flitabout
Aquarium Advice Addict
You may also need a bigger container for your bubble counter. This the one from my 2 bottle setup.
Co2 ideas
- Thread starter flash2121
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
flitabout
Aquarium Advice Addict
Yep. Oh and when changing them always open the bubble counter first. Otherwise all of the water will syphon back out of the bubble counter and that is so not fun to clean up a mess. I have also had the yeast mix in a bottle syphon in to the bubble counter and through the bottle top. Yeah that's a mess! then your house will smell like skunky beer for a few days. Not fun!
hippy guy
Aquarium Advice Addict
Airstone at night
10gal hitech/5gal lowtech
10gal hitech/5gal lowtech
aqua_chem
Aquarium Advice Addict
Fresh2o
Aquarium Advice Addict
The use of one way valves is important in any setup involving tubing and liquids. Not only will it prevent water siphoning from the tank when the CO2 tank(s) are removed for maintenance, it will also allow pressure to be maintained in multiple CO2 tank setups. Just add a valve between each CO2 tank and bubble counter / separation jar. Here is my two 2L setup for a 20 gallon tank. The DIY glass bubble counter recently blew out because of too much back pressure from a ceramic diffuser. I am ordering "store bought" bubble counter.
I am also saving up for a pressurized system.
I am also saving up for a pressurized system.
Last edited by a moderator:
Old Scales
Aquarium Advice Addict
Ha Ha! "Store-bought" huh? I love it. OS.
Fresh2o
Aquarium Advice Addict
Thanks! It is currently a low pressure setup as I am feeding the CO2 into the intake of an HOB filter. Seems to be working okay but I would like to make the HOB filter more effective in trapping and holding the small bubbles churned up by the filter'a impeller. Since this is a second filter, I might use just the sponge and several layers of floss. Yes, the output of the HOB is spread out and may contribute to some CO2 gassing off.
Old Scales
Aquarium Advice Addict
Maybe some guessing off but going through the HOB is still more efficient than just bubbling out into the open water. I've got my diffuser setup where most of the goes into the intake of my canister with the rest into the intake of my HOB. I'm getting really good saturation according to my drop checker. OS.
wildroseofky
Aquarium Advice Addict
You can buy a cheap internal filter or power head and feed the CO2 line into that and it will chop up the bubbles into a fine mist. I did that with my 29 gallon setup. I just put the tubing coming from the CO2 bottle directly into the intake of a power head I had laying around. I put a sponge around the airline and intake so that more CO2 would be pulled into the impeller. I plugged that into the timer with my lights. When the lights come on the power head pulls in the CO2 from the line and chops it up and makes a fine mist into the tank. I got enough CO2 in my tank yesterday to kill some of my molly fry so be careful with it. Here is a link to a new internal filter I am going to buy for all my tanks to dispearse the CO2. ALEAS IPF-228 Submersible Filter w/ Pumping, Filtering, Fountain, Oxygenation Functions - Black - Free Shipping - DealExtreme The one I am using now is an very old power head and it is huge. When the lights are off, very little CO2 goes into the tank because my tank is deep. It takes the pull of the power head to get it into the tank.
flitabout
Aquarium Advice Addict
I figured out that I needed the check valves on the bottles leading to the bubble counter after it back flow out. The only time it happened was when I changed out bottles. I had a check valve on the tube going to the tank. Thank the lord!!!
flitabout
Aquarium Advice Addict
Also I have the powerhead on the timer with the lights. On the tank with two bottles I just let it run. But I have good surface agitation on that one so it hasn't been a big worry.
Fresh2o
Aquarium Advice Addict
I decided to try to work with the equipment I already had (AquaClear 50). I removed all of the media (this is a secondary filter) and replaced it with five layers of the blue and white Marineland filter padding. The goal is to trap as many tiny CO2 bubbles that were churned up by the impeller.
I hooked up a Fluval drop checker / indicator to get a base line level of CO2 (it's light blue). Going to observe the checker at various times of the day for the next few days to see if there is a change. Or see if there is a change in the amount of pearling.
I hooked up a Fluval drop checker / indicator to get a base line level of CO2 (it's light blue). Going to observe the checker at various times of the day for the next few days to see if there is a change. Or see if there is a change in the amount of pearling.
