Hi Simon
Always Broke said:
How can we increase the dissolved Co2 content in the water.
That question, my man, is the holy grail
Always Broke said:
For instance if the Co2 is in contact with the water in a confined area for a long period of time will the water take up more of the Co2.
Well that's the theory anyway.
Where I saw this with my own eyes was my very first CO2 set up. I use a JBL system, and after breaking 2 glass diffusers
I needed to get some CO2 in the tank a bit lively, so being a weekend, I had to dig out the JBL box and in it was one of the JBL spiral diffusers. With this type the bubble enters at the bottom and works it's way up the spiral. When the bubble starts it's journey it was around 3mm diameter and by the time it got to the top it was less than 1mm diameter. So a lot of the CO2 had obviously diffused into the water.
Nowadays I'm using the Aquamedic 1000 in line reactor and the contact time is greater, therefore more, if not most, of the CO2 gets dissolved .
I only get the odd small bubble coming out of the spraybar now and again so most of it must be diffused. Much more efficient than the spiral type, and the added bonus is you don't end up staring at a tank full of micro bubbles that you get with diffusers and some in line reactors
.
So from my own observations I would say that the contact time is the key.
Now we've got that bit sussed, next on the list is distribution.
You can diffuse all the CO2 you like, but getting it distributed evenly around the tank...........well that's another matter altogether (and I've got the tee shirt
. Been there, done that, got it wrong
).