Arvin's wife's 25g lagoon tank
- Thread starter Arvin R
- Start date
Its my light that came with the E170
H2OPlayar
Supporting Member
Arvin R
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More like she picks the corals and fish and I maintain it. She at least scrapes the glass and feeds the fish.Wife's tank, sure sounds like it
PizzaOven
Supporting Member
How often do you have to change the CO2 scrubber media? I get between 1-2 weeks on mine, curious what others are getting out of the media. I love the pH boost, but It's a tad bit expensive for my taste as a recurring cost, and has me thinking about how to pipe my skimmer's air intake through the wall to the fresh outdoor air...
Arvin R
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It's my first time using it and I'm monitoring pH everyday until I see it drop. So far it's been about 2 weeks for me and my tank is still 8.4 off peak and 8.5 during peak.
Arvin R
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@PizzaOven have you tried setting your CO2 scrubber up for recirculating? Where you feed the scrubber air inlet from the top of the collection cup and seal off any other holes to ambient on the top of the cup?
PizzaOven
Supporting Member
I've definitely considered it. Are you running re-circulating? My big concern with recirculating is shutting off the skimmer in the event of an overflow, so that the liquid skimmate does not re-circulate through the scrubber media and make it's way into the tank. I think an optical switch inside the collection cup and the Neptune FMM module may do the trick?
Arvin R
Sponsor
Took a trip out to Neptune today and finally decided to hard plumb this tank as the noise was starting to finally get to me from the soft ribbed tabbing and not able to close down the drain flow.
I wish I would've taken before and after videos. It's almost silent now!
Bonus: you can see the top layer of CO2 scrubber media turning purple.
@PizzaOven just as you mentioned you get about 2 weeks with yours, I ended up having to swap mine out at 2 weeks and 2 days when I noticed the pH dropped a few points.
I wish I would've taken before and after videos. It's almost silent now!
Bonus: you can see the top layer of CO2 scrubber media turning purple.
@PizzaOven just as you mentioned you get about 2 weeks with yours, I ended up having to swap mine out at 2 weeks and 2 days when I noticed the pH dropped a few points.
PizzaOven
Supporting Member
Nice, good to have another data point from someone else. I thought maybe I was just a heavy breather! haha. On a side note, my media seems to change color only very slightly when exhausted, I can hardly tell. Not a big deal, because I just change it when my pH drops. What media are you using?
Arvin R
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For the first go around I had been given a bag of BRS CO2 absorbant media. But I purchased a 5gal jug of Jorgensen Labrotories soda lime for my refills.
Arvin R
Sponsor
Got a mini reactor for GFO in the tank. Time to get phos back down and hopefully stay down as I'll just keep running the reactor permanently (on a timer if needed so I don't zero).
I ended up running a double stack of sponges at the top as with just 1 I felt like the media was too close to the drain vents and could easily end up getting pushed into the tank.
Using Phosban for media as it's all I had on hand but I don't like how fine the particles are.
I ended up running a double stack of sponges at the top as with just 1 I felt like the media was too close to the drain vents and could easily end up getting pushed into the tank.
Using Phosban for media as it's all I had on hand but I don't like how fine the particles are.
Arvin R
Sponsor
Just remembered for skimmer shut off you can use this in the collection cup. Xp Aqua Smart Skimmer Security.
For my 225 my skimmer uses a Varios-4 pump so I plan on using it's float switch for chamber water level so the skimmer will auto shut off if I turn return flow off and will act as a delay switch when flow comes back on. The XP Aqua for if the collection cup gets too full, and I also plan on running the cup drain line into a Davey Jones large skimmate locker with it's own safety shutoff when it gets full. 3 levels of security for recirculating CO2 scrubber and will also put a sponge at the inlet side of the CO2 scrubber in the top of the collection cup to pop bubbles and avoid them getting sucked into the CO2 scrubber.
Another idea would be to have another chamber plumbed in between the skimmer collection cup and the inlet of the CO2 scrubber to act as a liquid catch can (could be a simple tall to-go container with both lines coming from the top and have the collection cup line run half way down and the CO2 scrubber feed line just at the top. Gotta love late night reefing ideas. (Got this idea from @Prestondeeply with his suction tool, thanks!).
And you could even add another of the Smart Skimmer securities to that container to be extra extra extra safe. Lol
PizzaOven
Supporting Member
Brilliant! The Xp Aqua Smart Skimmer looks like it would work, I had never seen these before...
A liquid catch can in the re-circulation circuit seems like a good idea too.
Thanks for these ideas, I think re-circulating will be my next tank project. If it extends the media life and has no other effects, it will be a big win! We will see...
A liquid catch can in the re-circulation circuit seems like a good idea too.
Thanks for these ideas, I think re-circulating will be my next tank project. If it extends the media life and has no other effects, it will be a big win! We will see...