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Sound like you need a bigger reactor.

You say nano system but dont mention the size of your tank?

Sounds like a good start, well done for doing the setting up without any fish and well done for double checking you are on the right track. I would buy a PH pen as this makes things so much easier and then carry on testing and fine tuning for a few more days but, ultimately you will be...

A bit more info and pictures of the reactor would help us I think.

There will always be a risk when using C02, there is an excepted or recommended upper target of 30ppm but more and more folk seem to want to push this limit! So if you are concerned about your fish, then you can stick to 20-25ppm. However mistakes can easily happen when you first start out and...

Are you keeping any fish?

Hi and welcome to the forum, I was just wondering what you are basing your disappointment on? We get a massive and broad range or C02 consumption post on the forum and people are often surprised they use so much but as you can already see from the above post, consumption can vary a lot as can...

Hi Pete, welcome to the forum, I can understand why you have asked your question, there could be a few in depth answers. However let’s start by asking how long is your brighting up period ? To simplify the situation you could make this period as quick as possible, say over 10 minutes then you...

This is only my personal opinion but, pushing known limits close to where fish are likely to suffer is not something that appeals to me. I cant imagine sitting at home trying to relax knowing my tank is pushing the boundary's and my fish are in Jeopardy every hour of the day, Of course I can...

There is a picture in the opening post showing the amount of gas build up and it looks very standard for this size and style of reactor.

Yes that is how many many reactors work.

Ian, do you mean bubble counter rather than drop checker? [editted, correct bubble counter] I believe that all tanks are individual and are very likely to differ in the amount of gas they use. My old 200 used 2kG every six weeks.

Without more detail or pictures it is difficult but using a by pass to your reactor like this….

I dont think I have ever come across anyone using your method, it does not sound like the best way. Why cant you use a by pass and valve and flow the reactor straight back into the main tank?

Ok sorry perhaps I did not read your post very well!

You may be able to improve your method simply by using a cut down plastic bottle and a basic defuser.

I miss Andrew, he was an entertaining and active member, hope he is OK?

It is a fascinating subject, basically the longer a bubble of C02 is kept in suspension the more effectively it will be dissolved. For instance if you have a transparent, tall thin tube, lets say 2 m high and 50mm wide that is filled with water and you then inject a single bubble into that tube...

Sounds like you need to add more C02. Do you have a bubble couter, if so are you adding the same amount of bubble as you were with the difuser?

Yes a adjustable flow will be very important, I am fairly sure it was four inch but I can check tomo as I still have it.

You are right that not everyone could get my design to work for them, this was because they could not get the same size vessel that I was using. I dont think anyone has tried it with a 20“ vessel but I would think it would work very well. The concept is sound and the internal component is free...

It is more likely that increasing the light would cause algae as generally speaking, to make the most of added C02 we would increase the light too.

Well you wont get a single fixed answer as there are so many opinions and plenty of designs too. There are hundred or thousands of post on the forum relating to reactors as it is a topical subject! However… yes, there are quiet operating reactors and yes, there are commercial ones available...

Nice tank, from the single picture, it looks pretty heathy!

Wow that is some set up for a planted tank! Sumps are nice to hide equipment but when you push a lot of water through them it will very effectively gas off any C02. Personally I would calm everything down and submerge any cascading water, you will still loose a lot of gas literally going down...

That is great, well done for carrying on the experiment.

I think the bottle size will be the result of trial and error but I found a rounded top rather that a long taper top worked best for me.

Did you try replacing the center tube with a plastic bottle as in my version?

That is interesting as you must be one of very few people who have posted on this forum quoting total success using a PH controller! PH controllers have notoriously not worked for the majority of people who have tried them ….at least according to the post recorded on this forum. So this may be...

It might help if you can imagine the effects of both of those options …… A spray bar (in theory at least) forms a rolling effect of the whole water column. So the spray bar will force the flow along the surface towards the front glass, the flow continues down the front glass and makes its way...

It is not always easy to maintain 30ppm and trying to keep 40ppm might be a real challenge. It will depend on tank size and shape and if there is a cover glass fitted or if the tank has an open top or how much surface movement there is etc…… I have tried to keep a yellow drop checker in a 200lt...

Ok well as far as I can see it has a 50mm diameter and looks to be around 400mm ? I dont know how it is designed to work, is the flow against the rising bubbles or with the flow? Basically these type of reactors rely on the dwell time of the Co2 bubbles, so the longer the bubbles path and the...

Fred, I just think the reactor is to small for 330l. It cant handle the flow rates you require, two in line might do it but that would require a strong pump.

Hi Fred, I have no idea what a cor50 reactor looks like, do you have a picture or a link? Did it come with instructions?

Running Co2 24-7 has been popular in the past and probably will be again at some time in the future! However the idear is to only run it at a low rate and in any case it never made much sense to me so I am not going to recommend doing it.

If you are still using a 250l tank then a single in tank diffuser is going to struggle but my best advice is dont stock any fish until you have the C02 on song…..

Aqua360, that looks like a bargain and as you found out is perfectly fine but the key is in the description where it states “twin gauge” where as the more expensive models are “twin stage”

Single stage reg and low gas level in tank?

Perhaps PH controllers have improved in recent years but previously they have not been popular, very few people use them as they do not offer a continuous supply but come on it fits and starts. Also when they first come on they can fire in a lot of gas that can effect finely tuned reactors...

Yes try that and see what happens….

You could change your in tank diffuser to an in line atomiser, that would saturate the whole tank with micro bubbles. Not everbody likes that effect as it can make small aquariums look like a tank of freshly poured champagne.

Lots of folk seem very surprised how many bubbles they require! I think this misconception might come from outside of the forum? It appears to me you might be adding a touch to much C02 for any fish you add in such a small tank, you say the tank is planted up, I bet you will see some good plant...

Excellent, resourceful job, I hope the experiment works for you…..

We use a bubble counter because it offers some form of basic guide that shows your C02 is actually flowing and working but it is just a guide not an accurate device to measure C02 content. We use two other methods to measure how much C02 has dissolved into the water, a PH pen and a drop...

You ask an impossible question to answer with any accuracy due to many unknown factors but somewhere between 3 and 10 would probably cover it.

You may not have to actually buy a new fire extinguisher, it depends on how resourceful you can be as they can often be picked up for fee, The cylinders are date stamped and you might find one near the end of its life for instance. Anyway it is best to do a bit of revision and find out who...

Ha ha look what you started…its great! A Venturi might restrict flow but that is hardly and issue if you have a successful reactor and still have enough flow.

Excellent work Zeus, keep up the good work and experimenting. Of course some reactors rely on a build up of gas in the chamber to operate as they are designed to do but I dont like that idear on a C02 reactor. If you could achieve that vortex cyclone effect it might solve that build up, my main...

How long is a pice of string or maybe how big is your tank would be a good start? Both have the same sort of ceramic stone so bubble size will be the same. In line is popular in combination with a spray bar especially on larger tanks and in tank seem to be popular with smaller tanks but there is...

Thanks for the positive vibes, I have to deal with a six week recovery including the next 10 day of doing virtually nothing! I have always enjoyed making reactors, I absolutely loved messing with protein skimmers but I only have one low tech tank running nowadays so my reactors days may be over…...

It is probably easier to set up a small tank and get a good even flow but in every case you need to think about the equipment and match it to the tank. Generally speaking you will get more issues with a small reactor on a large tank than a large reactor on a small tank but some of us just like...

No 1 is something I have done, no 2 would be miles better but I dont know if it would work?

Yeah pretty serious, I have had my left kidney removed via robotic surgery. That was four days ago and I am due to fly back home tomorrow evening from Southampton. I feel like I have been hit by a train but there are many worse off folk in the ward around me and the surgery went as planed so it...

Great stuff mate, I did not realise that was your plan at all! I thought you were going to inject the main gas feed into the Venturi and just return any gas build up into the main flow just before the Venturi device. That is how I have done it before, I found that a simple loop of airline from...

You dont say how the C02 is distributed into the tank ie atomiser, Lilly pipe ? If it is a high pressure diffuser then that could be blocked.

That looks very good!

Looks good. You could just drill a 4.5mm hole and pull some 6mm silicone tube through the hole? You used to be able to buy very neat 1/2” 3/4 and 1” venturies from the big marine stores, they had been optimised with cone shaped waist, made from injection moulding, complete with screw end...

You should be able to reduce the startup time before light come on if you can improve the efficiency of the sytem ie finer mist or more even flow and distribution Less surface movement etc

You can use RO if you want to there is just no need to, in the same fashion that only a tiny percentage use RO in their tanks.

In a small tank a lily pipe should be fine but finding the best position might take a bit of experimenting. The flow rate is really important and may also need a a bit of adjusting. You can try adding tiny amounts of food into the flow and see how it behaves, obviously you want to see the...

A basic PH pen is ok but I treat them as a disposable aid as they dont seem to last or stay reliably for long. A new £12 PH pen, freshly calibrated, seems to work well enough for a short time and might last longer if the probe is regularly and carefully cleaned with RO water ?

I am an iPad man when it come to editing YouTube….. by the by if you click safe for children it auto shuts off comments on YouTube which you may not want

You are right to be concerned but as I write this can see two big 5gk extinguishers, in full sun, inside a hotel reception area !

It just looks like you have partially blocked the intake ? Some form of adaptor fixed to the inlet would improve the flow but whether that will make much differance to bubble size I cant say.

@Mr.Shenanagins I have used needle wheel pumps in many applications including planted tanks. They work very well as a low maintenance and consistent source of C02. However there are needle wheel pumps and there are ‘needle wheel pumps‘ or in other words some work miles better that others! Many...

Ok well I dont think you will find a purpose built C02 reactor that can deal with 2000 l. So working on the basis of scaleing up what is available you will be looking and at least a 30” tall reactor. Of course the design will define the dimensions but in a simple form ... size matters and the...

If it was my tank I would be thinking more along the lines of a much bigger reactor not something that would fit under the tank.

One large reactor powered by a needle wheel pump would also work. perhaps a marine specialist will have a suitable vessel and a needle wheel pump.

A lot will depend on the rate of flow through the sump. If you imagine pouring a fizzy down a 50mm pipe that is 750mm long over and over again there will not be much fizz left. So reducing the flow through the sump will help no end.

I have no idear of how you sytem or sump is set up but the most effective way i have found is by utilising a cut down plastic bottle...

The easy way is to place a ceramic diffuser in front of your return pump.

I am sure there are more than a few of us who would like to see a photo of your tank?

You are going to use up C02 , that is a positive thing! As a completely ballpark figure you can expect a 2kg fire extinguisher to last around one month on a 240l tank. How much have you used since January?

My inbuilt glossary of terms suggests you guys are calling an ‘atomiser’ a reactor. Atomisers purposely produce micro bubbles, reactors dissolve the bubbles.

One issue might be the right angle elbow will defiantly cause loss of flow, that is why i came up with the internal bottle idea as it does not effect the flow anywhere near as much as a right angle bend. However if you are getting a good strong vortex, then that is great and should work well...

Well that is another outcome...there are just two many variables to set a standard. Perhaps in years to come there will be more affordable ways to accurately measure all the parameters and we can then set standard settings and offer charts to match C02 and light etc What we do know now is...

There are lots of possible out comes and analogy’s .... so if we have a well set up tank with full on C02, bright light and full EI ferts. The tank is performing very well, the plants and fish are thriving, it has taken months of trying and adjusting but, we then decide ...let’s turn down the...

From my own experiences of trying to use just a little bit of extra C02 it did not work very well long term. The problem is, it starts off ok but, then the plants grow and require more C02 so you need to either remove the plants or increase the gas or watch the algae grow! Based only my own...

I did try with an UP inline and with no diffuser as well, the best results were indeed with the course diffuser but all three worked on the lower flow ratings, As Zeus pointed out... it is the perpetual vortex that continually mixes and abradeds the bubbles against each other and therefore...

Hi Hanuman, I don’t know if you have watched my video but I don’t have any bubbles escaping the reactor even at 4500lph from a high pressure 90watt pump and I do use an small diffuser.

Ah ok... well unfortunately I don’t understand that at all :) but, as I said I don’t know how your sump is set up? Are you suggesting that the pipe that runs verticals down from the overflow box is completely full of water? I have never used an overflow that works like that! Are you saying the...

Surly there are many soft drink bottles that will do the job ... the selection is vast! C02 is the fizz in a fizzy drink so if you shake the bottle and open the lid, there will be a large release of C02 into the air. That is what will happen if you pour it down a drain so i doubt if placing a...

That is the same principle as the one I built years back in my signature link!

There are lots of post about doing just that, there are a few variations to the theme... needle wheel pump being the most dedicated but an inline atomiser or a fine air stone will work as a compromise ...

You will get a lot of micro bubbles in the tank unless you use a reactor but as strat points out a good method is to inject the gas directly into the return pump.

PVC is really easy to work with but apart from being expensive it is actually more opaque rather than clear. Also it is very soft compared to acrylic so scratches just like that! However it is a great product to experiment with and it will do the job. A few years back one member designed and...

I built a particular design about 10 years ago that used a cut down plastic bottle inside a water treatment vessal . I still have it and it still works as it did 10 years ago, 4000+ lph with quite a high bubble count, all bubbles totally dissolved and none escaping the reactor. However other...

There are obviously lots of methods but not much actual choice to purchase. The venturi device can be used and is interesting to watch but they can be noisy and not always necessary. In fact a build up of gas will pressurise the vessel and offer a surface to surface contact between the C02 and...

I cant say if that exact design would work for you but it looks like very good value considering all the PVC fittings!

I think you should consider a by pass and adjustable flow as there are no set figures to go by. However a simply analogy would be ... the longer the bubbles are in suspension the more likely there are to dissolve.

Hi Steve, you don’t mention your tank size? It is very difficult to predict how much gas you will use even if you know the tank size! The main issue I see is even if the small system did work it will only be short term as you are going to want to upgrade before long so best to work on a way...

Oh well a bit of progress ... it is a shame those older shape 12’’ canisters are no longer available as mine worked faultlessly for many years. You might be able to wrap some electric insulation tape around the fitting to get a better fit. Are you using an atomiser on the C02 or just the bare...

I think something like this would defuse the flow the quickest ...

It seems the bottle shape can make a difference as can the flow rate but as you can see in my video it will work with high and low flow rates. Is there any way you can adjust the flow, is there an inline valve you can adjust? I think I only had one inch clearance below the bottle. The principle...

The pump probably won’t be silent when the gas is running .

Perhaps you could face the pump downward and do the cut down bottle trick, you would need an elbow or better a bend on the outlet but that might work...

I thing a lot of bubbles will miss the pump unless you can direct them into the pump but maybe not? I guess you would have to test it out.

It is not difficult to fit a basic bypass on your main return but i think you can now get big bore inline atomisers ? Anyway feeding through the return pump is an instant and effective method . As Andrew says a reactor is another option although « Very easy and inexpensive « is not the terms...

You don’t say why an in-line is not an option? Anyway there is a very easy way by just feeding the C02 directly into the return pump or better still to use an atomiser fed into the return pump. You will get a mist in the tank of course .