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Up new atomizer takes ages to work?

tovtm

tovtm

Member
Joined
2 Jan 2011
Messages
249
after being advised on here to buy this atomizer I've installed it and the first day it seemed to work fine produced small bubbles and was pleased with it, now it's been on the last few days I've noticed I dot see anything coming from the outlet of the external filter for at least 3-4 hrs after the co2 comes on,

I have a external filter which the external pipe comes out with the atomizer inline, am I doing somthing wrong if I take the co2 tube off and dip into the tank it clearly shows co2 working fine
 
Could be due to your water not being saturated with CO2 when it comes on and your only seeing the mist when it becomes saturated, I don't notice misting for about 30mins after the CO2 comes on with mine but i know its working as the bubble counter shows the CO2 churning away.
 
i think it might be about building up a working pressure - the atomizer needs quite a high working pressure so if your reg pressure is a little low it'll take time for the gas to build up in order for the atomizer to work. Hope this helps! Matt
 
the working pressure of the bottle is 1.9bar and shows 60 on the other gauge, if the co2 doesn't show untill say a hour or two after it's turned on in theory would it still work a hour or two after lights turn off?

at the moment the solinoid is coming on with the lights at 4pm and off at 11pm should I alter this?
 
These devices can be fickle things! I am on my third one in 12 months
No 1 worked for about 12 weeks & then slowed down to the extent of requiring 2.5 bar to work, I tried cleaning it in bleach but it never really recovered!
No 2 lasted longer but eventually cracked & started weeping water!
No 3 is working well at the moment.
All three needed attention to keep them at optimum performance, sounds like a lot of trouble really but, when working well they are very very efficient...
I am running this one at 2 bar & it come on producing a mist pretty much straight away however I have good quality hose & glued connections.
 
if I've got co2 coming from the end of the tube then should it be working although I can't see it? I don't think there's anyway of actually cheking if it's coming out or not enough pressure so it's stopping the co2 at point it meets the atomizer

also I dont think theres any way to change my working pressure as I have the older type jbl regulator
 
I've now worked out that between the co2 turning off at night and turning on in the morning the chamber of the plastic (outside of the ceramic) it fills up half way with water but if I pull off the co2 pipe let the water out it's fine,

does any of yours fill with water when co2 is off? also how far do you all have you external outlets from the water surface?
 
They always fill up with water overnight, mine is the same. Prob another reason why it takes a while to work as the gas will compress while it displaces the water.
 
ok a shame I was hoping to say it's just a problem I have lol well a quick way around it is to let the water out via the co2 pipe nipple works within a minute then, and how far from water surface have you got your outlet mate?
 
tovtm said:
the working pressure of the bottle is 1.9bar and shows 60 on the other gauge, if the co2 doesn't show untill say a hour or two after it's turned on in theory would it still work a hour or two after lights turn off?

at the moment the solinoid is coming on with the lights at 4pm and off at 11pm should I alter this?
Click to expand...
Hi Tovtm
Re-set your timer or switch on your solenoid 2 hours before lights come on..... and switch off 2 hours before the lights go off.
The theory is trying to get your drop checker to the green colour as the lights come on.
hoggie
 
My spraybar is about 1-2inches below the surface and the Upatomiser is about 5-6 inches down the back of the tank. My nipple for the co2 also points upwards just in case yours doesn't
 
it's a hard balance to get right I have two discs and to get my co2 checker to green they start to go off there food and breath heavily :( lush green plants and heathy fish are hard to get right I've found lol
 
oh they will get used to it then I didnt know that but will be doing that over the course of this week many thanks for all your help

tom
 
As long as your plants are healthy then you don't really need to keep increasing your BPS, If you feel that the fish are acting differently then use your discretion, I notice that after about an hour or two of the CO2 being on the fish go about acting normal again, however if they keep acting strange and gasping after that I would turn it down a fraction and gas some Co2 off. Its all about getting the balance right.

I'd go by what my livestock are telling me over the drop checker colour any day! Drop checkers are fickle things and more a guide than an accurate reading.
 
I don't know f uploading a picture of my plants would help but the plants don't look too well in all honesty, I say this because there not that new green colour you get when new shots start forming but more of a dark green and brown on some parts of leaves,

at this present time I'm not using ferts and have sand as my substrate littered with root tabs so should be plenty of nutrients in the sand.
 
hmm you really need to be fertilising the water column if your injecting CO2 are you using high light?
 
only reason I stopped using ferts was that it worked out so expensive what with my tank being 130ltrs and w/c every week,

I don't think I have high light, I have two 40w 4foot bulbs. I'm willing to try anything but just need guidance
 
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