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Mine changed color, but its slight, you can see it better when you pour it out. Also, The color changes back to white pretty quickly if u miss it. Can not rely on the color as a indicator for sure. When i ran the media un recirculated the color change was more obvious.
I ordered a custom recirculating ring from you today for a skimz skimmer. I got the BRS scrubber and the ice cap media. I'm excited to see how it goes.
I was thinking of doing this for my new skimmer I’m going to order but after seeing you test this 3X I’ll have to re think this out. Thanks for taking the time Travis to see if this worked for you
So I use this media. It lasts about 1 month for me in a BRS CO2 reactor. The BRS reactor has sponges in it. This media pretty much immediately dyed those sponges a dark purple and has kept them that way. I think what’s happening is it does have a color changing dye...but the dye is so water soluble that the moist air makes it leak downward instead of staying on the rocks themselves. I’m positive there is a color changing aspect to them but it sucks. Only thing I’d recommend to you is if you try again, don’t add water to the bottom of the reactor. If you recirculate there will be so much moisture that over time you’ll need to dump it out from the bottom of the reactor. I’m curious if you added so much water that as more got collected it started blocking the air flow. That’s what happens to mine. I dump the water out every week or so. And as it gets close to that mark, the media stops working as well. Once I dump out the water...the media keeps working at peak performance again. Then finally after about a month or 5 weeks the media will actually stop working as well. Unfortunately your DIY reactor would probably suck in terms of dumping this excess water. The BRS reactor works great cuz the media all stays inside of the resin tubes that it uses.
I went through 3-4 big bags of this BRS media before I got fed up and switched to the stuff you can get off Amazon in the big jug, I think it's like 40lbs for $120. I have a RO SS5000 external Skimmer recirculating with a BRS jumbo scrubber. A fresh fill will last me 2-3 weeks. And the color change is noticeable and holds longer than 24 hours before getting lighter. BRS media in that same configuration was exhausted in about a week. Sometimes the only way to tell the BRS media has changed color is to drop a couple of fresh out the bag pellets on top so you can see the difference. The 40lb jug lasts me 6-8 months. About 2 months into my 2nd jug now after switching and will need to do my 3rd refill sometime this week.
Probably getting too much humid air into the reactor. I put an empty media reactor before the air gets into the scrubber to knock out a ton of the water which I have to change every couple weeks. Went from a week of media lasting to close to 6 weeks for the media lasting. The fact that it doesn't color change points to too much humidity as well.
I have no experience with the brs media but the icecap did not change color for me. I just got a 5 gallon jug (~50lbs) of media from Jorvet on Amazon and it actually changes to a very saturated purple. It lasts a full week and my ph went from 7.7-8.0 to 8.0-8.3 with a major alk consumption and growth boost. I also ordered your recirculating attachment and am excited to see more results!
Divers use the same stuff for filling their oxygen tanks. It is a mutch cheaper than BRS, and you can get IT with or without colour change. It is called Sofnolime 797. I buy it In bulk from diver shops.
Mine changes color every batch. I get my air intake from my attic and have the jumbo scrubber with two chambers. I only change media every month and a half.
I never really got it to change color either. Also the amount of media you have for the size of your tank is a bit small. I use a large gatorade bottle sized amount, which is maybe slightly less than you have here. But I have a Waterbox 100.3, which is waaaay smaller than the tank you have. You probably need at least 5x as much media. The BRS media cost comes to $5.41 per pound. But you can get it for $2.60 per pound directly from Jorgensen Labs. Cheaper if you buy the 5 gallon one.
Hay travis-- I use To little fishes CO2 media. I had the same problem with brs media. It never changed for me either. By the way I have the same setup with the 550 reactor.
Did you see any effect on your alkalinity? I am about do this on a 28 gallon system with small skimmer but about the same media chamber size. So hopefully it’s worth the effort on a smaller skimmer and system.
Witch media is the best? I just purchased a co2 scrubber and got the icecap media to fill it but I’m curious on what you use other than the brs stuff lol
The BRS media does NOT last long for me at all. Doesn't change color and doesn't seem to "scrub" as well as others. I was getting 7.9-8.2 ish with BRS and now I'm getting 8.2-8.5 with diving grade stuff. Costs me about $7/month in media which for the increased coral growth (via alk uptake) I am happy.
I offer and recommend a collection container just incase but at the end of the day you should have a automatic shut off or float valve in your skimmer cup if you plan on using a system with that kind of risk.
You can cook it in the oven to reset if, if I remember correctly. BRS is great, amazing even, but I’ve had better luck with two little fishies CO2 media.
