Increased consumption after c02 scrubber?

[pugz508]

Afternoon everyone,

I recently attached a closed loop c02 scrubber to my skimmer due to ph of about 7.8. Since then my consumption is way up with specifically alk/cal. Is this a known thing?

 

[JMetaxas]

Higher pH will mean higher calcification rates (coral growth). So your Alk demand will increase.


What pH are you running now?

 

[coralfishreef]

Yes. That was my experience and one reason for why I removed my CO2 scrubber.

Be watchful when the media starts running out. There may be an Alk/Calc spike because of less consumption.

 

[pugz508]

Yes. That was my experience and one reason for why I removed my CO2 scrubber.

Be watchful when the media starts running out. There may be an Alk/Calc spike because of less consumption.

Wouldn't there be a benefit assuming more growth from usage?

 

[coralfishreef]

The main problem for me was the instability. It’s tedious enough to test parameters without having to worry about pH suddenly dropping and having a big Alk spike.

But, I didn’t run the CO2 scrubber with recirculated air. The CO2 scrubber combined with an outside airline raised pH too much. This led into looking into regulator valves and recirculating air. At this point I decided to take the scrubbers offline and go with more stability.

With a recirculated setup it may be easier to maintain. I had 3 tanks to maintain at the time.

 

[MikeG]

The main problem for me was the instability. It’s tedious enough to test parameters without having to worry about pH suddenly dropping and having a big Alk spike.

But, I didn’t run the CO2 scrubber with recirculated air. The CO2 scrubber combined with an outside airline raised pH too much. This led into looking into regulator valves and recirculating air. At this point I decided to take the scrubbers offline and go with more stability.

With a recirculated setup it may be easier to maintain. I had 3 tanks to maintain at the time.

Recirculating set up I would imagine would raise the pH even higher and exacerbate this potential difference. I just added a CO2 scrubber this week so I guess we will see

 

[BiGGiePauls33]

The recirculating allows the media to lat longer in my opinion, I ran it with inside air, outside air, then recirculating. After a few months, I ditched the whole setup. My corals grow just fine I'm 7.9-8.1

 

[MikeG]

The recirculating allows the media to lat longer in my opinion, I ran it with inside air, outside air, then recirculating. After a few months, I ditched the whole setup. My corals grow just fine I'm 7.9-8.1

My tank runs around 7.8 without one so wanted to see if it will help