• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

New starter (CO2 questions)

carbon dioxide

Hi, only joined yesterday & my cylinder ran out today, so interested in dumping along with comments on the original problems.

My 5kg cylinder gauges did give me a couple of days warning but my problem was being in a new area & not knowing where to refill. My first two posts were about this. However as I have a solenoid & a ph controller if the cylinder was to dump wouldn't the controller shut off the co2 when the ph dropped or would it not react quickly enough?

The original post was worried with safety so unlike some of you I do like to have two gauges so I can see the tank pressure. This is usually 60 bar & as the tank is rated at 200 bar this is less than a third of its maximum. Unless you let the tank get very hot (a solenoid is not going to do that) there isn't any great issue with safety.

I don't understand the need for a wet & dry with a planted tank as the plants will do most of the filtering. I think the smaller or should I say slower the filter the better, let the plants produce the 'clean' o2 instead of the potentially contaminated stuff that we take in ! - Anyway too much 02 can cause trace & fertiliser element problems as it makes some of them unusable to the plants.

With regard to Sams advice on FE tanks. My 5kg tank is exactly the same height as his 2 kg just slightly larger diameter but still goes under a RIO 125 so I would prefer that option. The larger you go the less you have to change & the cheaper per KG it is to fill, I have just paid £30 today for a refill. How much do the aquarium retailers charge for 0.5 KG ? more than £3 I would suggest !

If you can get a 5kg cylinder in the correct colour (grey) with a proper gate type valve top fitting would be the best option in my opinion. A guy on e-bay used to have stacks of them at bargain prices. I don't like the idea of taping the trigger handles together, apart from naf they get in the way. If you have to do it that way then when it's empty why not put a proper valve on the top before refilling.

If your worried about safety try using a correct sized spanner instead of an adjustable !(sorry pet hate!)
 
I'm assuming that buying a fire extinguisher off ebay (and taping the handles up) is alot cheaper than buying a tank of CO2 with gate valve from a specialist gas supplier. Haven't done any research though, so like I say, just guessing.
 
I bought my 5kg with gate valve & correct colour/stamps etc off of e-bay myself for about £40 so I'm not suggesting you go to a gas supplier. While I was searching for a tank I nearly bought a 2kg one via e-bay germany as they are a lot cheaper than our retailers.

Thanks

Paulzog
 
eds said:
You may have a great way then to solve the entire problem of the CO2. You could pipe the CO2 into the wet/dry filter area. This would then function as a built in CO2 reactor. You would need to check you rubber seals regularly though. Another option may be to close this air inlet, assuming that doesn't cause pressure problems.

You won't have oxygen problems unless you're over-stocked. Pearling does not mean your plants aren't producing O2. It is due to localised O2 saturation around the plant leaves.

I'd think you may be best simply having a CO2 reactor after your filter and leave the wet/dry bit as it is. Is there an air outlet to the wet/dry chamber, or just an inlet? If there's no outlet then there's nowhere for the CO2 to gas off to and the previous comments about the partial pressures of CO2 in the wet/dry chamber will still hold, even if extra air is being sucked in.

I actually know a lot about the Eheim breathing filters, and what you are suggesting will not work. The filter breaths in and out, like your lungs, that's what the 9mm hose is there for (and the eventual overruns as well). You cannot use this filter and not expect to get CO2 gassed out. Hence logically you have to REMOVE it.

Without going into technical details you can seal it. First you get a walking stick (with the strain guard of course) for your 9mm breathing hose and get that to suck water, so will be an additional sucker to your 16mm hose. Then you have to get rid of that floating white thing in the side chamber (don't know what it's called), because this controls the breathing rhyme. Personally you are better off getting a normal non breathing filter for the following reasons:

1) this unit was designed as a breathing filter, converting it is a waste of time
2) unlike normal canisters, the water from the tank contacts the top buckets first - not good, and this mean percolation of debris down to the finer layers
3) there night be a chance of bypass due to the design

I suppose you could still use it, but the amount of CO2 pumped into allow for it would be counter productive. For normal trickle filters people seal the tower, and they get away with this because the tower can be sealed and does not breath, unless of course you pump air into it which people do. Apart from the neatness of the external sump arrangement, I really don't know why you want to use a wet/dry filter for planted tanks. It defeats the purpose of having a trickle filter if you are going to seal the tower.
 
Back
Top