I got one of these on a whim the other week because I could more likely
convince my roommates to allow it than DIY. I also only wanted moderate
CO2 injection since it's for a rift lake tank. It seemed to me at first
like it wasn't producing, but then I noticed the issue. The water pressure
was just too much for the CO2 to push all the water out of the tubing. I
took a 6mL feeding syringe which was just the right size for the tubing
and used it to push all the water out. Then I pinched the line closed as
much as possible before putting it back on the canister. Within minutes, I
had bubbling going.
One thing I have noticed that deviates from the LFS setup of this system I
saw is that my bubbles get stuck mid-way up the diffuser. I'm not
complaining much. This allows more contact time between the CO2 and water.
I think the reason is that I don't have the diffuser perfectly straight on
the side of the glass. It is slightly tilting down on the side away from
the CO2 tubing.
I do have to say even though I'm only getting moderate CO2 injection (I
have just one unit on a 40 gal, about 2-3 bubbles per minute) I am seeing
the results. Within a couple days of putting it in, all 10-20ppm of
nitrates from the tap water were sucked away (main reason I put plants in
a rift lake tank). The crypts stopped melting and started to pearl and put
up new leaves and runners. The java ferns are putting out plantlets and
new leaves like crazy. Now a couple weeks later, my algae problem is under
wraps. There's still a thin layer of green algae on the rocks and tank
sides, but nothing near the algae mess there was at first (which was
another reason I decided to follow my whim and try this system.. at $30,
it couldn't hurt to try it to see if the algae would be controlled).
I hope to have some updated pictures on this tank's website to show the
system at work, but I need to get some film for my SLR, so it'll be a week
at least. If you want to see how the tank looked when it was freshly set
up, the URL is
http://www.shwaine.com/fish_40g.html. There's been
considerable growth in the crypts (the tallest ones are just about as tall
as the rock pile now) since adding the CO2, although I may pull the
aponogeton bulbs. They just aren't happy even with the CO2 it seems.
Bruce Butz wrote:
Phil: My first load was a dud,24 hours no bubbles.So I started over.This
time with half as much "stabilizer" (baking soda) as I have very hard
water. This time I got bubbles after three
hours.It's been five days and I am getting steady bubbles at the rate of
one every five seconds.
I also like the bubble counter/diffuser a lot.
After years of messing around with injecting into the filter
intake(noisy) Using cut off one ltr.
bottles with holes in them (ugly and inefficient)
I would recommend the diffuser by it's self
to others who use DIY Co2.
You can buy the diffuser by its self from Big Als.
I think it is $11.
Kind of looks cool too.
Bruce
http://community.webtv.net/BruBz/BrucesBeatlePage