Neptune Aquatics

Arvin's wife's 25g lagoon tank

My wife won a Hell Fire torch in a raffle! I thought the frag holder was neat! (I removed it after this picture)
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I decided to swap out the AI Prime 16HD as I felt like it wasn't lighting up the edges of the tank very well. On goes my RedSea LED90. Definitely going to need a PAR meter soon as I only have it at 30% right now and its already a lot brighter.
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Forgot to mention last night that I added a CO2 scrubber. Woke up this morning to pH at 8.2 and during peak hours hit 8.5. Corals are definitely loving it! They're never been this puffed up before. I know people say don't chase pH but damn does it seem to make a difference.
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Anyone need some excess nutrients? I'll give you a cup of my water and you'll probably be good! Lol. Tank still looks good though!
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Arvin R said:
Forgot to mention last night that I added a CO2 scrubber. Woke up this morning to pH at 8.2 and during peak hours hit 8.5. Corals are definitely loving it! They're never been this puffed up before. I know people say don't chase pH but damn does it seem to make a difference.
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How often do you have to change the CO2 scrubber media? I get between 1-2 weeks on mine, curious what others are getting out of the media. I love the pH boost, but It's a tad bit expensive for my taste as a recurring cost, and has me thinking about how to pipe my skimmer's air intake through the wall to the fresh outdoor air...
 
PizzaOven said:
How often do you have to change the CO2 scrubber media? I get between 1-2 weeks on mine, curious what others are getting out of the media. I love the pH boost, but It's a tad bit expensive for my taste as a recurring cost, and has me thinking about how to pipe my skimmer's air intake through the wall to the fresh outdoor air...
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It's my first time using it and I'm monitoring pH everyday until I see it drop. So far it's been about 2 weeks for me and my tank is still 8.4 off peak and 8.5 during peak.
 
@PizzaOven have you tried setting your CO2 scrubber up for recirculating? Where you feed the scrubber air inlet from the top of the collection cup and seal off any other holes to ambient on the top of the cup?
 
Arvin R said:
@PizzaOven have you tried setting your CO2 scrubber up for recirculating? Where you feed the scrubber air inlet from the top of the collection cup and seal off any other holes to ambient on the top of the cup?
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I've definitely considered it. Are you running re-circulating? My big concern with recirculating is shutting off the skimmer in the event of an overflow, so that the liquid skimmate does not re-circulate through the scrubber media and make it's way into the tank. I think an optical switch inside the collection cup and the Neptune FMM module may do the trick?
 
Took a trip out to Neptune today and finally decided to hard plumb this tank as the noise was starting to finally get to me from the soft ribbed tabbing and not able to close down the drain flow.

I wish I would've taken before and after videos. It's almost silent now!

Bonus: you can see the top layer of CO2 scrubber media turning purple.

@PizzaOven just as you mentioned you get about 2 weeks with yours, I ended up having to swap mine out at 2 weeks and 2 days when I noticed the pH dropped a few points.

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Arvin R said:
@PizzaOven just as you mentioned you get about 2 weeks with yours, I ended up having to swap mine out at 2 weeks and 2 days when I noticed the pH dropped a few points.
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Nice, good to have another data point from someone else. I thought maybe I was just a heavy breather! haha. On a side note, my media seems to change color only very slightly when exhausted, I can hardly tell. Not a big deal, because I just change it when my pH drops. What media are you using?
 
PizzaOven said:
Nice, good to have another data point from someone else. I thought maybe I was just a heavy breather! haha. On a side note, my media seems to change color only very slightly when exhausted, I can hardly tell. Not a big deal, because I just change it when my pH drops. What media are you using?
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For the first go around I had been given a bag of BRS CO2 absorbant media. But I purchased a 5gal jug of Jorgensen Labrotories soda lime for my refills.
 
Cool, let us know how the Jorgensen Labs stuff works out. I'm also using the BRS media, but I've had my eye on the J. Labs jug since it works out to be significantly cheaper per refill.
 
Got a mini reactor for GFO in the tank. Time to get phos back down and hopefully stay down as I'll just keep running the reactor permanently (on a timer if needed so I don't zero).

I ended up running a double stack of sponges at the top as with just 1 I felt like the media was too close to the drain vents and could easily end up getting pushed into the tank.

Using Phosban for media as it's all I had on hand but I don't like how fine the particles are.
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PizzaOven said:
I've definitely considered it. Are you running re-circulating? My big concern with recirculating is shutting off the skimmer in the event of an overflow, so that the liquid skimmate does not re-circulate through the scrubber media and make it's way into the tank. I think an optical switch inside the collection cup and the Neptune FMM module may do the trick?
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Just remembered for skimmer shut off you can use this in the collection cup. Xp Aqua Smart Skimmer Security.

For my 225 my skimmer uses a Varios-4 pump so I plan on using it's float switch for chamber water level so the skimmer will auto shut off if I turn return flow off and will act as a delay switch when flow comes back on. The XP Aqua for if the collection cup gets too full, and I also plan on running the cup drain line into a Davey Jones large skimmate locker with it's own safety shutoff when it gets full. 3 levels of security for recirculating CO2 scrubber and will also put a sponge at the inlet side of the CO2 scrubber in the top of the collection cup to pop bubbles and avoid them getting sucked into the CO2 scrubber.

Another idea would be to have another chamber plumbed in between the skimmer collection cup and the inlet of the CO2 scrubber to act as a liquid catch can (could be a simple tall to-go container with both lines coming from the top and have the collection cup line run half way down and the CO2 scrubber feed line just at the top. Gotta love late night reefing ideas. (Got this idea from @Prestondeeply with his suction tool, thanks!).

And you could even add another of the Smart Skimmer securities to that container to be extra extra extra safe. Lol
 
Brilliant! The Xp Aqua Smart Skimmer looks like it would work, I had never seen these before...

A liquid catch can in the re-circulation circuit seems like a good idea too.

Thanks for these ideas, I think re-circulating will be my next tank project. If it extends the media life and has no other effects, it will be a big win! We will see...
 
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