CO2 Scrubber

[Ty Hamatake]

Any pics yet?

This is a good example of how it should look. It follows a gradual consistent pattern of exhaustion, slowly working its way up. I have found that there is a "sweet spot" of how much media you add. Too little and it runs through the media faster, too much and it causes irregular usage (from what I believe to be 'dense' spots in the media). Either way, two days to complete exhaustion is WAY too fast. What skimmer are you using? Are you keeping your media humid?

 

[justingraham]

A stupid question for you but was the media u bought and used sealed tightly? I only say this as I bought an unsealed one one time and it only lasted a day as it was exhausted from being in the open air for however long it was.
I get anywhere from 15-30 days 15 when I just had a co2 scrubber hooked up to 30 when I connected the scrubber to outside air

 

[Breakthecycle2]

This is a good example of how it should look. It follows a gradual consistent pattern of exhaustion, slowly working its way up. I have found that there is a "sweet spot" of how much media you add. Too little and it runs through the media faster, too much and it causes irregular usage (from what I believe to be 'dense' spots in the media). Either way, two days to complete exhaustion is WAY too fast. What skimmer are you using? Are you keeping your media humid?

I added a little but of water at the bottom, per the instructions. I am using the new E-shopps s-300 Premiere line.

 

[Breakthecycle2]

A stupid question for you but was the media u bought and used sealed tightly? I only say this as I bought an unsealed one one time and it only lasted a day as it was exhausted from being in the open air for however long it was.
I get anywhere from 15-30 days 15 when I just had a co2 scrubber hooked up to 30 when I connected the scrubber to outside air

Yeah it seemed like it. I ordered it from Amazon.

 

[Breakthecycle2]

This is a good example of how it should look. It follows a gradual consistent pattern of exhaustion, slowly working its way up. I have found that there is a "sweet spot" of how much media you add. Too little and it runs through the media faster, too much and it causes irregular usage (from what I believe to be 'dense' spots in the media). Either way, two days to complete exhaustion is WAY too fast. What skimmer are you using? Are you keeping your media humid?

Yup, mine looked that after only one day.

 

[justingraham]

Well the only brand I used is tlf cdx so I can't comment on that

What brand did u go with and if you still have the container it came in see if it has the year it was made

 

[Ty Hamatake]

I can't seem to find how much air that skimmer pulls, but I'm guessing it's somewhere around 1800 l/h. That is enough that a small amount of water in the canister would evaporate within a day or two so first thing I would suggest is figuring out some sort of humidifier for your media (that's what the bottle in the second picture is for mine). Also, do you have any way of adjusting the airflow through the media?

 

[Breakthecycle2]

I can't seem to find how much air that skimmer pulls, but I'm guessing it's somewhere around 1800 l/h. That is enough that a small amount of water in the canister would evaporate within a day or two so first thing I would suggest is figuring out some sort of humidifier for your media (that's what the bottle in the second picture is for mine). Also, do you have any way of adjusting the airflow through the media?

I dont have any adjuster on it or anything, no.

 

[roberthu526]

1800 l/h is a lot! My SRO 3000 only pulls 1000 or 1400 and it rated for 200 gallon heavy load tank.

 

[Breakthecycle2]

1800 l/h is a lot! My SRO 3000 only pulls 1000 or 1400 and it rated for 200 gallon heavy load tank.

Mine is rated for 500

 

[Breakthecycle2]

I found it, its rated for 1400 l/h

 

[Ty Hamatake]

Hmmm.... mine is advertised at 1200 l/h, so this makes me think it's just your media. If you have any left I'd keep it for backup purposes only. I was still dialing everything in when I used it, but the TLF brand worked well but went fast. I had good results with the BRS brand, but it's expensive. Now I'm using rebreather media, and I'd have to say it's the best way to go mainly due to price. This is what I use.
https://www.amronintl.com/wr-grace-sodasorb-carbon-dioxide-absorbents.html

 

[justingraham]

Hmmm.... mine is advertised at 1200 l/h, so this makes me think it's just your media. If you have any left I'd keep it for backup purposes only. I was still dialing everything in when I used it, but the TLF brand worked well but went fast. I had good results with the BRS brand, but it's expensive. Now I'm using rebreather media, and I'd have to say it's the best way to go mainly due to price. This is what I use.
https://www.amronintl.com/wr-grace-sodasorb-carbon-dioxide-absorbents.html

I added mine to my system and it bumped my ph up to the 8.5 range and corals have taken off along with all consuptiom I went from .6 dkh a day to over 1 dkh a day insane how a higher ph can do that

I added the cdx on the 15th and it's about 1/3 blue so I'm hooding to get almost a month out of it

 

[Ty Hamatake]

I added mine to my system and it bumped my ph up to the 8.5 range and corals have taken off along with all consuptiom I went from .6 dkh a day to over 1 dkh a day insane how a higher ph can do that

I added the cdx on the 15th and it's about 1/3 blue so I'm hooding to get almost a month out of it

That was one thing I forgot would happen and freaked out a bit when I tested my dKH and it was super low!

What skimmer do you have? I was still fiddling with everything, but when I used the CDX it lasted about a week. I'm sure I'd get more out of it now though.

 

[Silver14SS]

I added mine to my system and it bumped my ph up to the 8.5 range and corals have taken off along with all consuptiom I went from .6 dkh a day to over 1 dkh a day insane how a higher ph can do that

Great reminder that growth and alk consumption will increase. Good problem to have I guess!

 

[justingraham]

Great reminder that growth and alk consumption will increase. Good problem to have I guess!

Yea I guess scary tho the last couple days it had me tripple testing as I'm going on vacation for two weeks soon I want consistancy not this when it is done I won't refill it till I get back

I have the regal 170int on the forth setting so 80%???

 

[Breakthecycle2]

This is after a day, day and half and the soda lime I'm using.

 

[Bpb]

You must have a ton of co2 in your place. I'd really try to get creative in getting fresh air to the skimmer instead of soda lime. Or...even better. Soda lime AND fresh air

 

[Ty Hamatake]

This is after a day, day and half and the soda lime I'm using.

Two things I'd try are filling the canister all the way, and finding a way to continuously keep the media moisturized (even if it's refilling the water every day or two). You may just have a high concentration of CO2 in your home, but less than two days of usage makes me think something is off. You may also want to try figuring out a way to adjust the flow of air going through your scrubber. I simply added a T to my line with a little ball valve and took advantage of the "path of least resistance". What did your pH get up to while it was on?

 

[Breakthecycle2]

Two things I'd try are filling the canister all the way, and finding a way to continuously keep the media moisturized (even if it's refilling the water every day or two). You may just have a high concentration of CO2 in your home, but less than two days of usage makes me think something is off. You may also want to try figuring out a way to adjust the flow of air going through your scrubber. I simply added a T to my line with a little ball valve and took advantage of the "path of least resistance". What did your pH get up to while it was on?

At RAP yesterday I spoke with Ryan from BRS , hoping he'd have some type of input, but he really didn't seem to know to much about it. I refilled the canister around 2PM yesterday before I went to RAP. I came home at 630 and the top of the canister was already purple.