Downside for co2 scrubber?

[nickng]

Oh yeah that media is gone. I just dropped to 8.18. And i probably would still drop till it stabilizes somewhere. Ill change the media tomorrow. But inwas wondering why it changed to purple and not pink like they said

Just sharing my experience, the two little fishes media turns purple when exhausted, not pink.

 

[nickng]

I made my scrubber recirculating and I had a lot of moisture filling the media RO container. I made a catch can as a temporary solution. I’m thinking to get a larger co2 scrubber and use this small RO reactor as a water catch can?

Is there a better way to do this that I’m missing?

I use a large thin wall glass, container, the idea is to keep the container cold so that it condenses most of the water vapor from the recirculated air before it enters the media. I also use a long thin walled tubing coiled up to allow the air to cool down too. Best water catch container would be one made out of some sort of inert metal or or some metal container with a food grade liner(think along the lines of aluminum beer cans)

 

[nickng]

Heres 2 pictures for u week data for ph, and idk if thats better pic for the media. It says it changes to pink. Mine is purple so not sure

Btw, the media on the top is probably not exhausted, I usually give my media holder a shake and tumble to get the top media towards the bottom more. Part of the problem is that after a while the air only passes thru close to the sides of the canister or thru regions that do not pass over the un used media.

 

[jackson6745]

I use a large thin wall glass, container, the idea is to keep the container cold so that it condenses most of the water vapor from the recirculated air before it enters the media. I also use a long thin walled tubing coiled up to allow the air to cool down too. Best water catch container would be one made out of some sort of inert metal or or some metal container with a food grade liner(think along the lines of aluminum beer cans)

Since then I am using the jumbo brs single co2 scrubber and a moisture collector from fishofhex. Works amazing. I’m getting a month before I have to change media.

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

my media lasts awhile. It is not recirculating. 69g tank in basement but also can open windows a lot of time

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

I took a Cheap Two Outlet Air Pump, removed the Screwed on Rubber Base. Drilled two Holes in the side so the entering air would pass over the Coils. SuperGlued Lee’s 1/4” Rigid Tubing in the holes. Reinstalled the Base, sealing it and the air intake with Aquarium Silicone Caulk. Ran a 3/8” Clear hose to outside, attached a small jar, to the hose for Dacron and Charcoal Media. Made a Manifold for the other end, from PVC Pipe, and using Lee’s 1/4” Rigid Tube. Hooked the New inlets, on the pump to the Manifold. I push the outside air into the LifeReef Cup, as that’s where the Air intake is. I run Constantly between 8.1 to 8.4 pH. The pH changes slowly when it does change. BTW, I have a Pinpoint pH Monitor.

 

[nickng]

Since then I am using the jumbo brs single co2 scrubber and a moisture collector from fishofhex. Works amazing. I’m getting a month before I have to change media.

Great to hear! yup I get about 1.5 to 2 months before needing to change the media as well.

 

[14 foot reef]

I mean how bad is the cost really. That terrible?

My scrubber operation cost was so high, I'll never do it again.
Just rid the surrounding environment from cO2 and all fixed.

 

[Dal]

Only drawback to a single pass scrubber is cost.

Using a full recirculating scrubber on a skimmer gives up the oxygenation capability, and I don’t recommend that.

Hi Randy, I googled about CO2 scrubber bad sides and came up to this post. What do you mean oxygenation capability please?

Im thinking that because I connected recirculating co2 scrubber 1.5h years ago my acroporas started to have that disease whis there is a post about on here also, weird shape skin (bubbling up) and tulip shape polyps, reason im thinking its co2 scrubber fault that i have made new aquarium 5 months ago and also connected recirculating co2 scrubber - my new acro frags started to show sign of this weird disease

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

yea my media recirculated and lasts forever at least a month

 

[Notsolostfish]

Hi Randy, I googled about CO2 scrubber bad sides and came up to this post. What do you mean oxygenation capability please?

Im thinking that because I connected recirculating co2 scrubber 1.5h years ago my acroporas started to have that disease whis there is a post about on here also, weird shape skin (bubbling up) and tulip shape polyps, reason im thinking its co2 scrubber fault that i have made new aquarium 5 months ago and also connected recirculating co2 scrubber - my new acro frags started to show sign of this weird disease

When u connect a skimmer for recirculating the air is being circulated and no air from the outside. So it takes the ability of the skimmer to bring u oxygen

 

[piranhaman00]

Hi Randy, I googled about CO2 scrubber bad sides and came up to this post. What do you mean oxygenation capability please?

Im thinking that because I connected recirculating co2 scrubber 1.5h years ago my acroporas started to have that disease whis there is a post about on here also, weird shape skin (bubbling up) and tulip shape polyps, reason im thinking its co2 scrubber fault that i have made new aquarium 5 months ago and also connected recirculating co2 scrubber - my new acro frags started to show sign of this weird disease

Recirculating Co2 Skimmer Reminder/Warning

Hello, something very interesting I noticed on my tank recently that has been pointed out by @Randy Holmes-Farley and others as a warning. 160 gallons, lids on DT, air exchange is probably mostly through skimmer. I was running a Lifereef skimmer through a Co2 scrubber in recirculating fashion...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

I’m still pumping outside air into my Skimmers with great results, went with a bigger more professional pump, since I’m now feeding air, via the Skimmers, to three or four aquariums.

 

[UncommonSense]

I just figured I’d pop in and ask a relative question:

Is anyone using carbon on the air vent side of a skimmer specifically for the purpose of odor removal from the room? (As opposed to the typical application of simply hiding the skimmers stench!)

— my LFS keeps a large number of reptiles, and the whole place use to smell a bit “ripe” before I put a carbon reactor on their 180g DT’s skimmer collection container vent… now there’s no detectable odor when one walks in the roughly 13,000ft3 shop within a week of starting the experiment!

 

[ReefED!]

I wouldn’t run a scrubber without recirculating as it would cost a fortune to operate and you will be changing media constantly.

I also would not run a scrubber recirculating because you don’t get oxygen exchange and you need to be very careful about crashing your tank, I’ve seen it happen here several times.

tldr scrubbers work but have drawbacks. Open a window or unplug your pH meter ;)

I ran one both ways and ultimately I decided to run my skimmer line outside.

Old thread but useful information that comes up on google

I'm curious - where do you find the risk with tank crashing? Overflow and the media getting full of water and then flushing into the tank?

I have found this is easily solved with a collection cup that has a float switch, which is pretty standard with the better Reef OCTO models.

As far as oxygenation goes - can anyone explain how it reduces oxygenation?

I'm going to do a video on CO2 scrubbers soon and I want to cover this - I personally set mine up with a Y valve on the recirculator line - it provides an emergency drain on liquid, reduces the liquid that gets into the reaction chamber, and just gives an overall middle road "best of both worlds" approach.

 

[backbayreef]

Old thread but useful information that comes up on google

I'm curious - where do you find the risk with tank crashing? Overflow and the media getting full of water and then flushing into the tank?

I have found this is easily solved with a collection cup that has a float switch, which is pretty standard with the better Reef OCTO models.

As far as oxygenation goes - can anyone explain how it reduces oxygenation?

I'm going to do a video on CO2 scrubbers soon and I want to cover this - I personally set mine up with a Y valve on the recirculator line - it provides an emergency drain on liquid, reduces the liquid that gets into the reaction chamber, and just gives an overall middle road "best of both worlds" approach.

Yes - several downsides:
1. Ongoing (subscription model) of media. I bought the 5gal soda lime container from Amazon vs going direct. The price comes out to almost the same.

Amazon.com

2. Skimmer overflow into reactor when re-circulating will nuke the tank. Since my skimmer doesn't have the mechanism to automatically stop from overflowing, I bought the AutoAqua Skimmer Security (also on Amazon/BRS)

Amazon.com

I've been doing CO2 scrubber for a few years but honestly didn't see any difference in my tank. Once the media runs out, I'll just stop chasing pH with a CO2 scrubber or other methods.

 

[piranhaman00]

I disconnected pH probes from tank. :)

 

[backbayreef]

I disconnected pH probes from tank. :)

lol - that's one way to do it!

I'm currently running with 2 pH and 2 ORP probes. So yes, I'm a monitoring freak! :)
pH1: tank
pH2: calcium reactor
ORP1: ozone
ORP2: sulfur denitrator