CO2 scrubbers

[Crystal08]

My tank was running 7.8-8.0 and I would get up to 8.1 running a line outside. Kalkwasser helps, but with frags the demand is low hence not a big bump in PH. I took a chance and ordered a icecap medium Co2 scrubber and made it recirculating.

My goodness what a change! 4 people in the house, I’m averaging 8.2-8.45. No people in the house for a day and it jumps to 8.6. I’ll see how long the media lasts, but it’s been a few weeks already and still churning out great numbers.

The nice thing about the icecap scrubber is that is has a built in water trap at the bottom so it doesn’t get the media wet. Moisture from skimmer cup helps keep the media long lasting. I drilled a hole in the side of my IM desktop skimmer cup and put a John guest fitting on. I have a skimmer sensor so it never flows down the tube.

Cost me around $100.

My protein skimmer is ps1 Fluval and it doesn’t seem to work like other skimmers that I find online. Trying to figure out anything that will help my ph since it 7-6-7.7 right now

 

[Naturalreef]

Your skimmer looks similar to mine. I really thought my skimmer wouldn’t work because it was so small. It works perfectly with the co2 scrubber and I would assume yours would too. The IM skimmer pump is tiny and it still does a great job. Higher PH has really perked up my tank.

 

[jasongrant15]

I’ve also tried c02 scrubbers and agree with one of the other posters. I had to constantly change out media. I don’t have the icecap though. Do you have any other options for increasing your ph? Is your tank up against a wall that is close to outside of your house? Do you run a refugium? How long do you run your lights for? Just thinking of other options that might help. Pulling in air from outdoors can help if the area your tank is in is high in co2.

If a refugium is an option, macro algae will raise your ph as it will consume c02, this is one of my favorite ways. My refugium is super simple, just a grow light, a bit of chaeto and a vessel for water. I’m not doing anything fancy with substrate or mud.

Also really easy to manage (for me), nutrients decreasing too fast, remove some chaeto, too many nutrients, let the chaeto grow. The refugium also allows me to have a more consistent ph by running the light opposite of my main tank light.

 

[Crystal08]

I’ve also tried c02 scrubbers and agree with one of the other posters. I had to constantly change out media. I don’t have the icecap though. Do you have any other options for increasing your ph? Is your tank up against a wall that is close to outside of your house? Do you run a refugium? How long do you run your lights for? Just thinking of other options that might help. Pulling in air from outdoors can help if the area your tank is in is high in co2.

If a refugium is an option, macro algae will raise your ph as it will consume c02, this is one of my favorite ways. My refugium is super simple, just a grow light, a bit of chaeto and a vessel for water. I’m not doing anything fancy with substrate or mud.

Also really easy to manage (for me), nutrients decreasing too fast, remove some chaeto, too many nutrients, let the chaeto grow. The refugium also allows me to have a more consistent ph by running the light opposite of my main tank light.

The tank is on a back wall by a door and window but it’s 108 degrees almost everyday here. So i don’t really keep them open. Lights are on 8 hrs on timer. I have some Cheato in the tank. Don’t have a place for a refugium in the cabinet my tank is on. I don’t know how to hook those up either.

 

[Crystal08]

Your skimmer looks similar to mine. I really thought my skimmer wouldn’t work because it was so small. It works perfectly with the co2 scrubber and I would assume yours would too. The IM skimmer pump is tiny and it still does a great job. Higher PH has really perked up my tank.

I’m just not sure how i connect the protein skimmer and co scrubber together to make it recirculating

 

[Naturalreef]

You drill a hole in skimmer top cover or near top side of cup and connect tubing. Then attach skimmer cup tubing to inlet of scrubber. Output tubing of scrubber connects to air inlet of skimmer.

 

[jasongrant15]

The tank is on a back wall by a door and window but it’s 108 degrees almost everyday here. So i don’t really keep them open. Lights are on 8 hrs on timer. I have some Cheato in the tank. Don’t have a place for a refugium in the cabinet my tank is on. I don’t know how to hook those up either.

Hi Crystal08,

You wouldn’t need to open the window, some people run a tube outside, a tiny one attached to the air intake on their protein skimmer, I know your protein skimmer is different. Will try and think of options but outside air is a cheap way to increase pH. You’d just make the hole small and seal around it so you don’t bring in any of that hot air. Thinking 1/4” tubing. Some others may have other ideas.

Maybe something like a little air pump and an air stone. You’d have to drill a tiny hole to make this work and I wouldn’t do it without doing a little research first. I’ll look up the manual you posted on your skimmer.

Reference: https://reefstable.com/blog/reef-ta...f bringing fresh,increasing your reef tank pH.

Section titled “less c02 in the air”

 

[jasongrant15]

I just looked up your manual, you’d simply take the air inlet tube and run that outside, that would help with pH. Just as an alternative idea in case the c02 scrubber doesn’t achieve what you are looking for.

 

[Steve2020]

So t

So take the tube off the top of the collection cup and put the tube over the side but hanging over the water to drain? Or am I way off

Yes, you are correct. This is just in case your collection cup overflows without you noticing.

 

[Steve2020]

Hello Crystal08,
You have been giving some good recommendations from fellow Reefer's. One thing about this hobby is that you want to attempt to prevent any kind of disaster that may arise. Some of the recommendations that have been giving to you, though good, have some potential issues that you should try to avoid. With your current skimmer, if you are to bring in outside air you should put some tight fitting tubing into the hole in the collection cup lid where the original valve was and run that tubing into your sump/tank. This will be your emergency overflow.

If you decide to run a CO2 Scrubber ( NO RECIRC ) I have attached a drawing on how I would do it. This example will provide you with the safety needed to prevent a possible overflow situation that could drain your tank.

A skimmer recirc is possible with your skimmer but I am not sure how you could setup an emergency drain for safety purposes without exhausting the air from the cup and not going to the scrubber. Air will take the least path of resistance. I am not saying that you will ever have a skimmer cup overflow but it can happen and probably will at some point.

As far as what CO2 scrubber to use that is up to you. The small BRS scrubber is cheap in price only and would work fine, and yes it will collect moisture. It does have a small section for moister to collect, not the size of the Ice Cap, but if for some reason you get a lot of moisture, the BRS is much easier to empty, take off the lid and pull out the canister holding the media and empty the scrubber housing. With the Ice Cap, to empty the water you deed to dump out the media first. I doubt the you would ever collect enough moisture in the Icecap to have to empty it prior to the media having to be replaced but it is always possible.

If you do ever decide that you want to run a Skimmer Recirc, you will also want to bring in some fresh air into to scrubber. In my setup I use a Wye fitting for this. Why also bring in some fresh air do you say? Well, it is highly recommended by Randy, the Reef Chemist on this site. He talks about the bad gasses that collect in the skimmer cup that get recirculated back into your tank if you don't bring some fresh air into the skimmer when doing a recirc setup.
It's all about being as safe as possible for the inhabitants of your tank.

Any questions fill free to ask.

 

[Crystal08]

Hi Crystal08,

You wouldn’t need to open the window, some people run a tube outside, a tiny one attached to the air intake on their protein skimmer, I know your protein skimmer is different. Will try and think of options but outside air is a cheap way to increase pH. You’d just make the hole small and seal around it so you don’t bring in any of that hot air. Thinking 1/4” tubing. Some others may have other ideas.

Maybe something like a little air pump and an air stone. You’d have to drill a tiny hole to make this work and I wouldn’t do it without doing a little research first. I’ll look up the manual you posted on your skimmer.

Reference: https://reefstable.com/blog/reef-tank-ph#:~:text=Another way of bringing fresh,increasing your reef tank pH.

Section titled “less c02 in the air”

Ok this may be way off and definitely just a rough placement and not secured but would this work ? I bought a wooden air stone on amazon that comes tomorrow to try micro bubbles

 

[Steve2020]

Ok this may be way off and definitely just a rough placement and not secured but would this work ? I bought a wooden air stone on amazon that comes tomorrow to try micro bubbles.

Ok this may be way off and definitely just a rough placement and not secured but would this work ? I bought a wooden air stone on amazon that comes tomorrow to try micro bubbles

Where is that air coming from? Do you have an air pump outside that door? If so, do you have a syphon/backflow preventer installed?

 

[Crystal08]

Where is that air coming from? Do you have an air pump outside that door? If so, do you have a syphon/backflow preventer installed?

The pump is outside the door and no i didn’t set up syphone preventer but i think we have a check valve somewhere

 

[jasongrant15]

I concur with Steve. Always think about safety in order to prevent disaster. If you don’t have a check valve immediately, you could place the tube a few inches below the surface, that way if you did create an unintentional siphon, it wouldn’t drain the whole tank. Mistakes are always made when something is done in haste or when tired. I started a water change a few months ago and finished at midnight. Raised the hose up above my brute trash can and went to bed, I was exchausted. Ended up accidentally back siphoning 55 gallons.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

First of all, I believe that many ppl. have little or no experience with that skimmer. I have had that skimmer, well still do in a crate, and it is very hard to tune. The chances of doing nothing to overflowing are great. You would be doing yourself a favor by getting a better skimmer. I prefer the Eshopps Nano, But there are so many better ones out there than the fluval. Since you are so close to a window, a better skimmer with a better pump you should be able to run an airline from the air intake through a cracked window and you can skip the whole CO2 scrubber.
Having a airstone set up like you do (with an added checkvalve) should increase your PH to 8.3. If it does not you may have other issues. That may include your test kit to water parameters. The down side to an airstone is the salt spray, which a skimmer doing the same thing contains.

 

[Crystal08]

First of all, I believe that many ppl. have little or no experience with that skimmer. I have had that skimmer, well still do in a crate, and it is very hard to tune. The chances of doing nothing to overflowing are great. You would be doing yourself a favor by getting a better skimmer. I prefer the Eshopps Nano, But there are so many better ones out there than the fluval. Since you are so close to a window, a better skimmer with a better pump you should be able to run an airline from the air intake through a cracked window and you can skip the whole CO2 scrubber.
Having a airstone set up like you do (with an added checkvalve) should increase your PH to 8.3. If it does not you may have other issues. That may include your test kit to water parameters. The down side to an airstone is the salt spray, which a skimmer doing the same thing contains.

So just a better skimmer may do the trick? The air stone with outside air over night did not seem to help. The ph was 7.6 today and alk 11.4. I have a Hanna multi parameter tester that only a few months old. So I do trust those numbers.

 

[jasongrant15]

So just a better skimmer may do the trick? The air stone with outside air over night did not seem to help. The ph was 7.6 today and alk 11.4. I have a Hanna multi parameter tester that only a few months old. So I do trust those numbers.

Oh man, sorry, I’d give it a little while, maybe 2 or 3 days. The issue with running the air stone and the skimmer is you are still pulling in internal air from your protein skimmer (however, I’d expect a better number, not a worse number if you are getting a rough 50% blend. Is it possible to turn off your skimmer for a little while? Best setup for your tank is (in my opinion) is a protein skimmer where the protein skimmer intake air is from outdoors.

In addition, c02 is heavier than oxygen, so if you can raise where your outdoor tube is located, that may help, it all depends on if the outdoor air you are pulling is fresh (wind/free air flow) or if it’s in a tiny corner at the bottom of a wall.

Is your outdoor air near an area of low airflow at the very base of your house?

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

So just a better skimmer may do the trick? The air stone with outside air over night did not seem to help. The ph was 7.6 today and alk 11.4. I have a Hanna multi parameter tester that only a few months old. So I do trust those numbers.

Well, it is kind of two different things that are related. A better skimmer is going to be a plus for removing organic waste and will aerate your water better. Which in turn will give you a better PH. If you connect the air intake of the skimmer to the outside you should be able to raise your PH. The ability for a needle wheel pump on a skimmer to draw air is reduced the greater the distance. To visualize that or even if you want to do an experiment, you can put a bunch of straws together end to end and see how long the distance is that you can draw air with your lungs. ( I think it is like 6ft. avg.) Now imagine your lungs being the skimmer pump. the better the pump the more and farther it can pull outside air.
Also your DKH is a bit high so your PH is not going to change rapidly because of so much buffering affects of high PH

 

[Crystal08]

Hello Crystal08,
You have been giving some good recommendations from fellow Reefer's. One thing about this hobby is that you want to attempt to prevent any kind of disaster that may arise. Some of the recommendations that have been giving to you, though good, have some potential issues that you should try to avoid. With your current skimmer, if you are to bring in outside air you should put some tight fitting tubing into the hole in the collection cup lid where the original valve was and run that tubing into your sump/tank. This will be your emergency overflow.

If you decide to run a CO2 Scrubber ( NO RECIRC ) I have attached a drawing on how I would do it. This example will provide you with the safety needed to prevent a possible overflow situation that could drain your tank.

A skimmer recirc is possible with your skimmer but I am not sure how you could setup an emergency drain for safety purposes without exhausting the air from the cup and not going to the scrubber. Air will take the least path of resistance. I am not saying that you will ever have a skimmer cup overflow but it can happen and probably will at some point.

As far as what CO2 scrubber to use that is up to you. The small BRS scrubber is cheap in price only and would work fine, and yes it will collect moisture. It does have a small section for moister to collect, not the size of the Ice Cap, but if for some reason you get a lot of moisture, the BRS is much easier to empty, take off the lid and pull out the canister holding the media and empty the scrubber housing. With the Ice Cap, to empty the water you deed to dump out the media first. I doubt the you would ever collect enough moisture in the Icecap to have to empty it prior to the media having to be replaced but it is always possible.

If you do ever decide that you want to run a Skimmer Recirc, you will also want to bring in some fresh air into to scrubber. In my setup I use a Wye fitting for this. Why also bring in some fresh air do you say? Well, it is highly recommended by Randy, the Reef Chemist on this site. He talks about the bad gasses that collect in the skimmer cup that get recirculated back into your tank if you don't bring some fresh air into the skimmer when doing a recirc setup.
It's all about being as safe as possible for the inhabitants of your tank.

Any questions fill free to ask.

From the drawing you did what would i need to do differently if I was trying to set it up recirculating?

 

[jda]

Any recirculating skimmer will lower o2 in the tank. A recirculating skimmer with a co2 scrubber will lower co2 in the tank a bit, but also will keep o2 lower.

I know that Texas is hot, but try and open the doors or windows for a few minutes each day. You don't even have to do it for long enough to make anything hot if you do it early morning for a minute or two where a breeze lets a good amount of air in - the cooler walls, furniture, etc. will cool the air down quickly. Window is the original co2 scrubber. Nothing outside of a strong base can affect the pH of a tank more than co2 in your home/room with the tank. Even if you have to run the AC a bit more, a dollar or two a week in extra AC is cheap compared to a reactor and replacing media.

Even if you have a co2 scrubber, high room co2 will burn through media. Fresh air will make the media last a lot longer.