CO2 Scrubbing: An Unexpected Journey Chasing Numbers

[Ty Hamatake]

I've heard that a lot of people use the one that you found and I guess it's all essentially the same stuff. The one I'm using now has lasted longer than any of the other brands I've used (Two Little Fishies CDX, BRS, and the Sodasorb), but the problem with my results is that the CDX and BRS were used when I was getting everything figured out. You've got me thinking that I need to run the other ones now that I've gotten everything tweaked to see if there is an actually difference. I'd say get the cheapest you can find and use it to "calibrate" your system, then start messing around with different medias. Are you currently running a scrubber?

 

[bubbaque]

No, I'm using a hose to the outside but ph still only hits 7.8.

 

[Ty Hamatake]

Quick little update.

Was recently stuck away from home for three weeks unexpectedly and ran into some problems with media exhaustion. I was getting two solid weeks with one canister, what do you think I'll get with two!? I'm betting I'll get at least five well hoping anyway

 

[justingraham]

Quick little update.

Was recently stuck away from home for three weeks unexpectedly and ran into some problems with media exhaustion. I was getting two solid weeks with one canister, what do you think I'll get with two!? I'm betting I'll get at least five well hoping anyway

Is that run in series or parallel?

 

[Ty Hamatake]

Is that run in series or parallel?

In series. Eventually I would actually like to try make something that'll run multiple all parallel to each other to test the longevity of each media. That's a DIY project for another day though.

 

[justingraham]

In series. Eventually I would actually like to try make something that'll run multiple all parallel to each other to test the longevity of each media. That's a DIY project for another day though.

So with it being in series u think u will get five weeks? I think u might get a little less then double what ur getting now.

I have no scientific proof of why I think that I just do

I hope it works out for ya and keep us posted

 

[SchnitzelReef]

I'm wondering if anyone on here has tried adding a kessil h350/380 to increase PH?
I know it sounds crazy, but on BRS fuge light test, the tank with the kessil h380 had very high PH. I am considering trying one on my fuge to see if I get similar results.

 

[justingraham]

I'm wondering if anyone on here has tried adding a kessil h350/380 to increase PH?
I know it sounds crazy, but on BRS fuge light test, the tank with the kessil h380 had very high PH. I am considering trying one on my fuge to see if I get similar results.

I'm using a kessil a360w as a fuge light and I still have a swing.

I was thinking along the same line tho say if I had two tank tied together and ran the tanks on opposite light schedules would that work?

 

[aarbutina]

Off to a solid start! You can pretty much track down the hour I hooked that puppy up. I was super excited at first. About two days in I took a look at the canister... almost 1/3 solid purple. "Ok, maybe it burns quick at first then slows WAY down" is what I told myself. Day seven it was at one half, day 10 now it was at 3/4! "Oh it must just be like the outer layer and it works its way in..." unfortunately I was wrong on all counts.

Ty. I was having a very similar and frustrating experience. I would go through an entire canister or media in a week. As adding the water bottle to the inlet of the reactor significantly improved the length of time you can get out of the media?

Ok a side note.... I can also say they sometime a scrubber can be too much of a good thing. Again like you I was fighting chronic low pH on my tank so I threw a scrubber on. It worked great besides the whole change the media every couple of days thing... which on a further side not can be a major pain if you have a dosed set up. As the media begins to exhaust the demand for alkalinity starts to drop, the doses isn't smart enough to recognize this keep dosing at the same amount and you alk numbers start to rise. Bad news there.... anyway back to the original thought.... scrubber works great when people and pets are in the whole maintaining a fairly consistent level of CO2. But then you go away for the week on vacation. That normally level of CO2 isn't in the house and that is where the trouble on the flip side of the coin begins.

Now fore this isn't a theoretical, this happened just a few weeks ago. In an affront to maintain consistency while I was gone on a business trip for 10day I replaced my media the day I left. I was trying to avoid the situation that occurred during the last trip where the media exhausted and my alk spiked, sps melt down... Any way fresh media is on the system, I walk out the door all is good. My wife and dog also decided to go stay with a friend while I was away. Through my controller I am keeping track of my tank while I am half way around the world. First the first few days everything is good and the pH is stable around 8.3. A couple days later the pH starts to climb. 8.40, 8.45, 8.50, and finally settles on 8.55 where it remains until I get home. First thing I do is look at the media and find that it is now where as near as exhausted as it normally would be for close to 10 days. Alk check shows that my level had dropped significantly even though the dosing pump was functioning properly. This is just the opposite of what happened before where pH dropped alk consumption drops. PH raises alk consumption raises. It makes it impossible to set a doses to take care of your additions with this kind of swing and stresses your corals. Anyway I don't change the media and continue to monitor pH of the next couple of day now that people are back in the house. And what do you know it settles right back to between 8.2 and 8.3.

All in all I almost think it is better to have a much lower base pH than deal with the swings that can be introduced by a scrubber. I have since taken my scrubber of line and and experimenting with a hose run out the window. It's not pretty looking but the pH is stable, and it is a great big world out there full of oxygen.

 

[justingraham]

Ty. I was having a very similar and frustrating experience. I would go through an entire canister or media in a week. As adding the water bottle to the inlet of the reactor significantly improved the length of time you can get out of the media?

Ok a side note.... I can also say they sometime a scrubber can be too much of a good thing. Again like you I was fighting chronic low pH on my tank so I threw a scrubber on. It worked great besides the whole change the media every couple of days thing... which on a further side not can be a major pain if you have a dosed set up. As the media begins to exhaust the demand for alkalinity starts to drop, the doses isn't smart enough to recognize this keep dosing at the same amount and you alk numbers start to rise. Bad news there.... anyway back to the original thought.... scrubber works great when people and pets are in the whole maintaining a fairly consistent level of CO2. But then you go away for the week on vacation. That normally level of CO2 isn't in the house and that is where the trouble on the flip side of the coin begins.

Now fore this isn't a theoretical, this happened just a few weeks ago. In an affront to maintain consistency while I was gone on a business trip for 10day I replaced my media the day I left. I was trying to avoid the situation that occurred during the last trip where the media exhausted and my alk spiked, sps melt down... Any way fresh media is on the system, I walk out the door all is good. My wife and dog also decided to go stay with a friend while I was away. Through my controller I am keeping track of my tank while I am half way around the world. First the first few days everything is good and the pH is stable around 8.3. A couple days later the pH starts to climb. 8.40, 8.45, 8.50, and finally settles on 8.55 where it remains until I get home. First thing I do is look at the media and find that it is now where as near as exhausted as it normally would be for close to 10 days. Alk check shows that my level had dropped significantly even though the dosing pump was functioning properly. This is just the opposite of what happened before where pH dropped alk consumption drops. PH raises alk consumption raises. It makes it impossible to set a doses to take care of your additions with this kind of swing and stresses your corals. Anyway I don't change the media and continue to monitor pH of the next couple of day now that people are back in the house. And what do you know it settles right back to between 8.2 and 8.3.

All in all I almost think it is better to have a much lower base pH than deal with the swings that can be introduced by a scrubber. I have since taken my scrubber of line and and experimenting with a hose run out the window. It's not pretty looking but the pH is stable, and it is a great big world out there full of oxygen.

I agree with this as soon as I put my scrubber on my ph shot up to 8.5 daily. And so did my alk demand when the cdx was exhausted so was the demand for alk.

I was doseing close to 26ml a day when the scrubber was running over a course of a week it has dropped down to me dosing 15 ml.

It's a heck of a ride when the ph is up @8.5 but if ur not there to test that ride could end up with dead corals. Igbo now my ph is at 8.1-8.3 daily and I'm ok with it as this will lead to more consistancy with doseing

 

[bubbaque]

100% noticeable increase with my scrubber running. I don't use the the kessil but I do use a 300w led grow light and it didn't help with raising ph for me.

 

[Lasse]

Ty. I was having a very similar and frustrating experience. I would go through an entire canister or media in a week. As adding the water bottle to the inlet of the reactor significantly improved the length of time you can get out of the media?

Ok a side note.... I can also say they sometime a scrubber can be too much of a good thing. Again like you I was fighting chronic low pH on my tank so I threw a scrubber on. It worked great besides the whole change the media every couple of days thing... which on a further side not can be a major pain if you have a dosed set up. As the media begins to exhaust the demand for alkalinity starts to drop, the doses isn't smart enough to recognize this keep dosing at the same amount and you alk numbers start to rise. Bad news there.... anyway back to the original thought.... scrubber works great when people and pets are in the whole maintaining a fairly consistent level of CO2. But then you go away for the week on vacation. That normally level of CO2 isn't in the house and that is where the trouble on the flip side of the coin begins.

Now fore this isn't a theoretical, this happened just a few weeks ago. In an affront to maintain consistency while I was gone on a business trip for 10day I replaced my media the day I left. I was trying to avoid the situation that occurred during the last trip where the media exhausted and my alk spiked, sps melt down... Any way fresh media is on the system, I walk out the door all is good. My wife and dog also decided to go stay with a friend while I was away. Through my controller I am keeping track of my tank while I am half way around the world. First the first few days everything is good and the pH is stable around 8.3. A couple days later the pH starts to climb. 8.40, 8.45, 8.50, and finally settles on 8.55 where it remains until I get home. First thing I do is look at the media and find that it is now where as near as exhausted as it normally would be for close to 10 days. Alk check shows that my level had dropped significantly even though the dosing pump was functioning properly. This is just the opposite of what happened before where pH dropped alk consumption drops. PH raises alk consumption raises. It makes it impossible to set a doses to take care of your additions with this kind of swing and stresses your corals. Anyway I don't change the media and continue to monitor pH of the next couple of day now that people are back in the house. And what do you know it settles right back to between 8.2 and 8.3.

All in all I almost think it is better to have a much lower base pH than deal with the swings that can be introduced by a scrubber. I have since taken my scrubber of line and and experimenting with a hose run out the window. It's not pretty looking but the pH is stable, and it is a great big world out there full of oxygen.

From this post and two pages further on - I take care of the problem in a different way
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/lasses-dream-build.246188/page-18#post-3494520
Sincerely Lasse

 

[Ty Hamatake]

So with it being in series u think u will get five weeks? I think u might get a little less then double what ur getting now.

I have no scientific proof of why I think that I just do

I hope it works out for ya and keep us posted

So my train of thought on this is due to the fact that I was changing media based on my pH. If change it once the pH hit 8.0 and there was always some "fresh" media near the top. Now that I have the two, I feel like I will be able to run one canister to full exhaustion without a dip in pH because it's being maintained by the second. Have you ditched your scrubber? From reading your other post I was unsure. If not, did you end up adding a humidifier?

Ty. I was having a very similar and frustrating experience. I would go through an entire canister or media in a week. As adding the water bottle to the inlet of the reactor significantly improved the length of time you can get out of the media?

Ok a side note.... I can also say they sometime a scrubber can be too much of a good thing. Again like you I was fighting chronic low pH on my tank so I threw a scrubber on. It worked great besides the whole change the media every couple of days thing... which on a further side not can be a major pain if you have a dosed set up. As the media begins to exhaust the demand for alkalinity starts to drop, the doses isn't smart enough to recognize this keep dosing at the same amount and you alk numbers start to rise. Bad news there.... anyway back to the original thought.... scrubber works great when people and pets are in the whole maintaining a fairly consistent level of CO2. But then you go away for the week on vacation. That normally level of CO2 isn't in the house and that is where the trouble on the flip side of the coin begins.

Now fore this isn't a theoretical, this happened just a few weeks ago. In an affront to maintain consistency while I was gone on a business trip for 10day I replaced my media the day I left. I was trying to avoid the situation that occurred during the last trip where the media exhausted and my alk spiked, sps melt down... Any way fresh media is on the system, I walk out the door all is good. My wife and dog also decided to go stay with a friend while I was away. Through my controller I am keeping track of my tank while I am half way around the world. First the first few days everything is good and the pH is stable around 8.3. A couple days later the pH starts to climb. 8.40, 8.45, 8.50, and finally settles on 8.55 where it remains until I get home. First thing I do is look at the media and find that it is now where as near as exhausted as it normally would be for close to 10 days. Alk check shows that my level had dropped significantly even though the dosing pump was functioning properly. This is just the opposite of what happened before where pH dropped alk consumption drops. PH raises alk consumption raises. It makes it impossible to set a doses to take care of your additions with this kind of swing and stresses your corals. Anyway I don't change the media and continue to monitor pH of the next couple of day now that people are back in the house. And what do you know it settles right back to between 8.2 and 8.3.

All in all I almost think it is better to have a much lower base pH than deal with the swings that can be introduced by a scrubber. I have since taken my scrubber of line and and experimenting with a hose run out the window. It's not pretty looking but the pH is stable, and it is a great big world out there full of oxygen.

Hmmm... this is something I hadn't really thought about that could cause big problems. I dose kalkwasser through my ATO so I already have slightly less than stable conditions on my tank as it is. Though I feel not using a doser may prevent me from encountering the same situation you did with large alk swings due to increased/decreased alk consumption.

I really would've liked to try an airline outside, but my current situation prevents it. Lol maybe we should all just get a KH Guardian and call it a day

 

[Ty Hamatake]

From this post and two pages further on - I take care of the problem in a different way
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/lasses-dream-build.246188/page-18#post-3494520
Sincerely Lasse

Ooohh, very cool. I tried a solenoid at one point, but the one I got was not big enough to allow sufficient air through to make a difference! Has this worked well for you?

 

[Ty Hamatake]

100% noticeable increase with my scrubber running. I don't use the the kessil but I do use a 300w led grow light and it didn't help with raising ph for me.

Were you able to find a cost effective media?

 

[justingraham]

So my train of thought on this is due to the fact that I was changing media based on my pH. If change it once the pH hit 8.0 and there was always some "fresh" media near the top. Now that I have the two, I feel like I will be able to run one canister to full exhaustion without a dip in pH because it's being maintained by the second. Have you ditched your scrubber? From reading your other post I was unsure. If not, did you end up adding a humidifier?


Hmmm... this is something I hadn't really thought about that could cause big problems. I dose kalkwasser through my ATO so I already have slightly less than stable conditions on my tank as it is. Though I feel not using a doser may prevent me from encountering the same situation you did with large alk swings due to increased/decreased alk consumption.

I really would've liked to try an airline outside, but my current situation prevents it. Lol maybe we should all just get a KH Guardian and call it a day

Didn't ditch it I'm going on vacation tho and am not refilling it till I get back the growth with my ph at 8.5 is insane it's just always a game of trying to get the dose right on the doser tho

 

[bubbaque]

Were you able to find a cost effective media?

I'm using the media I posted about only getting one day out of the canister before putting the humidity in it, but still only getting 6 days out of the canister. It was from shopmedvet.com but I will not but this media again.

 

[Lasse]

Ooohh, very cool. I tried a solenoid at one point, but the one I got was not big enough to allow sufficient air through to make a difference! Has this worked well for you?

I did that too - the same conclusion . Yes - I do not get the 8.5 as I did before - its stop around 8.30. But I have some more ideas

I had my CO2 scrubber intake in the living room before but after reading this thread – I will take humid air from the sump cabinet to the CO2 scrubber a coupple of day and see whats happen.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Ty Hamatake]

Didn't ditch it I'm going on vacation tho and am not refilling it till I get back the growth with my ph at 8.5 is insane it's just always a game of trying to get the dose right on the doser tho

I wish I could consider my growth insane! It's better than it ever has been, but still only marginal at best good luck with whatever you decide!

I'm using the media I posted about only getting one day out of the canister before putting the humidity in it, but still only getting 6 days out of the canister. It was from shopmedvet.com but I will not but this media again.

Hopefully you get longer out of a different brand. Who knows what it could be though!

I did that too - the same conclusion . Yes - I do not get the 8.5 as I did before - its stop around 8.30. But I have some more ideas

I had my CO2 scrubber intake in the living room before but after reading this thread – I will take humid air from the sump cabinet to the CO2 scrubber a coupple of day and see whats happen.

Sincerely Lasse

Hopefully that works for you. It's seems like most people I talk to get at least some increase in how long the media lasts when they add humidity to the intake. Interested in seeing how yours turns out

 

[bubbaque]

What's odd is I have two tanks, I installed another co2 on my second frag tank with a much smaller skimmer and after 3 days it hasn't turn the media purple at all.