CO2 and AC, is it enough?

[fish_4_all]

I know that the AC20 or mini is ok for my 10 gallon tanks but is it safe to run the DIY CO2 into the intake and through the propeller to agitate the co2 and get enough in the water to help plants thrive?

I have set up a couple bells and they take up way too much room. I tried a tube and it didn't have enough surface are. I even tried filling a large plastic plate at the surface for ultimate surface area but guess what, it blocked the light.

I guess the real question is:

What is the best way to add CO2 to a 10 gallon tank without making it a 5 gallon tank because of all the junk in the tank? That is without costing more than about $20 at the high end?

 

[Glenc]

I to have a ten gallon tank with DIYCO2. I have tried just about every way imaginable to diffuse CO2 into the water. I tried a bell reactor, Red sea diffuser, hagon bubble ladder and piping it directly into my AC mini intake. I even tried the Red sea diffuser and a bell reactor together. This combination proved to produce to much CO2 for my 10 gallon as it dropped my ph fast and hard. Had a CO2 level of 70 ppm, ph dropped from 7 to 6.4 after 2 hours. Good for a bigger tank. The bell worked ok alone but took up to much room. The red sea diffuser worked well but kept leaking big bubbles instead of diffusing tiny ones like it's supposed to. drove me nuts. I tossed it. Literally. Out my back door. Waste of 30 bucks. For me it's a toss up between pipeing into the intake of your mini or the hagon bubble ladder. Both work about the same in my tank. Only problem with going into the mini is the noise and it makes as the bubbles hit the impellor and it makes alot of fine bubbles that spread all over your tank. Almost made my water look cloudy. Good thing is no extra junk in your tank using the mini. For now I'm using the bubble ladder with 2- 1 litre coke bottles for yeast generators and it works well, and is quiet, water is clear. Got to keep the ladder clean. If you use the ladder at first the bubbles won't travel up properly, seem to get stuck. It will work fine in a couple of hours. HTH. Good luck.