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bensaf,

When you say "filter intake" are you talking about the strainer inside the tank near the substrate or are you talking about actually creating an entrance on the canister or intake tubing itself outside of the tank.

My Scapes

Tetra,

It is possible to use a reactor outside the tank. Again you can buy a commerrcial unit or make your own.

There a little bit more complicated. As such the commercial ones are a bit pricey and the diy ones require a bit more work. Ideal for canister filters.

One of they guys here made his own, I'm pretty certain it was moondog. Maybe he'll pop into this thread or you could drop him a PM.

He posted some info and pics recently should be still here, have a look at the past threads. I think Babel started the topic.

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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.

Well, if your only problem is visual, you can look into buying/making an external reactor. But, if I were you and it really bothered me, I would just get some fast growing plants to hide it temporarily.

Wait, it's exactly what I have done!

Untitled,

Only reason to replace would be if something was possible that wasn't seen inside the tank.

I guess I'll have to wait till my plants completely hide it.

My Scapes

I've once made a reactor, if you can call it that, by drilling a hole in the internal filter at the bottom where the water are sucked into the filter (this was a very cheap filter and a basic one too). The CO2 then entered the filter with the water and was sucked through the sponges and then through the impeller, where it was "chopped" into very small bubbles which were then thrown into the tank with the water. I did that not expecting much, but the result was pretty good, concerning the CO2 levels in the tank. I recall reading somewhere that CO2 might wear the impeller or something like that, but it didn't happen and although this filter is now retired, I sometimes use it when I want extra filtration (i.e. when I move plants around and get all that rubbish floating int he water) and it works pretty well. This was used with a DIY CO2 which I ditched around about the same time I got a new filter for the tank. On my JBL system I use the diffuser that came with it and it works very well. I'm looking to replace it though as it's a little too big for my liking and in order to hide it I have to grow those giant vals which I don't really like, especially not as a foreground plant (but it's either that or the less sightly diffuser...).

By the way, why do you want to replace your Hagen diffuser? Never used it, but it looks quite alright and I have heard good things about it.

Is it just me, or are those rotala stems planted into a CDR ring cover?

Perceptive ...indeed it is a CD cover ...those were some that had been moved from the office where I dont' have as deep substrate (one of the tanks is sand) I've just never quite gotten around to unplanting the pot...before adding CO2 there was no worries that they'd be outgrowing it with their roots....that's all changed in the last month and a half I'll have to take time to transplant them.

^_^


[hr width='40%']"I'm alright, I'm alright
It only hurts when I breathe"

Thank for the images. O.K. All of you are going inside the tank. I thought I might be missing something like connecting right to the cansister itself.

My Scapes

Tetra,
Just stick it in the strainer. The filter should suck up the bubbles.

As promised here's a pic of mone. Sorry about the quality - it's too well hidden and hard to get to.

The powerhead is the black thing. The green plastic tube (actually that's the reflection of it) is the reactor. You can just see at the top left where the powerhead outlet is attached to the reactor. The airline tube goes into the very top of the reactor. The dark stuff at the bottom is the bio rings.

So the Co2 bubble goes in, the water coming into the reactor from the powerhead churns it all up and the bio rings breakup the bubbles and keep them in the reacor a bit longer rather then just shooting out the bottom. Very effective. The reactor cost about $15.

bensaf attached this image:

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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.

This is mine:



It's really just a simple CO2 bell, I have it hidden behind some plants. It works well enough, and was extremely easy to set up. A lot of members like something a bit more complicated like a bubble ladder or whatever, but I like the simplicity of a plain old CO2 bell. It keeps the CO2 level where I want it in my tank, best of all teh whole thing cost me less than $5 to set up.[/font]

I know this is really "stupid" but can some one show me how their co2 meets the water. I know many of you put the tubing to the filter intake. I would just like to see a picture of it.

Is there another way to do this so the tubing does have to be visible in the tank?

My Scapes

Is it just me, or are those rotala stems planted into a CDR ring cover?

but your diffusor still hanks on the back of the tank and goes in via tube. (Is that correct?)

Actually I took the pic last night Tetra, but the USB was busy (playing with my new toy -iPod ). I'll upload it later (in work now )

Basically your right its on the rear inside of the tank wall. In prinicple it's the same as Babels - just a commercial version. It was cheap and I was lazy.

You can just feed the airline tube carrying the Co2 into the canister intake. The canister is not a bad solution as it's a closed loop. The theory is the co2 will bounce around in the canister and the impellor baldes will break up the bubbles and you've got co2 enriched water coming out. Some people do complain that the bubbles bouncing around makes the canistwer quite noisy.

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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.

Forgot I stoped to take this this morning :%)...ignore the white skirts they didnt run away from the camera for once *sigh*...
Standard gravel vac
aquajet (I believe) powerhead and airline tube stuck down the top 2 different pieces of onion bag net. One on top one shoved up from the bottom...the CO2 forms a bubble between.


^_^


[hr width='40%']"I'm alright, I'm alright
It only hurts when I breathe"[/font]

bensaf I look forward to seeing your pic. Right now I'm using the diffusor that came with my hagen system, but I have it hooked up to a 1.89 liter juice bottle using the cocktail described here (protein power, sugar, yeast, baking soda). It is bubbling alot, but inconsistently sometimes I'll and there are 20 bubbles coming out one after the other and other times I don't see anything for 10 to 15 seconds.

Anyway I was trying to decide if I should keep the hagen diffusor that you still see in the tank or if there was something I could do that would go right to my cansister, but your diffusor still hanks on the back of the tank and goes in via tube. (Is that correct?)

My Scapes

There are quite a number of ways to get the co2 into the water. Commercial units or DIY options are easy and relatively inexpensive.

They don't have to obtrusive either and can be pretty easy to hide. You've seen the pics of my tank and I bet you can't see the equipment but it's all there just hidden away.

Personally I took the easy/lazy way and just bought a commercial reactor which is hooked up to a small power head.

The reactor is basically a plastic container that the airline tubing feeding the co2 connects at the top. There is an inlet at the top and an outlet at the bottom. The reactor is filled with ceramic bio rings or bio balls. The powerhead outlet is connected to the reactor inlet (the outlet from a canister or internal filter can also be used). The co2 enter the reacor at the top the flow from the powerhead outlet pushes the the bubbles around the reactor. The bio balls serve to both break up the bubbles to much smaller bubbles and to keep the bubbles in the reactor for as long as possible (don't want then just coming straight out the bottom). The "enriched" water comes out the bottom through the reactor outlet. I like this method as it's very efficient and provides some additional gentle current to the tank.It's very easy to do a DIY versions of this as Babel described , they are just as effective. I just preferred to spend $15 as they are very easy to find here and pretty cheap.

The most important thing is using a method that keeps the co2 bubbles in contact with the water as long as possible giving them more time to dissolve. Breaking them into smaller bubbles helps as they are more apt to float around the tank rather then rise to the surface and pop.

I'll post a pic later, it's very easy to understand that way.

Last edited by bensaf at 11-Apr-2005 22:47

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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.

Till then, [link=here is the thread]http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/forums/Planted%20Aquaria/54960.html" style="COLOR: #EB4288[/link] I based mine on. I had to adapt it somewhat due to the powerhead I chose to use and the fact that the gravel vac had been broken so drilling wasn't exactly an option.

^_^



[hr width='40%']"I'm alright, I'm alright
It only hurts when I breathe"

Thanks,

I really want to see that.

My Scapes

I'll take a pic tonight...been meaning to anyway...but I use a modification on an idea.

Old gravel vac tube, powerhead goes in the top along with the airline tube, the vac itself is full of the netting from an onion bag (keeps the CO2 from escaping) powerhead forces bubbles to remain inside.

Seems to work quite well, I'm yet to see a CO2 bubble escape out the top.....plants havent grown up infront of it yet though .

^_^
[hr width='40%']"I'm alright, I'm alright
It only hurts when I breathe"