Question on Co2 Scrubber

[Yates273]

All I can say is since I added the CO2 scrubber amd did the recirculating method my ph jumped up. (Obviously not from recirculating) but doing this I’m going on week 3 with media and no color change at all. I did plumb an outside line hooked up to a valve to open up if ph gets to high to allow fresh air in and pinpoint my ph. Overall I am happy. I did notice my skimmate is less now though probably has something to do with recirculating. Here’s a graph pre amd post scrubber. I went from struggling to get 8 during day and 7.7 night plus ph was all over at times to 8.2 day to 8.0 night consistent.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Very cool. So we use NaOH here instead of CaOH is because the dissolvability, right? Does the concentration of NaOH matter? When bubble directly into the solution, the contact surface is pretty small compares to the reactor shown in the paper, so I guess it will require higher concentration?

Also the depth of the intake will be added to the head pressure of the skimmer air intake, and reducing it, right? If it's in 5" depth, the back pressure of air intake will be similar to having the skimmer running in 5" deeper water, that sounds a lot. So it should be pretty shallow? But then the contact time will be pretty short.

Yes on the concentration.

I'd make it fairly concentrated, but not crazy high. Like 5-10% NaOH in water.

Air/water surface area matters, so bubbles in a long tall column would be best.

 

[Yates273]

Man Randy your tank must be pristine. I would love to see your setup. When it comes to water chemistry I don’t think there is anything you don’t know amd can spot when something is off just by your observations.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Man Randy your tank must be pristine. I would love to see your setup. When it comes to water chemistry I don’t think there is anything you don’t know amd can spot when something is off just by your observations.

lol Thanks.

Biology eventually got it, not chemistry. lol

Vermitid worms, for example. They ran wild.

Anyway, there's a description thread with pics:

Randy's Tank Description

In this thread, I thought I'd document my tank and the variety of methods I use on it. It has been set up since 1995, but it moved from a 90 to a 120 at one point, got broken down and the rocks scrubbed at another, and rock has been added to it a couple of times. As can be seen from the...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Yates273]

Looks like more reading for me. You have helped me immensely with all your knowledge and info on dosing and water chemistry, for that I say THANK YOU!! I currently use your 2 part recipe for my dosing amd it seems to be doing good things for my tank.

 

[Snoopdog]

lol Thanks.

Biology eventually got it, not chemistry. lol

Vermitid worms, for example. They ran wild.

Anyway, there's a description thread with pics:

Randy's Tank Description

In this thread, I thought I'd document my tank and the variety of methods I use on it. It has been set up since 1995, but it moved from a 90 to a 120 at one point, got broken down and the rocks scrubbed at another, and rock has been added to it a couple of times. As can be seen from the...

www.reef2reef.com

Are you saying you no longer have a tank? Vermitid snails won the battle?

Okay I went back past your post #93 and read that because of aptasia and vermetid snails you tore it down. I have to think you probably wanted to do it anyway. As resourceful as you seem I think you could have tackled both of those problems. Still no desire to get another tank?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Are you saying you no longer have a tank? Vermitid snails won the battle?

Okay I went back past your post #93 and read that because of aptasia and vermetid snails you tore it down. I have to think you probably wanted to do it anyway. As resourceful as you seem I think you could have tackled both of those problems. Still no desire to get another tank?

I had been planning to travel more. Not so much now. lol

 

[Snoopdog]

So I did some test. You will see a 7 day timeline here of the first days with my windows open half the day. You will also see when we left the windows closed all day. Last night when I came home my dual BRS CO2 scrubber was installed to the outside skimmer line. My PH did not drop last night past 8.15. In a few days I will try to remember to return to this thread with an update.

Now look at a timeline over 30 days. You can see when we added the outside skimmer air line and started opening the windows. I want to also notate right now my windows are closed.

 

[albano]

In a few days I will try to remember to return to this thread with an update.

Ok, it’s been a few days....

 

[Snoopdog]

Ok, it’s been a few days....

Ha ha

Okay so the scrubber worked fine. I went a very long time and did not have to replace the media. I ended up taking it offline though, I was able to keep the PH up with just tons of chaeto.