I’m planning to add a DIY CO2 scrubber to my tank in hopes of getting my pH to stabilize throughout the day. The easiest medium for doing this is soda lime. It can be purchased from a variety of places (Bulk Reef Supply, medical supply shops and welding supply shops). Has anyone come across somewhere local that sells it? Anyone know of a welding supply shop around northern DE?
why not just a fresh air intake for your skinner?
you have to have somewhere close you can tap into outside air.
When are you seeing drops or spikes?
I would agree, that if you can get to an outside air source, would be the best option. In my case, I couldn’t, so I used a scrubber whenever it was too hot or too cold to open some windows. I found the most economical place to buy it was on line here:
Keen and Airgas are welding supply shops
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[quote=“Hudzon, post:2, topic:8905”]
why not just a fresh air intake for your skinner?
you have to have somewhere close you can tap into outside air.
When are you seeing drops or spikes?[/quote]
True. Not really looking to put any holes in the side of my house though 
I get daily swings. I reach 8.2 just before my lights go out and it slowly drops overnight. I’ve considered growing macro in my sump on a reverse time schedule, but there are a few reasons that’s not a great idea for me.
- My sump is already full.
- I don’t have nutrients to support macro algae
- I likely would need too much macro to counter the CO2, even if I made a space in my fuge area for it.
[quote=“Downbeach, post:3, topic:8905”]
I would agree, that if you can get to an outside air source, would be the best option. In my case, I couldn’t, so I used a scrubber whenever it was too hot or too cold to open some windows. I found the most economical place to buy it was on line here:
http://www.shopmedvet.com/product/soda-lime-5-gallon-JOR553B[/quote]
Thanks. Do you know what the weight of that bag is? BRS sells 9lbs for $50, but it looks like less than 5 gallons.
[quote=“Jlicht16, post:4, topic:8905”]
Keen and Airgas are welding supply shops
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk[/quote]
Thanks! I’ll look them up.
Make your own! Baking soda in the oven will dry it out and make soda ash
It would be missing the lime component
Hmmm… those guys have a 3lb bag for $8. That’s half what BRS charges.
Why not use pickeling lime from walmart?
How much of a swing are we talking here? 8.2 is not an issue, my tank stays at 8.1 almost 24-7 unless all windows are open then it goes up to 8.2 and sometimes 8.3
7.9 at the lowest. The daily swing is about 0.4. That’s just too much. I want to even that out. Found the stuff for $2/lb online. That’s nearly a third of what BRS wants. I think I’ll get a small bag to try it out and see how fast I go through it. If a 5g pail would last a year that’s pretty good.
Everyone’s needs/uses will vary depending on the size of the skimmer, i.e. air flow, size of canister/container, and the amount of CO2 in the surrounding atmosphere. In my case, I was using a SSA CS 180 skimmer with a Sicce PSK 1000 pump, with an air intake of ~ 800 l/hr(advertised), I don’t know how much CO2 in the house, there was only two adults and a Black Lab in a 5 BR house(no plants). I used an old RO canister I had left over along with an insert from BRS. So, with that as a reference, I had to change out the media every 7 - 8 days. One caveat here is you have to watch the color changing media since once it turns purple, and is exhausted, it will turn back to white fairly quickly, and is ineffective. Here is the canister:
I made two of these, and another was used as a filter filled with GAC for someone who was able to run an air line to an outside air source. The idea here was to prevent any chemicals, i.e. insecticides, etc. from entering the system through the skimmers intake.
Thanks, Jim!
I’ll need to first see what my uptake looks like. Those RO canisters are about 3/4 of a gallon, give or take. Going through one a week would be crazy expensive. I’m toying with the idea of running the air intake through an air switch. I can control the switch to go through the soda lime when the pH is below a value and switch to using air from the room when it is above some other value. BRS showed something similar, but didn’t talk about the details. I figure $50 ($20 for the small bag of soda lime shipped and $30 for the canister) isn’t a bad investment up front just to see how it works for me.
I also need to get some more houseplants We had an infestation of fruit flies that took out our palm tree. #@$^
I was able to just run an air line to my garage and a barbed fitting to a short piece of pvc with some cotton in it. Have been using this setup for a couple of years and PH remains very stable.
It is the black airline on the left in this pic.
Compounding the fact that I don’t want to put a hole in the side of my house, is the fact that we live in mushroom country. It’s only a few days a month that we smell the compost, but on those days I don’t need something actively pulling that air into the house ::hitsthefan::
Are you having any problems with your corals with the ph swings? Just wondering,
" if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it"
Not that I would directly attribute to the pH changes. There’s just some growing evidence that corals are better able to grow with stable pH. I wouldn’t mind so much if the swing was smaller and stayed above 8.0. I don’t like dipping into the 7’s.
I’d never dose any chemicals to boost the pH, but I’d be willing to adjust the air coming in