet would probably be my best guess for efficiency. I'm also thinking keeping the reactor body warmer may alleviate some of the condensation issues caused by skimmer air recirc.
One other thought I had was to create a "drip loop" in the airline between the skimmer and scrubber, with a "t" at the apex. Adding a piece of airline to the perpendicular and dropping the other end into the sump (or a container of water) should drop condensation out of the line before it gets to the scrubber, without loss of suction.
Just my 2 cents, I'll stop procrastinating now and get back to the books.