Co2 scrubber recirculating air

[Bruce Spiegelman]

The logic arguing for this setup I’ve seen is:

1) The whole point of a CO2 scrubber is to lower the CO2 in the tank water below that which you would otherwise have with the tank equilibrating to the CO2 in your room air.
2) Your skimmer, with the very high and dynamic air bubble production, is a large contributor to total gas (CO2) exchange between room air and water, so a good target.
3) If the scrubber is working to lower CO2 level in your water, that means the CO2 level in the air inside your skimmer cup will have a lower CO2 level than room air.
4) Less media will be used to extract CO2 from this low CO2 level than it would if you started with room air (less media consumption for same target low CO2 level). Without this, the skimmer cup air with low CO2 would just mix with room air eventually.
5) The humid air issue makes sense, and may be part of it, but not what I’ve seen cited as the main reason for this specific approach as opposed to just have a small amount of water in the canister or drawing air from inside the sump cabinet (which is humid).

John -- do you recirculate through the cup?

 

[JVU]

I don’t use a CO2 scrubber because my pH is fine without (8.25-8.45). Big house, with relatively few mammals respirating. But I’m interested in water chemistry so I’ve read about this with interest.

 

[Rostato]

I think I may try that bubbler just to test it out. $8 seems worth a try. I will hate adding water to it though. I doubt they’ll be a permanent thing for me.

 

[ofzakaria]

Possibly, but I always tell people not to plug up the skimmer lid holes. No reason for that.

Also how heavy are those gases? I.E. what will the atmospheric composition look like in the skimmer?

Not plugging the skimmer in my opnion is a must. For both skimmer performance and to allow fresh air to go back to the system. But you see my problem here, if we say we still get good scrubber life without plugging all skimmer cover holes, that means there is fresh air going to the scrubber..say 50%. Is not it strange to think this 50% none fresh air went in to the scrubber is what's causing the ph to go ao much higher for longer times?
I wonder if the scrubber will perform the same if we created the humidity inside the reactor without passing the air from skimmer?
I wonder if skimmer will perform the same of we pass air from collection cup but without the humidity..
My gut feeling is that the answers are yes and no

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[Rostato]

I think I may try that bubbler just to test it out. $8 seems worth a try. I will hate adding water to it though. I doubt they’ll be a permanent thing for me.

Ordered one. I’ll try it out.

 

[Rostato]

Got the bubbler in. With water in it it restricts the flow way too much and is loud as hell.

So I settles on this. This should help “catch” any skimate coming from the cup. It still restricts the flow probably too much, but I’ll try it out. Also made me think that maybe I could put the skimmers shut off float valve inside this catch can. That way if it starts getting water in it it shuts down the pump. Thoughts?

I’ll post a video of it bubbling with water. No way I’d do that 24/7

 

[ofzakaria]

Why did you get the cup if your plan was to keep the recirculating thing? I thought the idea is to use the cup for providing humidity and fresh air?

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[Rostato]

Because it didn’t work.

It was loud and too restrictive on airflow

 

[Rostato]

Here’s why

 

[ofzakaria]

Yeh this thing looks air tight. Damn I cannot find a picture of the solution I saw once that seemed very good.
It was a cup with a lid. The user added 2 fittings to the lid, used one for input the other for output. Then in put just connected to 1/2" tubing to bring in fresh air, output to co2 reactor.
Then he filled the cup half way with water.
It worked really well according to the post

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[ofzakaria]

Something like this. Couple implementations with the same concept. This will bring fresh humid air instead of air from skimmer

 

[Rostato]

Looks the same. Water looks like it’s bubbling.

 

[ofzakaria]

This also maybe in between implementation.
It will bring in both fresh air and skimmer air. And maybe it will help you fine tune how much ph swing you push instead if solniod. The t fitting allow you to play with the air mix ratio

How to raise pH in a reef tank with a beta recirculating CO2 scrubber - BRStv Reef FAQs

Using CO2 removal media to remove CO2 from the air going into your protein skimmer is one of the most efficient ways to increase pH in your reef aquarium when too much dissolved CO2 is suppressing your tank’s pH. We already have some excellent videos on how to raise pH in a reef tank with an entire

www.bulkreefsupply.com

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[ofzakaria]

Looks the same. Water looks like it’s bubbling.

But its bringing fresh air not dirty skimmer air only.....

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[Rostato]

Yeah I have a Y on hand. Been thinking about that as well

 

[ofzakaria]

Yeah I have a Y on hand. Been thinking about that as well

Yeh I would try to bring in fresh air in the mix to help Oxygen and reduce methane injection back in the water from the skimmer decomposed filled air..

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[ofzakaria]

From the brs write up

"Fluid inside the CO2 scrubber for any amount of time is a bad idea.

The build up of humidity to the point of needing to be drained should really only happen when your media lasts a really long time or you forget to swap it out. The larger scrubber chambers will require this less frequently and our jumbo units have a convenient drain port on the bottom to make it easy.
"
That's why I freaked out when I saw your picture of liquid filled co2 scrubber reactor btw ha ha


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[Rostato]

Yeah it gets humid I. There,and even has a bit of water at the bottom, but it never touches the media. I check it weekly.

 

[Rostato]

Well, I got in the Neptune solenoids, and they SUCK for this use. They restrict air so much that the skimmer won’t even make bubbles when on.

It’s kind of amazing how little flow they allow.

Next is to add a valve to let in some fresh air into the skimmer as well as the scrubbed air.

 

[ofzakaria]

That's surprising when its open it should allow as much air as a 1/4 inch tubing..

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