CO2 scrubber to increase pH

[Reef of Fillory]

I have always suffered from low pH in my tank. Over thanksgiving there was nobody home and I have a Reef Angel controller [never had a controller before]. I was able to see my pH climb and stay high while we were out of the house. This led me to think that the low pH is a result of chronically high CO2 in my apartment.

Since i'm not able to drill through the apartment walls, I took my BRS dual GFO/Carbon reactor and turned it into a CO2 scrubber.

All I did was take the input 90 off of the reactor, filled the internal tubes with CO2 scrubber media from shopmedvet [$97 shipped for 39lbs].

Then I used some plumbers tape around the skimmer air tube, pushed it into the RODI tubing and then used electrical tape to seal the connection up.

I added the scrubber at 6:30pm on 11/29/17

Before the scrubber I would be surprised if my pH ever even hit a high of 7.9.
My lighting schedule is 12 hours on/off [no dimming or ramping] from 8am-8pm Refugium light h380] on from 11pm-5am. If I put the H380 on for 12 hours [opposite display] my chaeto dies from supposedly too much light.

This is after 14 hours on my skimmer. I hope that the scrubber media usage slows down!

 

[Brew12]

I have always suffered from low pH in my tank. Over thanksgiving there was nobody home and I have a Reef Angel controller [never had a controller before]. I was able to see my pH climb and stay high while we were out of the house. This led me to think that the low pH is a result of chronically high CO2 in my apartment.

High CO2 is always the cause of low pH as long as alkalinity is in a normal range.

A few weeks ago my wife and I went out of town. We told our 17 year old son he could have 2 friends over. One look at my Apex pH told me he had more over than 2. Turns out he had 5 friends over. I love chemistry!

My experience with adding a CO2 scrubber was that the first time I ran it the media burned through quickly but it goes much slower later. Its almost like the first one lowers the CO2 in the entire house and then just works to keep it low. It could be something else, but that was what I observed.

 

[3mm3]

My experience with adding a CO2 scrubber was that the first time I ran it the media burned through quickly but it goes much slower later. Its almost like the first one lowers the CO2 in the entire house and then just works to keep it low. It could be something else, but that was what I observed.

This was my exact experience

 

[3mm3]

@Reef of Fillory Did you add water to the bottom of the media containers? I run water prior to the scrubber media in a separate container.

 

[Reef of Fillory]

@Reef of Fillory Did you add water to the bottom of the media containers? I run water prior to the scrubber media in a separate container.

Yes I added water to both containers as well as having a fairly contained sump which I hope will keep the humidity high to assist with slower use of the scrubber media =]

The input to the canisters pulls air from inside the stand.

 

[Jerome Woodward]

My experience as well!!!

 

[Centerline]

And mine as well

 

[Reef of Fillory]

This was my exact experience

My experience as well!!!

And mine as well

Do you guys all still [continously] run a CO2 scrubber on your tanks?

 

[3mm3]

Do you guys all still [continously] run a CO2 scrubber on your tanks?

I sure do! I change the media between every 2 and 3 weeks. In previous homes in different states (I have moved a lot) I never had to deal with low ph so this is new problem for me.

 

[XNavyDiver]

I have always suffered from low pH in my tank. Over thanksgiving there was nobody home and I have a Reef Angel controller [never had a controller before]. I was able to see my pH climb and stay high while we were out of the house. This led me to think that the low pH is a result of chronically high CO2 in my apartment.

Since i'm not able to drill through the apartment walls, I took my BRS dual GFO/Carbon reactor and turned it into a CO2 scrubber.

All I did was take the input 90 off of the reactor, filled the internal tubes with CO2 scrubber media from shopmedvet [$97 shipped for 39lbs].

Then I used some plumbers tape around the skimmer air tube, pushed it into the RODI tubing and then used electrical tape to seal the connection up.

I added the scrubber at 6:30pm on 11/29/17

Before the scrubber I would be surprised if my pH ever even hit a high of 7.9.
My lighting schedule is 12 hours on/off [no dimming or ramping] from 8am-8pm Refugium light h380] on from 11pm-5am. If I put the H380 on for 12 hours [opposite display] my chaeto dies from supposedly too much light.

This is after 14 hours on my skimmer. I hope that the scrubber media usage slows down!

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ph-poll-what-does-yours-top-out-at.339663/#post-4221235

See post #15 if you want your media to last longer than a week.

 

[Reef of Fillory]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ph-poll-what-does-yours-top-out-at.339663/#post-4221235

See post #15 if you want your media to last longer than a week.

I saw that looking through that thread, good idea! I might see if mine will stabilize before I decide to drill into the skimmer cup just for the sake of not unnecessarily drilling up my equipment =)

If my media lasts 2 weeks i'll be happy with it

One question though is did you see any significant improvement in pH by doing this, or was it just an improvement in time between media changes?

Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[XNavyDiver]

I saw that looking through that thread, good idea! I might see if mine will stabilize before I decide to drill into the skimmer cup just for the sake of not unnecessarily drilling up my equipment =)

If my media lasts 2 weeks i'll be happy with it

One question though is did you see any significant improvement in pH by doing this, or was it just an improvement in time between media changes?

Thanks for the suggestion!

I wish I would have made a note in Fusion of the day I connected it to the skimmer cup, and that way I could see the pH chart to give you a definitive answer. But I'm a knucklehead and I didn't. I want to say the pH stayed the same. But I can say for sure that my media re fill times stretched out to 3+ weeks, sometimes 4.

 

[3mm3]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ph-poll-what-does-yours-top-out-at.339663/#post-4221235

See post #15 if you want your media to last longer than a week.

I'm going to try out this method. Thank you

 

[Reef of Fillory]

I'm going to try out this method. Thank you

If you remember, report back on how much of a difference it makes for you!

I have also seen that some people will tie their input tube to a mason jar full of water or something similar to increase the humidity of the incoming air

 

[cardiffgiant]

Nice setup. Shopmedvet is also the best price that I've found on media.

 

[CoralNerd]

Funny I had the opposite happen on Thanksgiving. My wife had a Turkey in the oven over night and it killed my ph. lol

As far as c02 scrubbing by feeding air to the scrubber media via the skimmer cup is the way to go.

The thing I don't like about c02 scrubbing is the alk swings so I'm trying without scrubbing for now.

 

[Sharvey103]

High CO2 is always the cause of low pH as long as alkalinity is in a normal range.

A few weeks ago my wife and I went out of town. We told our 17 year old son he could have 2 friends over. One look at my Apex pH told me he had more over than 2. Turns out he had 5 friends over. I love chemistry!

My experience with adding a CO2 scrubber was that the first time I ran it the media burned through quickly but it goes much slower later. Its almost like the first one lowers the CO2 in the entire house and then just works to keep it low. It could be something else, but that was what I observed.

I saw the same thing when I added my scrubber. Burned up the media the first 3 changes in about 5 days each. Now it lasts for 2 weeks.

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Funny I had the opposite happen on Thanksgiving. My wife had a Turkey in the oven over night and it killed my ph. lol

As far as c02 scrubbing by feeding air to the scrubber media via the skimmer cup is the way to go.

The thing I don't like about c02 scrubbing is the alk swings so I'm trying without scrubbing for now.

My understanding is that the changes in ALK are unrelated to the pH stabilization, and more a product of increased pH causing a higher demand for ALK by the corals and other organisms which then lowers ALK. Then when pH starts to fall [as media is used up] the ALK demand drops, but dosing stays the same which causes ALK to rise. Then the cycle repeats.

This is why I used my dual media reactor from BRS instead of ordering the single scrubber canister. As one canister depletes, I will change the second canister to the first spot, refill the spent canister and put it in the second position.

 

[Reef of Fillory]

I saw the same thing when I added my scrubber. Burned up the media the first 3 changes in about 5 days each. Now it lasts for 2 weeks.

Out of curiosity, have you attached your scrubber to your skimmer cup, or do you have it running exposed to just the air in your sump/room?

 

[Reef of Fillory]

For recording purposes, this is the result of day 2 with the CO2 scrubber

The last graph ended ~ 8am on 11/30.

I don't know how to retrieve this data from my #ReefAngel controller and make it usable to graph in Excel or similar program. Roberto from RA forums suggested I use a .JSON file, but I have no clue how to utilize that and a google search didn't bring up anything that I could understand.

If anyone has experience retrieving and logging data from a ReefAngel, let me know - I could use some help!