Few questions about C02

[Stewartandersonuk]

Full details on my tank and equipment are located here viewtopic.php?f=35&t=6193 if you should need them.

I am using an external Aquamedic 1000 reactor with Fire Extinguisher

1, I can get the bubble checker set to something like 1 bubble per second and 95% of the time it comes out as really fine bubbles from out the spray bar (I assume this is fine)?

2, If I try and increase to 3 bubbles per second (I think what everyone else uses) only 40% is fine bubbles and the rest are larger is this wrong? it also sounds quite loud, what can I do to improve this?

3, using either of the above I can see all over my tank very fine co2 bubbles in the water, I have a pump slightly to the left under the co2 outlet spray bar which gets them to the other end of tank. However unless my drop checker is near the spray bar I can not get it to change to yellow(tank is empty, checking co2 is getting all over tank). Given my tank is so long 5 foot should I consider moving my co2 spary bar to the centre?

Once I get this nailed down I think I will be all set

 

[Dan Crawford]

It sounds like your reactor isn't doing it's job correctly? I've not used one but i'm sure you shouldn't have large bubble coming out of the spray bar....

Have you tested the effects using a diffuser?

 

[Stewartandersonuk]

It sounds like your reactor isn't doing it's job correctly? I've not used one but i'm sure you shouldn't have large bubble coming out of the spray bar....

Have you tested the effects using a diffuser?

Hi Dan unfortunately I don't own a diffuser, I opted for reactor as I had such a large tank. I might strip down the reactor and take another look at it (guh)

You can see my reactor here (sort of)

I was thinking of maybe putting the plastic tube more into the centre of the cylinder as at the moment its on on the side so it might be bypassing the media? (this is how it was set-up when I got it)

 

[Dan Crawford]

It certainly looks right pal, maybe a better type of media in the reactor? Tetra Bio Balls amy be more effective but i'm only surmising here as like i said, i have no real experience with them.

 

[Stewartandersonuk]

It certainly looks right pal, maybe a better type of media in the reactor? Tetra Bio Balls amy be more effective but i'm only surmising here as like i said, i have no real experience with them.

I removed the bioballs (still have them) and changed them to the ones you can see in the picture as they are supposed to be better when I take a look at the reactor I might swap them back to the bioballs.

 

[naz]

i have a aqua medic 1000 reactor running on my 260l tank and i get 100 percent defusion,i cant see no little bubbles at all,so i would say something isnt right,i have the bio balls jn it as standard,i have my fluval 405 running it 1200lph,the only thing is i get a slight build up of co2 at the end of day that takes about an hour to go.great bit of kit.......

 

[ceg4048]

The AM1000 needs a strong pump. If this is accomplished there is no need to change the original bioballs, they will work perfectly and as noted by naz, it will achieve very good dissolving of the gas with little visible bubbles at the outlet. If you are seeing lots of bubbles exiting this means that the CO2 is not dissolving well enough from bottom to top of the reactor. More force from the water flow is necessary to dissolve the gas so that the bubbles inside the reactor rapidly diminish in size.

Cheers,

 

[Razor927]

hey neo

first off i would like to ask have you got the reactor settup the right way around.from the pictures it looks like to me you have the reactor connected backwards unless you are feeding water in to the reactor first then the eheim. Also i cannot tell which pipe is which lol

the way i have mine settup is the water flows through my filter to the top of the reactor out the bottom and is returned to the tank.

i found with my reactor the flow rate was a little on the quick side and some of the bubbles were being sucked out the bottom of the reactor. To solve this problem i just pushed the black tube so it was sitting 1/4 way up from the bottom of the reactor and it no longer sucks the Co2 bubbles out the bottom and are 100% desolved.

raz / chris 8)