DIY CO2 setup

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CompMage

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Sep 23, 2005
Messages
330
Location
Columbia, Maryland
Ok, I've got an idea for a passive reactor.

Ok people correct me if you see anything wrong here.

Most passive "latter" reactors / diffusers work by making the co2 bubble take a long time to go up. But for the most part leave the bubble in one largish bubble.. I was thinking of making one and putting an air stone at the base where the CO2 will enter the latter or try and make more small bubbles, with longer contact with the water would be good right???

So here is my plan.

Taking a length of silicon tubing and making a spiral out of it fairly tight together. Going to be using 3/4 " tubing. That will just fit SNUGGLY over a small air stone I found in my box of fish stuff. (Funny how you find things you never remember buying) I was going to attach it to the opening, and then cap it with silicon tank sealer so none of the CO2 leaks out the opening. Using a sheet of plastic to make a frame for the diffuser and some wonderful suction cups to hold the thing in place. I don’t think it’s going to look bad ether. Not that that is a huge problem since I’ll have it behind a huge Amazon sword plant.

Currently I have 2wpg or real close to.

For a generator, I'm using a 2 bottle set-up
4L Generator bottle
Flow Valve
16oz Separation bottle
Flow Valve
Reactor
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If you cap/seal the point where the airstone meets the tubing I am not so sure water will not be forced out the tube and you will eventually end up with large bubbles on the output, as you would with a very long line from the bottles. Might be wrong. If the point where they meet is open, and the gas is kept is trapped into your ladder because it rises, I think it is a good idea. Remember airstones clog and some report whitish film when using them for CO2, and it is best if you can replace the stone without destroying the ladder apparatus.

There are commercial spiral glass diffusors out there that first use sintered glass or ceramic disks to break up the bubble from the supply line.
 
Yea, I'm going to build my own, see how it turns out. If it works, I'll keep it. Other wise I'll get a glass diffuser.

What I'm hopping for is a very constant stream on fairly tiny bubbles in the ladder. Ok what about this design.

Leaving an opening below the point of entry of the gas. Would this help encrease the amount of absorption of the gas and reduce the water in the latter from becoming super-saturated and stagnet?

I'm starting to see why people use active pums with CO2.
 
I think it will. Post back before and after numbers if possible please. Good luck.
 
lol 4L of soda are equal to almost 12 (12oz) cans of soda, thats not so bad. throw a lan party and invite 3 friends over, and they will drink 12 cans in an hour at least probably more. lol

but seriously, mage when you get the chance post before and after numbers, i might be building one of these soon myself.
 
Ok Ok,

As for me throwing a LAN. WHen I run, it's 150 people or bust!

I'll take as complete of readings as I got kits for tonight. I can't wait to next check when I can get a new AP FW kit. My current kits are or almost depleted.

Just so I know what I'm testing for with CO2
PH & KH to find the amount of CO2 I have right? On the chart.

I'm going to re-read the CO2 thing later in the plants area.

I'm building this weekend. Should be fun!
 
there is a proportion between dissolved co2 and PH and KH. i forget the specifics of it, but once you find your PH and KH its a simple formula to solve for co2. i am sure its on the forum somewhere...

i once invited 8 people to the house for a lan party and told the 8 people to bring at least 1 friend along with them. we ended up with 17 people (including myself) and it was the most disorganized thing i have ever been a part of. since then i only invite 5 or less people, and i have learned that 4 people (includiing myself) will blow through a case of pop in about an hr and a half. but nothing beats those huge hotel lan parties though, nothing, expect maybe a ~100 + people paintball match on 2 acres of land...
 
Well to start,

PH 7 On the money, From the tap, and in my tank.
KH is 1 for lack of a lower messurment on my thing, It says 10 - 15 PPM
GH is about 100
AM is 0.0 or Pratical 0 on my kit
NO2 is 0.0
NO3 is 15, I'm h
CO2 I'm guessing from the chart is about 3ppm right now.


Ideal water for fish?? I think so! Ideal water for Alge, yep that too, plants..keep dreaming.

FE is at about 10 PPM I use Leaf Zone from AP
I don't have a kit for anything else as like I said, my kit's are just about out.

JProx. I run 150 - 200 person Lan parties 3 - 4 times a year, I skipped last year but plan on getting things back on track this summer. XCELERATOR GAMING, if you're big into LAN gaming you might have heard of us.

Back to the fish. I'm going to start work on the CO2 system this weekend. I'm going to grab some more stuff for testing too.

The formula used for this calculation is: CO2 (in PPM) = 3 * KH * 10( 7-pH ) where KH is Carbonate Hardness in degrees.
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_co2chart.htm
A really good page for CO2 stuff.
 
Unless you are specifically growing plants that demand soft water/acidic conditions, consider buffering up KH with baking soda (calculator). Current KH will drop pH below 6.2 with 20ppm CO2. Only as clarification, the last part of the CO2 equation is 10^(7 - pH).

If the Fe dose is not missing a decimal place, it is very high. People have told me I am gambling by dosing .3ppm every other day. Greg Watson has the highest regular dose I know of at 1ppm every other day.

HTH
 
I might have read that wrong. I'm going to re-check the Fe in the morning.

And yes it's 10^(7-pH) (As many who have read my post may tell, I'm better at math then english.)

The math is explained a lot better in that site I listed.

I'm not famillure with Buffering the KH with baking soda, will that affect anything else?? Umm at the risk of sounding dumb....how do I do that? I'll go look around the site too.

45 Gallons of water if that helps.
 
When you raise KH, pH will rise as well. You can add a weighted dose or by teaspoon, and many prefer to dissolve the baking soda before adding it to the tank. So lets say you slowly buffer up the tank (for the sake of your fish) to 3 dKH. Now you can inject 20ppm CO2 with a pH of 6.7. Having this saftey is good with DIY, so if your mix runs a little rich it will not drop pH very low. DIY CO2 in 45gal may never have this problem though.
 
Thank you. I've found a page for helping with uping the PH but it didn't say what direction the PH went just that it adjusted it. This will make me fill a little better.
 
czcz.. what did the krib say the formula was for baking soda? I forget now..lol
I would add a little extra baking soda to the DIY CO2 brew as well since the tap water seems to be so soft.. lucky you.. lol
 
No lucky me. Ultra soft water sucks!!!! I'm testing out the baking soda in a smaller 10G tank that is currently home to a few tetras. I'm using a weighted scale and a site I found for my baking soda measurements. I figure once I get the fill of things I will love over to my larger tanks.

I've run into a minor problem sealing the caps, but I'm already working on correcting it. I just need a new drill bit.

Oh yea 100th Post HEHEHE!
 
While I work out the details on the later reactor I want to make. I got a question about CO2 Bells.

Would using a length of PVC pipe cut in half 1" wide and 30 inches long capped at both sides. The edges of the pipe will be sanded down to as fine a finish as I can manage with Sandpaper 100 - 720 Grit.

I was thinking if the bell ran a longer length of the tank it would help lower the amount of CO2 super saturation? Plus I can place this behind my HOB filter (No waterfall effect, I keep the tank VERY full checking daily.) and use that movement to keep the CO2 circulated around the tank?

Status on the CO2 setup. I've got most of the supplies and have the design I want to use setup. I'm going to be using polyurathain tubing as it's not reactive with the CO2. Harder to work with but it works. I've desided against a single 4L and going to use 2x 2L with flow directors. about 5 inches past the out from the bottles so I can change them in alternating fashion like most people change filter media. After that I've got it going into a small 16oz bottle to work as a place for the gas seperate from anything that might have come threw from the generator bottles. I'm hopping this will help lower the amount of "gunk" getting stuck in the air stone in the defuser. Running between that bottle and the tank is a length of tubing with anther flow restricter then into the tank.

I've not completed anything past this and can't find my camara to take pictures. But I'll have pictures this weekend if I can.

I'm going to wait a few days after buffering my water's KH to 3 to make sure all my readings are stable. Make sure nothing else changes other then the KH and PH.

Currently my PH is 6.8. When I add the baking soda to Up my KH my PH will raise to above 7 to say 7.49 Then when I inject the CO2 it will lower the PH back down to around 7 I hope??

I'm just trying to get a more in-depth understanding of things before I kill my tetra's testing this.
 
You are doing great. pH should head to 7 as you inject it, but it is okay if you drop below 7 to maintain high dissolved CO2.

I still think your ladder idea has more potential than the bell considering your CO2 source: you will always be producing gas so unless the bell design diffuses it as fast or faster, bubbles will escape anyway. I think you can also get more than 30" of ladder travel if wanted.

I strongly encourage you to look at powered reactors so you dont have to worry about diffusion :)
 
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