My Experience Raising pH

[Clownfishy]

Any way you can draw up a simple diagram of this set up please

You did say simple! I will try and knock something up on the computer when I get ba

@Clownfishy any way you can draw up a simple diagram on what you have done here?

Let me draw something up on the computer and post it but in the meantime, here is a VERY bad drawing!!!!

 

[Want2BS8ed]

Can you post a link for this valve ? I couldn’t find the info in the BRS video. Thanks a lot.

See post #43...

 

[jd371]

My pH ran 8.35 to 8.55 for years and I do not think there’s any problem in that range.

Good to know, I was getting worried I was pushing my pH too high.

Phew! I've been following and was going to chime in that after installing the Co2 scrubber the pH is 8.2 - 8.5 and wondered if it was too high. The highest I've seen it peak was at 8.56.

 

[Night Reefer]

Diagram and link is in past posts

 

[Clownfishy]

A slightly better drawing! The ball valve is a new addition and is only open slightly to suck air from the room to keep my pH from rising above 8.40.

 

[Buddah001]

A slightly better drawing! The ball valve is a new addition and is only open slightly to suck air from the room to keep my pH from rising above 8.40.

Where the out side air and skimmer air meet that is jus a T correct? Not an electric solenoid?

 

[Clownfishy]

Where the out side air and skimmer air meet that is jus a T correct? Not an electric solenoid?

Yes, just a T.

 

[Clownfishy]

So I think I can say that the build up of C02 in my house is real and impacts pH (no surprise really!). Over the last few weeks in the UK, we have had a bit of a heat wave and my windows have remained wide open during all the time, and as you would have seen from previous posts, I have been struggling to keep my pH from going over 8.40. Last night the temperature dropped and it was the first night that I needed to close the windows and put them on lock allowing only a little air coming in from outside. This is the first time I have seen my pH drop at night all the way down to 8.32. This is still pretty good but it shows the difference preventing large amounts of outside air entering the room. I have now removed the T so all the air is flowing through the C02 scrubber and entering the scrubber from both outside and from the skimmer cup.
I am two weeks into using new Soda Lime granules so would normally start seeing a drop in pH in the next few days. I have certainly seen a colour change in the granules which I have not expected due to the modification pulling air from the room and from the skimmer cup. I will report back as soon as I can see a consistent drop in pH at night.

 

[Clownfishy]

It been 4 weeks since making the change from taking the air only from the outside to also adding air from the skimmer cup. Although the Soda Lime granules have changed colour and I am having to close the windows in the room (leaving a small air gap), they are managing to keep my pH above 8.10. However, as you can see, the granules have degrading and struggling to strip as much C02 out most noticeable at night. I am not sure this 4 week test has been a true test as we have had a heat wave here in the UK and my windows have been open a lot and I think that is why my pH was hitting highs of over 8.40. Also, although some damp air was being pulled from the skimmer cup, the outside air was hot and dry (mid 90f) so it would have dried out most damp air coming from the skimmer cup. In the next few days, I expect the pH to drop below 8.10 during the night and that is my prompt to change the granules and now the temperatures has dropped to normal levels, the next test will be far more realistic.

 

[Night Reefer]

Sorry for the late reply #Clownfishy.

Nothing original, BRS explained it well in their video including the valve part # from McMaster-Carr.

Again, I have been extremely pleased with both the positive impact on pH as well as the longevity of the media since making the change.

M

Okay I followed the picture and purchased all the hardware needed. I hooked the system up and have the following issues.

Ph went from 7.6 - 7.8 to 7.99 - 8.09.
Am I wrong but is .1 swing a bit to much?
The bypass is always on and gets very hot were you can’t touch it. I have my setting to turn it on at at a high of 7.96 and the low is set at 7.93. I did have the numbers a bit higher on the high side but I lowed them because I want my ph at 8.0. When on the air mixes with air from the co2 scrubber. When off the air comes only from the co2 scrubber. To me I think the air from the co2 scubber should be turn on and off preventing any scrubbed air. It seems too much of the scrubbed air is getting through.

 

[Clownfishy]

A slightly better drawing! The ball valve is a new addition and is only open slightly to suck air from the room to keep my pH from rising above 8.40.

With this setup and the windows closed with just a slight gap left opened, I am getting through 282g of Soda Lime granules, lasted 2 weeks and 5 days. I suspect a lot of air is still being pulled in from the outside and not enough is pulled from the skimmer cup so the air is still too dry. I am worried about pulling too much from the skimmer as I have no way of measuring O2 levels.
I have just changed the granules as the pH dropped to 8.1 which is the point where I know they are becoming exhausted. I may put 2 scrubbers in and move the used Soda Lime granules first inline where the air is pulled from the outside as I think they still have capacity to pull out some C02 which will obviously save the granules in the second scrubber from having to work so hard. I will give the design some more thought and report back.

 

[Clownfishy]

Here is the modified scrubber. Air comes in from the bottom of the left hand canister which is filled with the older soda lime granules which should have a little bit of life in them. Air then flows out at the top and enters into the bottom right hand canister which has new soda lime granules installed. All then exits out of the top tube of the canister on the right directly into the skimmer intake. The air is now more restricted than using one scrubber so I am not convinced this is going to work long term. Normally I would have seen an instant increase in pH to 8.40 but as you can see, I struggled to get to 8.28 on the 1st September when I changed the media.
I will look to see f I can find some bigger fittings to allow more air to enter and exit these canisters.

 

[Clownfishy]

Here is a better view of how the scrubber is now configured. I have also managed to increase the size of some of the tubing allowing more air to be passed into the skimmer which has raised the pH.

 

[Williamson’s Reef]

Some great info here. I’m struggling with low PH .. new construction house. Average PH is 7.5. Even with Kalk ATO. My display is 245 gal, 40 gal sump and a return line fed 40 gal ...gravity drain/refugium maybe/undecided..lol. System is only 2 moths old. What size co2 scrubber should I get? The regular or jumbo BSR? What do you have for water volume? What scrubber?

 

[Clownfishy]

@Biggestfish all I can advise you is that by having a single scrubber, your pH will always drop as the media starts to degrade. With 2 scrubbers, you can replace the media in the first scrubber which keeps the pH stable. My pH now does not go below 8.20 and averages at 8.30. Also the size of the scrubber will also depend how much air your skimmer is pulling. The more air it pulls through the scrubber, the more Soda Lime granules you will need.

 

[Williamson’s Reef]

@Biggestfish all I can advise you is that by having a single scrubber, your pH will always drop as the media starts to degrade. With 2 scrubbers, you can replace the media in the first scrubber which keeps the pH stable. My pH now does not go below 8.20 and averages at 8.30. Also the size of the scrubber will also depend how much air your skimmer is pulling. The more air it pulls through the scrubber, the more Soda Lime granules you will need.

I ordered the regular size already. I’ll order another one. ..makes sense to have two in a series. It can’t hurt. Thank you!

 

[Williamson’s Reef]

Could you post a link to the fittings and bigger air tubing you used .. thanks!

 

[Clownfishy]

Its been a while so thought I would drop back into this thread and provide a mini update. As you can see, the scrubber is still doing a fantastic job.

I still run two canisters in my C02 scrubber setup. As soon as see the pH begins to drop below its normal range (8.20 to 8.30 in the winter), I remove the oldest Soda Lime media, in the first scrubber canister, move the Soda Lime media from the second scrubber canister into the first one and then fill the second canister with new Soda Lime media. This is normally every 2 weeks or so. As you can see from the picture, the media on the left in the first canister is exhausted (white in color). It is this media I remove and throw away and then move the media in the second canister (pink in color) to the first canister and then refill the second, now empty canister with new Soda Lime media.

By doing this, I constantly have fresh Soda Lime capable of pulling out the C02 from the air going into the skimmer. Having two canisters allows me to keep my pH between a 0.10 high and low range. I no longer just dose Alkalinity at night and let my Apex DOS dose Alkalinity during an entire 24 hour period to keep the level of Alkalinity stable during the entire day and night. However, I am sure if I switched back to just dosing Alkalinity at night, I could remove the 0.10 drop in pH. I guess the question is, what is more important to our livestock, rock solid stability of Alkalinity or of pH? I do not know the answer to that question but as the pH is only dropping 0.10 during the night, I opted to stabilise Alkalinity but would be interested in any research around the uptake of Alkalinity.

The canisters I use do not really allow me to add water to the bottom of them so cannot add moisture to help extend the life of the Soda Lime media. I know I could replace the canisters themselves or add something in-line to add the moisture but I became lazy since finding a cheap place to buy Soda Lime! As I am sure many of you know, divers use this media for their re breathers so I now purchase it direct from them in 5 litre containers and this lasts me a long time. Maybe in the future, I will change the canisters with slightly larger ones like the ones that hold the 10" RO cartridges but this setup is working for me at the moment.

Since updating this post last time, I have changed my skimmer to a Nyos 120 which I LOVE! As you can see from this picture, I am now connecting the C02 Scrubbers to the air silencer on the skimmer. Although I am probably restricting a bit of air not bypassing the silencer, I use the Nyos to control the amount of air to tune in the skimmer but I may change this at some point.

Lastly, as you will see from the recent pH measurements, my pH is below my normal range. This has nothing to do with the C02 scrubber. I have been battling with hair algae for some time (please see my thread here - https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/my-experience-battling-green-hair-algae-gha.417917/). Well, due to my own stupidity, I drove my Nitrates and Phosphate too low for too long and now have Dinos. Part of my action plan to get rid of them is to switch my lighting to just the blues and reduce the duration of the light. This is obviously reducing the growth rate of corals and their ability to take up C02 thus dropping my pH but all that is for another thread!

Well, I think that is everything. I would like to say that for me personally, I would never be without a C02 scrubber ever again. The second I take it off line, my pH is affected. Maybe it is the house I live in being over 200 years old but it certainly does not allow the C02 build up to escape and my aquarium absorbs this. If anyone is on the fence, give it go with some home made canister and some Soda Lime and see how it works for you.

Hope the above helps someone as this forum has really helped me.

 

[Clownfishy]

I came across the following thread which is brilliant for those who want to see more threads on testing C02 scrubbers -
https://www.reef2reef.com/index.php?posts/5326492

 

[Clownfishy]

As it has been well over a year since describing my use of C02 scrubber, I thought I would provide a quick update. I have been running my setup as described in my previous post for all this time and have to say, i LOVE it. Still using the scrubber and dosing in the same way and although I have change my media every 2 weeks (especially in the winter), I purchase it in bulk from a dive shop so the cost is not an issue. My next project is to reduce the swing at night and I am thinking of installing an algae reactor and turning it on at night to see if this prevents some of the swings you can see from the latest results. My issue is that I dont actually want to remove nitrates as I am currently keeping Dinos at bay so it may be a bit of a balancing act!

One last thing, it is worth getting an indoor C02 meter as you will be shocked at how high C02 levels can climb in your home. I have a AWAIR installed in the room where the aquarium is. When the AWAIR sees C02 levels reach 1000ppm, it turns on a SMART plug through the IFTTT connection which starts a fan pulling fresh air into the room. Works brilliantly and generally only kicks in at night but I definitely see a difference in my over night pH by using this setup.

Hope this helps others but I can say for my setup and living in the UK where our windows and kept closed during the winter to keep in the heat, I will always run a C02 scrubber and consider it one of the most important things I run. It is as important as dosing limewater at night with both keeping my pH at acceptable levels.