I have CO2 system of Sera, the CO2 tank is 8 litter which I bough very cheap
from Oxar.
The diffuser is of a kind that need water flow, what happen is that it's
getting dirty very often, so I took the CO2 hose and inserted it to the
external filter inlet with an ordinary aeration stone.

It is working so great I had to lower the CO2 flow.

In article , "Michael" wrote:
I have CO2 system of Sera, the CO2 tank is 8 litter which I bough very cheap
from Oxar.
The diffuser is of a kind that need water flow, what happen is that it's
getting dirty very often, so I took the CO2 hose and inserted it to the
external filter inlet with an ordinary aeration stone.
It is working so great I had to lower the CO2 flow.



Do you mean like a hang-on-the-back filter? I always thought the CO2 would
escape easily when you do this. I might try this, as my bell diffuser (DIY)
isn't working so well these days. It used to give me ~25ppm, but now it
hovers at 10-15. I think as I get more and more plants, my system can't keep
up.

__
"Insert witty comment here."
-John

I used to have Sera CO2 diffuser. It worked very well. Efficient, too.
Every week I had to bleach it to keep it looking like new.

Did you attach a powerhead with a pre-filter to your diffuser?

Steve

"Michael" wrote in message
...
I have CO2 system of Sera, the CO2 tank is 8 litter which I bough very
cheap
from Oxar.
The diffuser is of a kind that need water flow, what happen is that it's
getting dirty very often, so I took the CO2 hose and inserted it to the
external filter inlet with an ordinary aeration stone.

It is working so great I had to lower the CO2 flow.

No, I have an external power filter under the water tank, electrical one
which is fully closed, the CO2 circulating through it with water and the
great thing is that going through all the media in the filter cause the CO2
to completely dissolve into the water, even the diffuser couldn't do such
great job.

"redled" wrote in message
...
In article , "Michael"
wrote:
I have CO2 system of Sera, the CO2 tank is 8 litter which I bough very
cheap
from Oxar.
The diffuser is of a kind that need water flow, what happen is that it's
getting dirty very often, so I took the CO2 hose and inserted it to the
external filter inlet with an ordinary aeration stone.
It is working so great I had to lower the CO2 flow.



Do you mean like a hang-on-the-back filter? I always thought the CO2
would
escape easily when you do this. I might try this, as my bell diffuser
(DIY)
isn't working so well these days. It used to give me ~25ppm, but now it
hovers at 10-15. I think as I get more and more plants, my system can't
keep
up.

__
"Insert witty comment here."
-John

I had an extra internal filter so I used it as pressure head but I was
annoyed too much by the frequent need to clean extra filter and the diffuser
it's self

"SteveG" wrote in message
news
I used to have Sera CO2 diffuser. It worked very well. Efficient, too.
Every week I had to bleach it to keep it looking like new.

Did you attach a powerhead with a pre-filter to your diffuser?

Steve

"Michael" wrote in message
...
I have CO2 system of Sera, the CO2 tank is 8 litter which I bough very
cheap
from Oxar.
The diffuser is of a kind that need water flow, what happen is that it's
getting dirty very often, so I took the CO2 hose and inserted it to the
external filter inlet with an ordinary aeration stone.

It is working so great I had to lower the CO2 flow.

I have heard others recommend this approach to diffusing CO2. It seems like
a good idea.

I am wondering if it is ever possible that CO2 in the filter would inhibit
nitrifying bacteria. (I doubt it, but I am curious..) Have you checked your
nitrites and ammonia levels since making this change?

-Bruce Geist
"Michael" wrote in message
...
No, I have an external power filter under the water tank, electrical one
which is fully closed, the CO2 circulating through it with water and the
great thing is that going through all the media in the filter cause the
CO2
to completely dissolve into the water, even the diffuser couldn't do such
great job.

"redled" wrote in message
...
In article , "Michael"
wrote:
I have CO2 system of Sera, the CO2 tank is 8 litter which I bough very
cheap
from Oxar.
The diffuser is of a kind that need water flow, what happen is that
it's
getting dirty very often, so I took the CO2 hose and inserted it to the
external filter inlet with an ordinary aeration stone.
It is working so great I had to lower the CO2 flow.



Do you mean like a hang-on-the-back filter? I always thought the CO2
would
escape easily when you do this. I might try this, as my bell diffuser
(DIY)
isn't working so well these days. It used to give me ~25ppm, but now it
hovers at 10-15. I think as I get more and more plants, my system can't
keep
up.

__
"Insert witty comment here."
-John

I am wondering if it is ever possible that CO2 in the filter would inhibit
nitrifying bacteria.

No, bacteria is cool about it. There is even anaerobic bacteria there that
leaves only when there's no oxygen around. I doubt that you can bring the
c02 level so much up that it will kill the bacteria before killing the fish.

On Tue, 14 Jan 2003 21:20:56 -0500, "Bruce Geist"
wrote:

I am wondering if it is ever possible that CO2 in the filter would inhibit
nitrifying bacteria. (I doubt it, but I am curious..) Have you checked your
nitrites and ammonia levels since making this change?

Adding CO2 to the water in no way reduces the O2 level of the water.
In fact, most tanks with CO2 injection will have a measurably higher
level of O2 due to photosynthesis. So, the bacteria have just as
much, or more O2 available to them.

The one place where CO2 could reduce biofiltration would be in a
trickle wet/dry setup. In my wet/dry, the trickle chamber is fairly
well sealed, and probably contains higher than normal levels of CO2.
So I probably have reduced bio-filtration because of CO2, but wet/dry
filters provide so much bio-filtration that the small reduction
doesn't have an effect.



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

"Anton Valouev" wrote in message
...

I am wondering if it is ever possible that CO2 in the filter would
inhibit
nitrifying bacteria.

No, bacteria is cool about it. There is even anaerobic bacteria there that
leaves only when there's no oxygen around. I doubt that you can bring the
c02 level so much up that it will kill the bacteria before killing the
fish.



Thanks. Do you diffuse CO2 into a canister filter? -Bruce Geist

I have an Eheim 2028, which is a completely closed canister filter. I have
never detected anything but zero nitrites and/or ammonia levels after the
tank was cycled, so my guess is that I have quite a bit of excess
biofiltration capacity also.

I have an in-tank diffuser, a cylindrical vertical tube with bio-balls
inside and a fine-mist airstone that emits CO2 from underneath the
bio-balls. Water circulates through the bottom of the tube to the top, over
the bio-balls, and out an outlet in the top of the diffuser. This thing
requires cleaning every 5 or 6 weeks. The powerhead that circulates water
through it requires maintenance more often than that. This idea of
injecting CO2 into the filter is appealing because it sounds like I would no
longer have to service my diffuser. I presume the added CO2 does not
necessities cleaning the canister more often. (I cannot see how that would
happen..)

Anyhow, thanks for your reply.

-Bruce Geist


"Chuck Gadd" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 14 Jan 2003 21:20:56 -0500, "Bruce Geist"
wrote:

I am wondering if it is ever possible that CO2 in the filter would
inhibit
nitrifying bacteria. (I doubt it, but I am curious..) Have you checked
your
nitrites and ammonia levels since making this change?

Adding CO2 to the water in no way reduces the O2 level of the water.
In fact, most tanks with CO2 injection will have a measurably higher
level of O2 due to photosynthesis. So, the bacteria have just as
much, or more O2 available to them.

The one place where CO2 could reduce biofiltration would be in a
trickle wet/dry setup. In my wet/dry, the trickle chamber is fairly
well sealed, and probably contains higher than normal levels of CO2.
So I probably have reduced bio-filtration because of CO2, but wet/dry
filters provide so much bio-filtration that the small reduction
doesn't have an effect.



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

Thanks. Do you diffuse CO2 into a canister filter? -Bruce Geist

I used to, but I had a problem starting my Fluval 203 canister sometimes
when the bubble flow was too high. I've got scared that someday the filter
would stop in the middle of the night and all the bacteria would die. Plus I
think it was loosing too much of CO2, so I've switched to Dupla reactor 400.
Awesome gadget! So smartly designed! Had to order it from Europe (I am in
the US myself), as far as I had a trouble to buy one at a comparable price
in the US.

Bottomline, canisters do a decent job if you inject low amount of CO2.
Otherwise I suggest a "real reactor".