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.
$36 (on sale for $31 at time of purpose) - Universal CO2 Scrubber
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
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.
