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With mine I took a old pill bottle cut slits in it wide enough for a lil air to go through, drilled a hole in the lid big enough for the airline tubing to squeeze in put a few lava rocks in the pill bottle, and put the pill bottle in a hollow piece of driftwood. It seemed to work well for me.

Yes! that's correct!

T'anks Falstaf
If I'm reading that right...it's a tube, sponge filling one end and the other end embedded in the substrate....then the airline running from the CO2 into the tube thru the sponge....?

^_^
*Proud member of the Committee for Sig Line Restoration*

Sorry for all the light flairs, but i think this will give you more of an idea.

The filter media is plain filter sponge.

Falstaf attached this image:

I use a syphon tube with some filter media as a bell,

Hmmmm I believe I have a broken syphon tube lying around somewhere...how would the setup go ?

^_^

*Proud member of the Committee for Sig Line Restoration*

Falstaf,

I dropped you a PM.

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

Yeah, the same thing happened to me today---the powerhead completely sucked up the yeast/sugar mixture--uck, what a mess.

I use a syphon tube with some filter media as a bell, this allows the water to circulate a little more than the regular bell. i once tried it on a power head and it sucked out all the mixture, so never again, to unstable.

Here all equipment is really expensive like that reactor would be twice the price, so if you don't mind Bensaf i would take the offer, i can do a money order to you via western union or something like that to cover all the expenses.

Babel,

Yes, that's what I'm talking about. $63 !!!! Rip off !!! They have them here in vaious sizes to suit any tank. Some use bio balls like that one , some use ceramic rings etc, but all work on the same theory. I've checked them out they're pretty good quality, don't look at all cheapo, got a nice finish to them usually in a green transparent plastic so you can hide them etc. As I said $5 to $10 depending on the size.

My offer stands.

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

i see a constant 6.0 ph

Moondog I'll trade some water with you, my pH is around 8.2 with CO2. I think the total drop was only .5 - .6 pH due to the hardness of my water.

Even with that high pH and hardness my plants and fish love it.

Last edited by mattyboombatty at 12-Oct-2004 18:07

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

How do you hook the diy tubing up to the tank? Just let it sit there?

I was told by plantedtank.com to stick the C02 tube into the power filter intake for good results, but wouldn't all that agitation diffuse the c02?

I never see much of a pH fluctuation due to the constant surface area of the CO2 in the bottle.

the ph in my 10g only fluctuates during a water change. otherwise i see a constant 6.0 ph (yes i know it's low ) even when i forget to change the solution for 2 weeks

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"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman

I agree with moondog, if you have the floorspace in your tank for a gatorade bottle, this is a decent way to run things(just run the tube from your yeast bottle to the gatorade bottle with a small hole in the back). I never see much of a pH fluctuation due to the constant surface area of the CO2 in the bottle. I'd guess however, that the ammount of dissolved CO2 isn't incredible, but I'm more of a fish person than a plant person anyways.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Bensaf,
If [link=this]http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=19219;category_id=2873;pcid1=3349;pcid2=" style="COLOR: #EB4288[/link] is what you're talking about then yes....a bit more pricy than what you've found.

^_^
*Proud member of the Committee for Sig Line Restoration*

As everybody mentioned the important things is getting the bubbles as small as possible or keeping then in contact with the water for as long as possible. There a number of ways to do this of which the putting the Co2 tube into the intake of a canister filter is probably the most effective.

But I am curious why nobody mentioned the most obvious and simplest method , buying a reactor of some sort whether that be a diffuser or atomizer. It may be only obvious to me because I am in the middle of setting up a Co2 system (wouldn't you know it, the only thing I am having trouble finding is Co2 ! Or at least Co2 in a container smaller then 5 foot tall! Got a small 5lb cylinder on order though) and here in Asia, planted tanks have become a bit of a craze. The array of Co2 equipment now available is dazzling. In one shop there are dozens of options for C02 reactors, diffusers of various shapes and sizes, ladders and atomizers. Most are from Taiwanese/Singaporean manufacturers.The price range is $5-$10. At such low prices it makes sense to pick up one of these rather then fiddle about with a DIY method that's not going to be as effective and probably only a couple of bucks cheaper? I will use an atomizer, a bit more expensive ($10) but I like the very small size and that it can easily be hidden.

I'm curious is it difficult to find reactors in the US or are they expensive ?

If they are hard to find or pricey and somebody needs help I am quite happy to pick up a reactor and post to anybody who wants one (hope I don't regret this). Don't worry I'm willing to pick up the postage (it will take about 10 days by express post).For one or two people I may consider sending over FOC.


Last edited by bensaf at 12-Oct-2004 03:59

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

Cup_of_lifenoodles:
Your presumption is correct. The agitation of a power filter does gas out a good amount of CO2. As you know, a power filter is pretty open. A lot of CO2 escapes before it enters the tank. It is a quite inefficient method of injecting CO2, but an acceptable trade-off. Personally, I inject CO2 into a cannister filter. Since the cannister is a closed system, it is not as inefficient. But again, a trade-off. CO2 gases out quickly through agitation. In the best of systems, you want 0% agitation and the smallest possible CO2 bubbles in contact with the water for as long as it takes to be absorbed by the water.

-Wayne

I use a wood airstone which produces lots of fine bubbles. Works really well. The Co2 saturation in the tank is good. It produces much finer bubbles than your standard airstone.

the filter intake method is used so that the filter will crush the co2 bubbles and help them dissolve into the water. you will lose a little co2 but mostly you will dissolve more of it into the water than just putting the tube directly into the tank. personally i prefer using a small bottle in the tank as a kind of diffuser, for the simple reason that the ph stays stable even if you forget to change the co2 mix for a week or two....

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"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman

I run mine down to an airstone right now... when I had a powerhead running in the tank, I'd just hook it up to the venturi.

I have heard people using it on the filter intake, but have also heard that on some makes this can get noisy when the bubbles get into the impeller...

I think the main thing is to be sure the bubbles are as small as possible, as they are better absorbed that way (IME). I figure that since my Anubias "pearl" on the underside of the leaves, it must be working anyways.

Now that I'm using an airstone, I just have a regular 180 degree joiner in the tube, to make it easier to disconnect at night (when I plug in a closed gang valve to the aquarium end to protect against syphoning), and never push the connection on too tight (figuring if the airstone clogs the join will hopefully "give" before the bottle does *knocks on wood* )

Dex


Last edited by dextroze at 11-Oct-2004 10:22

I always thought that a strange way of doing CO2 but it seems pretty standard.

I have mine running into a small soda bottle that I'm using as a bell diffuser....dont' know for sure if it works better than other methods....but @least I can see the bubbles.

^_^
*Proud member of the Committee for Sig Line Restoration*