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CO2 reactor help

K

kale972

New Member
Joined
15 Feb 2024
Messages
9
Location
Peterborough
Hi. Bought Yidao CO2 reactor last week and trying to get it right. Running it on separate loop with Jebao 1200 l/h pump. Tried running with CO2 injected straight in - cannot get drop checker to change colour from blue. If I combine it with inline diffuser, getting PH drop but still ending with microbubles in tank which I want to eliminate - why I got reactor in the first place. Without diffuser big gas bubble creates on top of the reactor and it gets quite noisy. Can someone with a bit of experiece nudge me in the right direction? Here is a photo of setup. Pump speed is set to Max at the moment - can be reduced via controller. Thanks.
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Here are pictures without CO2 bottle for better view. Reactor is on return side of the pump. That foam inside is coarse and not stopping bubbles from going into tank.
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1000019882.jpg
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I've got one of these but it's still unused in the box, but have had (and do have) different Reactors over the last 10 years or so, and what I will say is they take a fair bit of tuning to hit the sweet spot, getting the flow correct and to merge with the right bubble count.
I have mine coming on 4 hours before the lights and off 2 hours before the end of the light cycle as the water contains dissolved CO2, not just bubbles which will quickly dissipate. The Drop Checker is only just turning green as the light comes on but bear in mind your Drop Checker has an approximate lag of 2 hours and is also not contending with pure CO2 bubbles. If your water is 2 dKH, (maybe a bit less) (mine is 0.3) doing a pH profile is the most accurate means of measuring your system.
There are a few threads on this reactor here on UKAPS with a few people praising it @LondonDragon springs to mind, and a few poopooing it @Hufsa. A number of people have modified it slightly within, and/or added a Tee with a Tap on the other end of the CO2 line to enable easy purging of the Reactor.
Hope this helps and try to persevere for a while, a tank without bubbles is the reward.
Cheers!
 
Hi there, my experience with this reactor is it's awesome! But I do use it slightly differently. I'm injecting CO2 straight into reactor without inline diffuser and I'm not using any foam at the bottom. I have 160L tank and my injection starts 5 hours before light comes on. I'm achieving 1.3 - 1.4 pH drop and it's very steady during whole photoperiod. It's connected to Oase BioMaster 850 and I'm using Oase CrystalSkim 350 for additional circulation. Though once pearling starts I start seeing micro bubbles all over the place. So not sure if you can completely avoid mist in your tank.

Cheers
 
KH over here in Peterborough is 7, I know it takes a lot of CO2 to get 1 pointdrop. CO2 comes on 3.5 hours before lights on and stops 2 hours before light off. Degassed PH is 7.6. @MrClockOff where did you pount your inlet in reactor to? Will try again without diffuser. Is Jecod 1200 l/h pump giving enough flow? Thanks.
 
I used one of these for a while before making a cerges because of the noise but I found that the key is getting the right position for the elbow on the inlet. It needs to be directed so the flow runs around the edge to create a vortex to drag the co2 down. I would remove the inline diffuser, a small build up of gas allows a larger surface area for diffusion. I use a prefilter so no need for foam in the canister.
I used a 3000l/hr pump on a 350l tank but didnt find any difference in noise level even on very low speeds.
Adjusting the speed to suit the bubble rate might help help ?
Cheers
 
Disconnected diffuser now and connected straight to reactor. Positioned elbow to swirl around. Working regulator pressure is 20 psi. Will keep an eye on it. Thanks for your help.
 
Yep, I'm pointing the flow just into CO2 injection point and it makes swirl of bubbles. Working pressure on regulator set to 30PSI. I think it doesn't matter what's working pressure is because there is nothing in the reactor to keep it.
 
Hi again. Got it working, CO2 on 4 hours before light and off 2 hours before lights out. Have 1 point drop at lights on and no mist in tank which is great considering a lot of surface agitation in the tank. Is it better to have pump inlet pointing over CO2 inlet or to the side of it - trying to reduce gurgling noise. Thanks.
 
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