co2 reactors and microbubbles

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bleublaze55

Gambusia
MFK Member
Oct 15, 2009
340
1
16
Orange County
First time posting so bear with me...
I have a 120 gal (attempted planted) tank. It has 6 discus and about 12 cory cats in it as well as a few other assorted fish. I have about 25 plants or more in the tank am currently using general fertilizing measures (with decent results). I am using injected CO2 through a reactor from Ebay. I recently just changed back to this reactor because the aquamedic one (the small conical) just wasn't inputting enough CO2 into the water. My bubbles per minute are in the uncountable range, but my CO2 drop checker is in the green.

Reactor: http://www.ebay.com/itm/CO2-Reactor...503?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item483f0d8f07

With this reactor because of the 500GPH of my pumps i am getting a LOT of micro bubbles in the tank,
Any ideas on how to reduce these bubbles while still maintaining a high enough CO2 level?
or with the aquamedic one, (which didn't really seem to work) how could i get enough CO2 without the bubbles here too..??
any help is much appreciated
 
I don't know about the ebay one but the Aquamedic 1000 has a purge valve that you can run a line back to the pump and leave the valve open this will let any build up gas to be use over again . I ran a Mag 5 500gph pump with my AM1000 with no problem .
 
You could place your diffuser under your filter intake, assuming you run a canister filter. The canister filter will act as your reacter. With this method you will utilize most of your C02, so will probably need to slow your needle valve way down, maybe 1bbs or lower to avoid C02 bubbles forming in you canister filter. You can run your C02 at a much lower rate and still keep the same dissolved C02 level.

The first question I had about this method was the effect it would have on the beneficial bacteria. From what I've seen and read, this is not a problem as long as you have proper 02 levels in your tank. C02 and 02 do not negatively effect the concentrations of each other in solution. The dissolved levels are completely independent of each other.

I would start off at a very slow rate and ramp up. Listen to your pump, if it is quiet and doesn't burp C02 then your fully dissolving your C02. Ensure you have good 02 gas exchange by having a power head or pump causing some rippling at the surface. Avoid bubbling and foamin as this drives away C02 by breaking the surface tension of the water.

Anyway, you can get good C02 exchange using an inline reactor but I would save your money and use the canister as your reactor.

Cheers!
 
Smaller pump/power head.
Valve on the pump to slow it
Put a sponge filter material at the bottom of the reactor so the bubbles get trapped in it
 
octavusprime said:
You could place your diffuser under your filter intake, assuming you run a canister filter. The canister filter will act as your reacter. With this method you will utilize most of your C02, so will probably need to slow your needle valve way down, maybe 1bbs or lower to avoid C02 bubbles forming in you canister filter. You can run your C02 at a much lower rate and still keep the same dissolved C02 level.

The first question I had about this method was the effect it would have on the beneficial bacteria. From what I've seen and read, this is not a problem as long as you have proper 02 levels in your tank. C02 and 02 do not negatively effect the concentrations of each other in solution. The dissolved levels are completely independent of each other.

I would start off at a very slow rate and ramp up. Listen to your pump, if it is quiet and doesn't burp C02 then your fully dissolving your C02. Ensure you have good 02 gas exchange by having a power head or pump causing some rippling at the surface. Avoid bubbling and foamin as this drives away C02 by breaking the surface tension of the water.

Anyway, you can get good C02 exchange using an inline reactor but I would save your money and use the canister as your reactor.

Cheers!
Click to expand...

One thing to note if you use the above method. Remove the polishing filter as it traps C02 bubbles and causes burps of c02 into the tank.

I'm currently running my bubble counter at 3-4 bps on my 135 gallon, my drop checker is green and there are no micro bubbles floating around the tank.
 
slow the bubbles down, and get to where the c02... is defused in the tank. the benifical bacteria doesn't like low ph. if it was me i wouldn't have the c02 going in to the canisters.
 
Beneficial bacteria is fine, no ammonia or nitrite present. Everything is getting converted to nitrate... PH is stablized with crushed coral in the canister, baking soda at water changes and air stones running at night. Never had my PH go below 7.0 and drop checker is always green.

I can say through experience that it works with no harm to the system.
 
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