CO2 system so far ineffective - looking for advice

[aqua_chem]

UV only helps certain types of algae, and will have fairly minimal impact on other forms such as BBA, staghorn, BGA, etc. It's about targeting your response to your algae problem; UV is basically only the answer to GW.

As far as Fredje's problem goes.... yea, I agree that's a bit much throughput for the tank/response. You might poke around and see if you can find an issue. BPS really shouldn't be compared tank to tank, as there are so many things that can change it (altitude, viscosity of bubble counter solution, line pressure, etc). It might end up just being one of those things that's annoying, but you can't really help.

 

[Fredje]

I noticed that over about 4bps, the water flow can no longer deal with the frequency of 'burps' in my reactor (an old Sera reactor model without vent) so an air pocket forms at the top of the reactor. When I subsequently cut off CO2 flow, it takes forever to dissolve the air pocket because the small bubbles caused by the whirl immediately join the air pocket again. Once the top area is no longer entirely covered by gas, the remaining gas in the reactor's top is quickly gone, it's sort of a tipping point.
So at 5bps, my reactor is probably no more effective than at 2bps...