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New to CO2

Another question. If I'm setting it inline, is it better to have a spray bar or a directional spout? With either I'm assuming I don't want to have it pointing at the surface? More directed towards to plants? Correct me if I'm wrong I'm still learning
 
I used a Cerges-style CO2 reactor for years on both my 40 gallon breeder and my 125 gallon (568 liter) tank (USA resident here!) and both worked really well. I don't know if the water filter cannister is available in a home repair supply shop in the UK but it was cheap and effective for me. I am SLOWLY getting a 55 gallon (208 liter) tank together and it will be a sump filtered tank with a separate pump pushing water though a reactor and back into the tank. I'm using a second pump because the return line is 1.5 inches (381 mm) and you want a slower flow in the reactor than the 2500 LPH flow in the filter. Just as a FYI, the filter will be a 113 liter long tank with 2 coarse Mattenfilters, 2 medium filters and 1 fine so there will be plenty of room for a second pump.

This YouTube video is a good tutorial - YouTube tutorial

I love the UPAPS forums - just a little different than the Plantedtank.net I am usually on. More information is always welcome.

Dan K.
 
Sacul said:
Another question. If I'm setting it inline, is it better to have a spray bar or a directional spout? With either I'm assuming I don't want to have it pointing at the surface? More directed towards to plants? Correct me if I'm wrong I'm still learning
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Not sure what tank you’ve got, but I’d always recommend some nice glass lily pipes or stainless steel.
 
It's either or, there are arguments for and against both.
I would say it is your tank, get whichever you like the look of best!
I personally love the clean look of stainless steel.
 
Sacul said:
Another question. If I'm setting it inline, is it better to have a spray bar or a directional spout? With either I'm assuming I don't want to have it pointing at the surface? More directed towards to plants? Correct me if I'm wrong I'm still learning
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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 back along the bottom and finally back up the back wall.
So you get this circular rolling effect that in turn, turns the whole contents of the tank over and over.

Of course that might well work with an empty tank with just the right flow but, maybe not so well when you have hard scape and plants in place? However it is a tried and tested method and if balanced right, is probably the best method!

With a single outlet method, as you can imagine, will form a different motion and in theory pushes the water in a completely different direction.
So if you can imagine an island scape, like a large rock standing in the middle of your tank, the water jet could be pointed to drive the water column to travel around the rock in a never ending circle around the rock….
 
It's a 300l 5ft tank, at the moment I have a single outlet at the top left, plastic lily style from an old filter and a wave maker which will be positioned bottom right to try and keep that constant flow as the single output alone doesn't seem enough.

I have a spray bar that can be joint to make maybe 2.5ft but not sure if it would be powerful enough to cover the rest of the tank to the right. Can only be placed top left or top right as it has braces and cut outs.

Maybe I need to look up how flow works so I can work it out better
 
One problem that you may run into is that standard plastic aquarium tubes (which are needed for the inline diffuser) do not work with the fluval clips that go on the side of the tank to hold the inlet and outlet in place. The clips bend the tube too much, causing it to kink. The ribbed tubing, despite being atrociously ugly and reminiscent of landscaping irrigation, does have the advantage of being more flexible.

I resolved this problem by using a heat gun to soften the end of the clear plastic tubing up and then forcing it over the fluval tubing and clamping it with a hose clamp. This was done with the tubing for the 207, which I believe is smaller in diameter than that of the 407, so I'm not sure if my solution will work for you. It does create a very sturdy seal that cannot by broken by hand even without the hose clamp.
 
I have plastic hose fitted at the moment, changed it yesterday. Luckily my old filter came with U bend pipes that attach to the hose so it does fit in the clips quite nicely but yea I was expecting that problem.
 
Hi guys, I'm back again!

So I've had my delivery and I'm all set up. My drop checker seems to be staying at a lime green colour which is good, I think haha.
I'm worried about the flow in my tank though. Like I said it's 300l 150cmx38cmx60cm. I have my fluval 407, 1450L/H. The outflow is the top left of the tank. I have a fair bit of surface agitation on the first 1/3 of the tank and the last 2/3 is very minimal movement and covered in a film. Inflow is bottom right. I also have a newa wave 2, 3200L/H top right pointed towards the substrate to try and keep a constant flow around the tank. I'm worried about the film and not being able to get a good gas exchange. I've tried to find a skimmer that I can attach to the existing pipework so I can remove the film but not sure if that will help with has exchange. I can't seem to find any lily pipes that go to the depth of the tank. Is it worth trying to point the wave make at the surface also? I'm not sure what to do. Any advice would be great. Thanks
 
Sacul said:
Hi guys, I'm back again!

So I've had my delivery and I'm all set up. My drop checker seems to be staying at a lime green colour which is good, I think haha.
I'm worried about the flow in my tank though. Like I said it's 300l 150cmx38cmx60cm. I have my fluval 407, 1450L/H. The outflow is the top left of the tank. I have a fair bit of surface agitation on the first 1/3 of the tank and the last 2/3 is very minimal movement and covered in a film. Inflow is bottom right. I also have a newa wave 2, 3200L/H top right pointed towards the substrate to try and keep a constant flow around the tank. I'm worried about the film and not being able to get a good gas exchange. I've tried to find a skimmer that I can attach to the existing pipework so I can remove the film but not sure if that will help with has exchange. I can't seem to find any lily pipes that go to the depth of the tank. Is it worth trying to point the wave make at the surface also? I'm not sure what to do. Any advice would be great. Thanks
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Too much surface agitation will draw co2 which isn’t ideal. Not a huge issue, but not ideal. If you have plants, and some surface agitation, then you have gas exchange.
The film itself, although unsightly won’t cause issues. You could look at a surface skimmer to help with that.

As for flow in the tank. Provided co2 is getting around, there’s no dead spots causing issues. Then I wouldn’t massively worry about it. Just keep and eye on it.
 
Hufsa said:
I highly recommend this article on gaseous exchange, imo it should be mandatory reading for anyone getting started with injected CO2.
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Good article and thanks for sharing. It certainly raises a good point that I overlooked. Plants using oxygen at night !! ADA often oxygenated their tanks at night using various techniques like surface agitation if I’m not wrong.
 
Had a good read through that article and it’s certainly very interesting. The issue I’d say from a hobbyist perspective is higher injection rates mean co2 being used at a faster rate which in turn cost more money.
Not an issue if you have deep pockets. But not sustainable for everyone.
Either way, definitely food for thought.
 
I did read the article and it seems to make sense. I want to try and turn my co2 up so I can get to the optimum level quicker but enough gas exchange that's my fish are still safe. I'll play with my wave maker to see what works best to turn over the water and try to get a simmer fitted.
 
Hey again guys.
I want to say a big thanks to everyone that has helped me!
I'm finally setup and pretty stable.
Found I need to turn CO2 on 3 hours before lights on to get a 0.9 drop then keep it stable for 8 hours lights on with a 0.1 drift from 7.38 to 7.28. Maybe I could tweak it a bit more but I'm starting to see growth and little oxygen bubbles so I'm happy 😁. No algae and all livestock look happy and even have spawning behaviour! All in all I'm very happy and I'm very thankful for the help!
 
seedoubleyou said:
Too much surface agitation will draw co2 which isn’t ideal. Not a huge issue, but not ideal.
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Lots of surface agitation is ideal in most circumstances. Yes you will offgas CO2 but you not only raise oxygen levels, but you raise the levels of CO2 that you can keep stable in your tank.
I would recommend trying it in your own tank, raise the amount of surface agitation and notice how much higher you can take your CO2 levels higher without negativity affecting your fish, which will result in better plant growth.
 
JacksonL said:
Lots of surface agitation is ideal in most circumstances. Yes you will offgas CO2 but you not only raise oxygen levels, but you raise the levels of CO2 that you can keep stable in your tank.
I would recommend trying it in your own tank, raise the amount of surface agitation and notice how much higher you can take your CO2 levels higher without negativity affecting your fish, which will result in better plant growth.
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Yeah I’ve since read an interesting article on 2hr Aquarist.
My initial comment was based of something in a Green Aqua episode where the plants where not doing well due to not getting enough co2 and Balazs said this was due to too much surface agitation.
 
seedoubleyou said:
Yeah I’ve since read an interesting article on 2hr Aquarist.
My initial comment was based of something in a Green Aqua episode where the plants where not doing well due to not getting enough co2 and Balazs said this was due to too much surface agitation.
Click to expand...
Like anything in this hobby, there are many ways to get it done. But I have found in my experiences that lots of surface agitation leads to a far healthier aquarium for both fish and plants.
 
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