co2 w/pump & reactor or co2 straght in filter?

[jubei]

hello again,


I was wondering what was better/more effective way of diffusing co2 into my tank? Right now I'm using a small rio pump and a reactor, thats been working for the past year but I 've been reading about putting the co2 hose right into my filters intake. Now my main questions are if I am to put co2 into my filter how is this going to effect my bacterial colonies? and will the filter do a better jod @ diffusing the co2 into the water then what I'm doing now? The filter I'm using is an Eheim 2217 cannister.

 

[afFISHionado]

I can say from my experience that running the CO2 tube from the generator to the intake tube of my HOB filter works extremely well. My water at the time had a poor buffering capacity but usually maintained a pH between 7.0 -8.0. As soon as I hooked up CO2 to my aquarium, I used the aforementioned method (I actually drilled a hole on the bottom of the intake tube and inserted it). I monitored my pH carefully, and the next morning, for the first time, my pH was down to 5.5! I slowly brought it up using sodium bicarbonate which also had the effect of increasing the buffering capacity. Fortunately, my fish made it through this ordeal with no problems. Bottom line - this CO2 reactor method undoubtably worked for me as the dissolved CO2 formed carbonic acid, thus lowering my pH the way it did. As for your question about the effect on bacteria colonies - my nitrogen cycle remains unimpeded even after the addition of this reactor method.

 

[Guest]

If you think about it the water already contains the CO2 and the bacteria colony is doing fine. What you might want to do instead is build an external reactor and plumb it in-line with the out flow hose of your filter. This will prevent air locking the filter in case the power goes out for a time while you are not home.