Does canister dissolve CO2 well?

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jaguarr

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Apr 29, 2005
Messages
36
Location
West Lafayette, IN
is feeding the DIY CO2 (sugar/yeast) outlet tube to the inlet of a canister filter the best way to dissolve CO2?

Right now I don't have a canister. I connect a bubble stone to the CO2 oulet tube and place it just below the powerhead. The bubbles come out small and gets chopped even smaller when they're blown out by the powerhead. But I don't think much of the gas is dissolved.

I have a 29g tank and high lighting by the way.
thanks.
 
Dissolving them in a canister is an excellent way to diffuse them, but there are plenty of other ways. If you can get your hands on a Hagen CO2 system ladder (often you can find them on Aquabid for about $9) that would be the simplest way.

Also, since you have a powerhead already, see if you can construct a diffuser using the gravel vac tube portion of a cheap syphon hose. Connect your powerhead to outflow into the top of the gravel vac, and drill another hole into the top of the vac tube to accept your airline tubing, so that the bubbles come out inside the vac tube and get blasted around by the powerhead.

I am sure someone has a pic or link of this type of DIY diffuser they can post for you.

Are you measuring your CO2 concentrations in the tank?
 
Thanks Tankgirl. I actually simlified my method a little bit. I have an underground filter tube and I place the co2 outlet at the bottom of it so the bubbles spend a little bit more time in the water. I used to put some gravel inside the tube, hoping the bubbles would get dissolved even more, but most of the time the small ones get trapped, become big ones, and then plunge up to the powerhead. My PH is always around 7.4 - 7.6, so I don't think either method works very well.

I have looked at the Hagen CO2 system. Don't their bubbles come out big? Does such a bubble get dissolved well even if it goes through the ladder?

thanks.
 
The Hagen ladders do a fine job of dissolving CO2 on a 29gal. Rolling the bubbles along the surface of the ladder helps them dissolve and you can watch them get smaller as they roll up the ladder.
 
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