Okay, I did sprayed some soap solution on all the fittings. So far, no
sign of leakage. I did cut one of the aquarium tube ending so that it
fit tighter to my check valve. I also removed the airstone.

After setting the bubble rate 1 per sec., I came back about 2 hours
later. There is no more bubbling. I check the ph, it is now 8.0. I
will readjust the bubble rate again to see what will happens in a few
hours. I will keep you all posted on this.

Joe


Chuck Gadd wrote in message . ..
On 14 Aug 2003 12:26:07 -0700, (Joey) wrote:

Thanks for all the feedbacks. They are very informative. After, my
tank was empty, I went to a second shop and trade in my other tank. I
screwed in every threads very tight this time with teflon tapes. I
hope that it will last me at least a month this time.

Don't just hope. Add a few drops of dish soap to a cup of water, mix
it up, and brush the mixture onto all the fittings. No sense wasting
a whole tank of CO2 just hoping.

Any how, my current problem is with the reactor. As stated in my first
posting, I am using the modified gravel-vac reactor with the powerhead
to pump the water into the gravel-vac. What I find trouble some is
that I tuned my flowmeter in such a way that it will output a 10-15
fine bubble per seconds. However with this setting, the bubbles
eventually doesn't come out. Hence, it is very hard for me to control
the CO2 concentration. I have to occasionally come and increase the
bubble rate a few times every day.

I've got no idea about your flow meter, but from your original
message, if the co2 flow stops when you start the powerhead, then I'm
guessing that there is a leak, and once there is any pressure in the
gravel val, it's easier for the CO2 to find it's way out of the leak.

As for my diy reactor, I do not have any bio balls just a sponges
covering the open end of the gravel-vac. As I am typing this my bubble
coming out of my wooden airstone has again disappear. I wonder whether
this is cause by the water pressure coming into the gravel-vac or
whether the CO2 is actually dissolve so efficent that I am not suppose
to see any.

Try removing the airstone. Then you will be able to more accurately
see and count the bubbles. The larger bubbles coming out of the tube
should still dissolve properly in the reactor.


Chuck Gadd
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua