Outside Air Intake

BZOFIQ · Sep 9, 2018

I know lots of folks out here have air intakes installed to feed skimmer with air from outside to combat high CO2 concentration and battle low pH.

Can you guy tell me what kind of pipe/hose did you run and how you terminated it outside? Do you have mesh, or other means to prevent the intake from clogging and to keep critters out.

Pictures would be helpful too and appreciated.

Many thanks.

kchristensen8064 · Sep 9, 2018

Following, I've been wondering this myself.

BZOFIQ · Jan 4, 2019

I'm nearing the stage where decisions have to be made and things installed in place.

Anybody?

Big thanks in advance.

jda · Jan 4, 2019

Mine was close to the window, so I just used about 8 feet of the silicone tube that the skimmer used. I put the air filter/silencer on the end of the line outside.

For longer runs, 1/2 PVC with a homemade silence/filter with some holes drilled into a 1 or 1.5" pipe with some filter floss or quilt batting in it should be fine. Some of that thicker stuff that you scrub the glass with could work really well too.

BZOFIQ · Jun 26, 2019

Guys & Gals, slow down your suggestions or I'll never be able to implement it.

BornHandy · Jun 26, 2019

I used about 3 feet of 3/8" tubing, then it connects to a barb fitting that is connected to a 1/2 inch pvc pipe. The PVC runs into my wall, and goes up into the attic where it changes to 3/4 pvc. The total run is about 23 feet, with 3 of that being the tubing, 10 being 1/2" PVC, and 10 being 3/4" PVC. It just goes up into an attic vent to draw air from there. I have a couple of elbows at the top to point the very end back down to keep dust from falling in.

The different sizes of pipe is because pulling air through a 23' length of 3/8 tubing is actually really hard to do. By going up in diameter like that, it makes it easy for the skimmer to get what it needed, and I meter it in with a ball valve.

BZOFIQ · Jun 26, 2019

I bumped this thread and appreciate your reply, cool setup going all the way up to the vent.

...but now that I think about it there was a helicopter flying around past 2 days spraying for mosquitos, god knows what would happen if that made it into the system.

Years ago they used to post flyers to stay indoors for the night, now its ok if you grow something on your brain; nobody posted anything.

That said, i think CO2 scrubber might be a safer option for me.

jda · Jun 26, 2019

Attic Fan will do more... or a strong fan in a window. Air your house out every few days with a 30-36" Attic Fan and the pH will rise a LOT. This can suck in a bad/humid climate, but you can do it super early in the AM when the temps are low.

When we lived in Missouri, the 100 degree and 100% humidity months would lower my pH from about 7.85 to 7.95 after a few weeks of AC only. Two hours of attic fan with the basement and main floor windows open would raise it to 8.05 to 8.25 the next day.

Airborne co2 in your home is likely your issue. If so, co2 scrubber will quickly exhaust and become costly.

BornHandy · Jun 26, 2019

I thought about the mosquito sprays, farm pesticides, and other stuff that gets sprayed in the air too. I figure, anything that can waft in through an attic vent is probably getting into my house through open windows and doors anyway. In any case, I have spent, spent again, and then spent some more. The line has to be drawn somewhere, so I am skipping CO2 scrubbers unless I don't get the results I'm after with the fresh air line.

jda · Jun 26, 2019

Has there ever been an actual, true, legit, real-deal, documented case of a mosquito spray or insecticide ever crashing a tank? There are some where people blame those, but it was probably somebody else. We keep a lot of windows open from about April to November and who knows what gets into my home, but my tanks have never been hurt at all.

I think that you are probably OK unless you add the some 2-4d or some Sevin directly to your tank.

ca1ore · Jun 27, 2019

Running a fresh air line to my skimmer made almost no difference to anything. Putting a decent blower/fan into the window of my fish room made a big difference.