Skimmer External Air Filter?

[Aldrinlights]

Ever since I have run my skimmer with an air hose outside it's been wonderful for my PH. It's been rock solid stable. I do have something on my mind though. I live in Colorado and our air is jacked right now. We get all of the smoke from the forest fires in the entire west and Canada. We have one of the top 5 worst air quality ratings in the world right now and it's been this way the last 30 days straight.

Also I've had issues with cyano lately. Out of nowhere. I assumed it's a flow issue as my params are right where they should be for a ULN system.

Could this be an issue with external air quality?

I have purchased a tube that I will attach to my external air line which can hold a bit of filter floss as an attempt to see what happens if anything different.

Side note. Once a month there's a truck that drives through our neighborhood with a very loud sound spraying for mosquitos. I always turn my skimmer off via the wimo it's attached to when I hear this thing come through.

Here's a photo of how it should usually look in Denver and how it has been lately as it's gotten progressively worse and worse each day.

 

[jsker]

Could this be an issue with external air quality?

Side note. Once a month there's a truck that drives through our neighborhood with a very loud sound spraying for mosquitos. I always turn my skimmer off via the wimo it's attached to when I hear this thing come through.

ahhaaa, we have something in common. It took me a long time to figure out, that the Mosquitos spraying was slowly killing of my tank. I had my air line venting out through the wall. I moved to skimmer airline intake up to the attic and my system is coming back to healthy again.

This would also help with your air quality from the smoke. I would also suggest adding a Co2 scrubber for even cleaner air. I had a scrubber in-line when I had the airline through the wall, the media would get fouled up in about 3 months. I still have the scrubber in-line from the attic. The media has not been change in over a year. The media is still clean.

As far as the cyano, when is the last time you changed you RO/DI filters?

I have found that I start getting cyano when my RO/DI filters start to expire on there effectiveness/ have not been changed in some time. Here is a link documenting my cyano struggles. link

Have a great day!!

 

[Aldrinlights]

ahhaaa, we have something in common. It took me a long time to figure out, that the Mosquitos spraying was slowly killing of my tank. I had my air line venting out through the wall. I moved to skimmer airline intake up to the attic and my system is coming back to healthy again.

This would also help with your air quality from the smoke. I would also suggest adding a Co2 scrubber for even cleaner air. I had a scrubber in-line when I had the airline through the wall, the media would get fouled up in about 3 months. I still have the scrubber in-line from the attic. The media has not been change in over a year. The media is still clean.

As far as the cyano, when is the last time you changed you RO/DI filters?

I have found that I start getting cyano when my RO/DI filters start to expire on there effectiveness/ have not been changed in some time. Here is a link documenting my cyano struggles. link

Have a great day!!

Thanks for the ideas and the link. I get my top off and change water from a LFS. I get about 20 gallons of each once a month. I do 10 gallon water changes every 2 weeks. I don't think it's a filter issue from this store that I've been goin to for years but I'll ask them. Otherwise the attic you say? Did you drill a hole through the ceiling or run that externally?

Here's a pic of the materials I'm going to use to create a filter in the air line. Gonna cut down this tube to the vent filter length and roll it up inside with some tube extension connectors glued to the ends.

 

[jsker]

Otherwise the attic you say? Did you drill a hole through the ceiling or run that externally?

Yes, I drilled through the ceiling. I tied of the end of the line to one of the trusses with a Zip tie.

I would suggest purchasing a canister like this,

I would also suggest purchasing this unit and tossing the bio pellets for your scrubber. With this unit you can layer carbon pellet media plus some Co2 absorbent media. Having these two types of media, you incoming air with be scrubbed clean.

 

[Aldrinlights]

Excellent idea. Thanks for all the pics. For the time being until I can get that setup I put this into action.

I hope my temporary fix helps because my skimmer has been overproducing for about 3 weeks due to this air quality.

i'm definitely going to get that CO2 scrubber in place soon. I'll keep this thread updated as things progress.

 

[jsker]

Excellent idea. Thanks for all the pics. For the time being until I can get that setup I put this into action.

I hope my temporary fix helps because my skimmer has been overproducing for about 3 weeks due to this air quality.

i'm definitely going to get that CO2 scrubber in place soon. I'll keep this thread updated as things progress.

Awesome DIY!! and quick. That might work even better

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

It's fire season here and I've been having similar concerns about air quality. Normally I leave the window open next to the tank but I think I'll have to take the bad indoor air over the really bad outdoor air for a bit. Curious, since I've never seen one in person, but would an inline CPAP filter do the job or do they require too much air pressure to work? I've also seen inline paint spray gun filters mentioned but suspect they may also be too restrictive to work.

 

[Aldrinlights]

I'm going to add some loose carbon to my little diy filter. The filter material that I'm using is made for indoor air conditioning vents and it filters dust and pollen so that's the main concern is small particulates. Since it is outside air I'm not too worried about the CO2 honestly. I think having a scrubber on it is going to be a big benefit though.