JeF4y's CO2 Scrubber - Increase your pH!

JeF4y;787376 wrote: Maybe. Dunno. Give it a try! "Honestly officer! It's to raise the pH in my tank by consuming ambient CO2! And my glaucoma!" :lol2::shades::D
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And even if it doesn't raise the PH, who cares? :lol2:
 
Question JeF4y, I have been running the co2 reactor for 2 months now. My 8ft x 8ft sump room is where the reactor is . after setup it was not doing much of a job raising the ph, so , i ran a tubing outside the basement wall and added some screen over it(outside tubing) to keep bugs/trash out. then ph shot up 8.2 to 8.45, i change soda every two weeks with water changes. Now last weekend the ph was dropping so I changed the sodalime. its only running at 8.03 and now 7.79 after changing the soda?? do you think my RKE PH Probe needs to be re-calibrated ? just re-calibrated it 5 weeks ago? or do i need to completley cover the bottom of the reactor to were the out air coming into the bottom of the reactor gets pulled thru the limesoda? no inside air gets into the reactor?
 
reefstinger;804796 wrote: Question JeF4y, I have been running the co2 reactor for 2 moths now. My 8ft x 8ft sump room is where the reactor is . after setup it was not doing much of a job raising the ph, so , i ran a tubing outside the basement wall and added some screen over i(outside tubing) t to keep bugs/trash out. last weekend the ph was dropping so I changed the sodalime. its only running at 8.03 and now 7.79 after changing the soda?? do you think my RKE PH Probe needs to be re-calibrated ? just re-calibrated it 5 weeks ago? or do i need to completley cover the bottom of the reactor to were the out air coming into the bottom of the reactor gets pulled thru the limesoda?
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So this is an interesting situation and one which points out what the CO2 scrubber actually does. My guess here is that you don't have any excess CO2 in your sump room, so there's nothing to really pull out of the air that is being taken in through your skimmer.

You mention an 8x8 room. If there are no people/pets in this room regularly, there really isn't a source of CO2 to remove. So in this case, the scrubber won't do you any good.

By design though, you do need the air to be pulled THROUGH the sodalime, so the holes should be at the bottom of the reactor and be covered by sodalime, with the skimmer hose at the top of the reactor. So if you're not drawing air through the scrubber, it's not doing any good at all.
 
ok , my sump room only has me coming in and out of this room. Checking sump and refugium. so the rest of the basement is open . Why when i first got the reactor started did i have higher PH ?? 8.1 to 8.45 this was after i ran the line outside . of course the weather is cooler now. When i first setup the reactor inside of the 8x8 room the PH stayed 7.7 to 8.0 . so after i ran the line outside it increase dramatically. now its like mellowed out. so what do you suggest now? start adding PH buffer?? lol
 
KH=9 PH know at 8.18 , just dosed alk and cal, after dosing PH is rising. But my PH API test kit shows PH at 8.4, PH probe showing 8.18
 
So a couple of things. It sounds like there may be some slight excess CO2 in your air as demonstrated by moving your skimmer hose outside and the increase you once saw with the reactor, but I'm not fully convinced.

1. Can you load a pic of your CO2 scrubber? Particularly I'm concerned with the question -- "do i need to completley cover the bottom of the reactor to were the out air coming into the bottom of the reactor gets pulled thru the limesoda?"</em>

2. Your probe may actually be bad. A failing probe (i.e., one that dried out) will drift quickly after calibration. You can re-calibrate again, but a calibrated probe should remain stable for at least 6 months if not up to a year. I recalibrate my probes about once a year and they are very very close at that point.
 
Just throwing this out there... Any time you have a power outage or loose power to your pH monitor(unless it is a Manually calibrated probe by turning the little screws) you will probably need to recalibrate your probe.
 
Hey Jef4y, yep it was my PH probe. I re-calibrated it and it matches my test kit 8.43 now. LOL I will bet my power went off 3 days ago while we were at work and that's when the PH probe stayed 8.01 to 8.02. Thanks , I didn't know that the probe has to be re ca'd after power outages.
 
reefstinger;805139 wrote: Hey Jef4y, yep it was my PH probe. I re-calibrated it and it matches my test kit 8.43 now. LOL I will bet my power went off 3 days ago while we were at work and that's when the PH probe stayed 8.01 to 8.02. Thanks , I didn't know that the probe has to be re ca'd after power outages.
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I didn't know that either, until about 2 weeks ago. After talking to the Milwaukee rep, he informed me that anytime an "electronically" calibrated probe looses power, it will need to be recalibrated. That's why they primarily produce "manually" calibrated products.

If the alk is at 9, it should be ok. A little low for me. I generally try to stay between 12-13kh, but that's just because the salt mixes I've been using mix up that high. 9 is acceptable among many hobbyist.

Edit:
rdnelson99;804935 wrote: Bet it is in his tank. :)
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:doh:
 
Ripped Tide;805152 wrote: I didn't know that either, until about 2 weeks ago. After talking to the Milwaukee rep, he informed me that anytime an "electronically" calibrated probe looses power, it will need to be recalibrated. That's why they primarily produce "manually" calibrated products.

If the alk is at 9, it should be ok. A little low for me. I generally try to stay between 12-13kh, but that's just because the salt mixes I've been using mix up that high. 9 is acceptable among many hobbyist.

Edit:

:doh:
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KH or dKH? If I remember correctly that is contrary to what Jack Kent said. He said around 9 was good but much over that would cause problems. Can you clarify for me?
 
I was referring to dkh, oops!



I always measure in mg/l. I keep it between 3.5-4.0mg/l to convert mg/l to dkh, you multiply the (value in mg/l) x 2.8 =dkh

So for me 3.5mg/l x2.8= 9.8dkh

Edit: 4.0mg/l x 2.8= 11.2

Seachem reccomended keeping the alk between 4-6mg/l

Edit: Not discrediting Jack Kent, but I am playing for team Seachem right now. :)
 
THANKS Guys that's 9 with KH kit, what kind of salt do you Guys use?? Im using RC IO , I was thinking hard about trying Salinity on my next water change in 2 weeks. I just did maintenance on my tanks and water changes today.
 
I remember reading this a while back, and having trouble diagnosing low pH this came to mind. I bought a 5 gal pale from Airgas in Duluth for around $75. I put together the scrubber, and it went from 7.8 last night to 8.06 and climbing. Imagine it would probably take 24 hours or more to stabilize.
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