A pretty simple piece of equipment and almost more of a method review than a product one, but still I felt compelled to put this out there. I have had lowish ph ever since I put my reef up usually sitting between 7.8 and 8.0 varying depending on ambient conditions (season, people in house, etc). I have been reading a lot of research on the benefits of higher ph on coral growth. I considered several solutions but did not want to drill a hole in my wall to bring in outside air (external contaminants) and did not want to change dosing methods to kalkwasser (I have been using ESV 2-part successfully thus far). Ultimately, I saw a BRS video on CO2 scrubbers and decided to give it a shot, especially due to the price. Below is what I bought.
$36 (on sale for $31 at time of purpose) - Universal CO2 Scrubber
www.bulkreefsupply.com
Cheap and only took 5 minutes to install. One of the complaints with this method is media frequency/cost. I set mine up to recirculate air from the skimmer cup back into the reactor. Easy modification and extends the life of the media 2-3x. Only issue so far is the humidity from the skimmer cup. I had to modify the intake hose to not have any low points to avoid condensation build-up in the hose leading to a wet vacuum and a lot of noise.
Below are my before and after results. The blue line is where I installed it. It immediately reversed my normal evening ph decline and has since settled into an 8.2-8.4 ph cycle. If it goes much higher I might need to install a ball valve on the scrubber to add back in unfiltered air to reduce its effectiveness (good problem to have I guess!). I expect the media cost to run around $10-15/month. Not horrible, especially if I see any noticeable benefits to the tank. Only time will tell.
![1606755551908.png 1606755551908.png](https://atlantareefclub.org/data/attachments/34/34401-aff91f47b7354db24c8ebbfbd0099616.jpg)
$36 (on sale for $31 at time of purpose) - Universal CO2 Scrubber
![www.bulkreefsupply.com](/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia2.cdn.bulkreefsupply.com%2Fmedia%2Fcatalog%2Fproduct%2Fcache%2F2461497ddf1a2f94aea2975a79e1fe32%2F2%2F0%2F204179_brs_co2_scrubber-flipped.jpg&hash=4bf8d2da0fcf264087dc14ecd9fc3a01&return_error=1)
Universal CO2 Scrubber
Carbon Dioxide (CO2) can directly affect the pH of your aquarium, and with a low pH, corals may not grow as fast. Connecting a CO2 scrubber directly to the venturi on your skimmer along with CO2 absorption media you can control the amount of CO2 that is being sucked into your skimmer...
![www.bulkreefsupply.com](/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia2.cdn.bulkreefsupply.com%2Fmedia%2Ffavicon%2Fstores%2F1%2Ffav.png&hash=fa6bf1d9a12dd3316ccb03fc358a812c&return_error=1)
Cheap and only took 5 minutes to install. One of the complaints with this method is media frequency/cost. I set mine up to recirculate air from the skimmer cup back into the reactor. Easy modification and extends the life of the media 2-3x. Only issue so far is the humidity from the skimmer cup. I had to modify the intake hose to not have any low points to avoid condensation build-up in the hose leading to a wet vacuum and a lot of noise.
Below are my before and after results. The blue line is where I installed it. It immediately reversed my normal evening ph decline and has since settled into an 8.2-8.4 ph cycle. If it goes much higher I might need to install a ball valve on the scrubber to add back in unfiltered air to reduce its effectiveness (good problem to have I guess!). I expect the media cost to run around $10-15/month. Not horrible, especially if I see any noticeable benefits to the tank. Only time will tell.
![1606755551908.png 1606755551908.png](https://atlantareefclub.org/data/attachments/34/34401-aff91f47b7354db24c8ebbfbd0099616.jpg)