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I want to use the one diffusor and hook up another canistor or diy bottle to increase production. Do I simply use regular airline tubing and then join the two from the cansisters to the one going to the diffusor? If yes, what kind of valve do I need and is regular airline tubing good?

Last edited by tetratech at 02-Mar-2005 10:25

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Tetra - what are you running now. I know those things don't quite put out 1 bps, but I was getting 1 bubble every 3 seconds, which wasn't bad. My pH dropped from about 7.8 to 7.2 and my plants are doing great.

I too have thought of adding a second device, but never thought to pipe them in together going to the same ladder. I was going to buy a second Hagen, and place the hose at the 50% mark at first so I wouldn't over do it. I figured that would get me to 7.0 or 6.9 and ultimately over 10 on my co2.

Unfortunately, after one week, I'm now down to 1 bubble ever 5 seconds, but I'm still holding at a pH of 7.2 with a kH of 4.48 degrees, amazingly.

The reason I ask is that I was using the yeast from the Nutrafin kit, which turned out to be old. In fact, I saw a date when it came into the fish store and it was 2002 ]:|. Originally, I was getting 1 bubble every 30 seconds, which was a joke. I am now using 1/2 tsp of freshly bought dried baking yeast and 1/2 tsp of baking soda. When I see my pH rising as it slows, I'll replace it.

Cory,

After about two weeks of using I'm running about 1 bubble every 5 seconds, but I have the device on a 46 gallon, but didn't want to crowd the back of my tank with another diffusor.

I did read your thread about the old yeast and will definitely follow your formula.

By the way did you use the Nutrafin fertilizer that came with the same and do you know how often to dose.


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If I had a 46 gallon, I would definitely look for a way to boost production. Splitting the line to share two bottles sounds like a great idea and I'll be eager to see what you come up with here.

I'm going to let the plants tell me how well they like the co2 level as it stands now. I'm already seeing good results with algae die-off and the plants just look perkier. I've added cabomba and more hornwort, so we'll see.

I use the Flourish line of fertilizers. Several times weekly, I put in about 1 mL of Iron and the same amount of potassium (my iron was low at one point, causing all my leaves to go yellow and the iron picked it up). I learned the potassium helps the plants to take up the iron so I always dose them together. I also dose just plain Flourish at the same time and Flourish Trace Minerals once weekly.

One thing I like about having added the co2 is that I can see the nitrates are being used. I was having a hard time containing them with weekly 20% water changes, and now the levels are great - like 5-10ppm.

I'll let you know once I split them and see what happens.
So I could probably use a t-valve or something with regular tubing?

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I'm not too tech savie when it comes to valves so I'm waiting to see what someone else says

Somebody help

Yes a T will work fine. Eventually with reg tubing you will need to replace it. The CO2 isn't really good for it.

I use silicone. It's about a dollar more for 20 ft of it. It is better suited for use with CO2, and will not get hard on you like the reg tubing will.

Do let us know how this works for you. I bought one of these little defusers myself to go on my DIY setup. I've been toying with another idea so I've not done anything with it yet, and don't know that I will.

I'm thinking that they probably looked into the right amount of ladder length for the little unit to work on the recommended aquarium size. Meaning it might not be long enough for use on anything producing more CO2 than a 20 gal should have.

Shannen, I think what matters is the number of bubbles per second. With the same kH (4.48), my pH dropped to 6.6 or 6.8 when it was running 3 bps. When it runs at 1/3 bps, i get 7.2. pH. Therefore, I believe that by adding a second bottle and increasing the number of bubbles per second, it will drop the pH much more. Also, if the bottles are staggered as to when they are filled, it may keep things more steady too.

I think I'm going to just buy another kit from Hagen. You could get them at BigAls and Foster & Smith for about $20.
I was going to aid a diy, but the extra cansister will look better and I'll have extra parts, etc.

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Oh, your bad .

Yeah - you could do the two cannisters with a single ladder. It would be easier to count the bps that way.

That's exactly what I'm going to do!

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