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#1
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Aquaclear 201 Powerhead for DIY CO2 diffusion
OK, I've been using an upturned bell in my 55gallon as my diffuser for quite
some time, with 2 2L bottles of yeast solution. Well, this method works good and my plants are doing good, but I can't break the 15ppm mark. My goal is 25-30, so I'm going to try something new, and today I went out and bought an aquaclear 201 powerhead. I also got some new, sturdier 2L rubbermaid bottles that will fit behind my tank, where pop bottles wouldn't. Anyways, I don't know what the best way to tackle the solution is. Should I: a) Put the CO2 output into the airline input of the powerhead b) Have the CO2 bubble into the water intake of the powerhead c) http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/diy_reactor.htm That reactor looks good, but if one of the simpler methods will work, of course I'll go that route. So, what are other people's experiences? Also, my 201 has a sticker on it that says "do not submerge" but I think that it's actually submersible, and just not CSA approved for it. I have a heater like this. Can someone verify that it is submersible? I don't have the manual for it. __ "Insert witty comment here." -John |
#2
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Aquaclear 201 Powerhead for DIY CO2 diffusion
Hey, check out what I did. I kinda started out like you with what to do. I
have some pictures and an interesting how-to you could read. You'll get a kick out of it, I'm sure. http://www.leetsauce.net/~liquid/DIY-CO2/ jesse "redled" wrote in message ... OK, I've been using an upturned bell in my 55gallon as my diffuser for quite some time, with 2 2L bottles of yeast solution. Well, this method works good and my plants are doing good, but I can't break the 15ppm mark. My goal is 25-30, so I'm going to try something new, and today I went out and bought an aquaclear 201 powerhead. I also got some new, sturdier 2L rubbermaid bottles that will fit behind my tank, where pop bottles wouldn't. Anyways, I don't know what the best way to tackle the solution is. Should I: a) Put the CO2 output into the airline input of the powerhead b) Have the CO2 bubble into the water intake of the powerhead c) http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/diy_reactor.htm That reactor looks good, but if one of the simpler methods will work, of course I'll go that route. So, what are other people's experiences? Also, my 201 has a sticker on it that says "do not submerge" but I think that it's actually submersible, and just not CSA approved for it. I have a heater like this. Can someone verify that it is submersible? I don't have the manual for it. __ "Insert witty comment here." -John |
#3
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Aquaclear 201 Powerhead for DIY CO2 diffusion
Well - a powerhead thats not submergable would be pretty useless - however
my "submergible" powerhead also has this sticker. I submerged it without a problem. On the route I would take .. I find that putting the tubing into the water intake side of the powerhead results in a lot finer bubbles - and a better PPM count - if I'm not carefull I can easily achieve 50 PPM in my 90 gallon with 2 2L bottles using this method. "redled" wrote in message ... OK, I've been using an upturned bell in my 55gallon as my diffuser for quite some time, with 2 2L bottles of yeast solution. Well, this method works good and my plants are doing good, but I can't break the 15ppm mark. My goal is 25-30, so I'm going to try something new, and today I went out and bought an aquaclear 201 powerhead. I also got some new, sturdier 2L rubbermaid bottles that will fit behind my tank, where pop bottles wouldn't. Anyways, I don't know what the best way to tackle the solution is. Should I: a) Put the CO2 output into the airline input of the powerhead b) Have the CO2 bubble into the water intake of the powerhead c) http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/diy_reactor.htm That reactor looks good, but if one of the simpler methods will work, of course I'll go that route. So, what are other people's experiences? Also, my 201 has a sticker on it that says "do not submerge" but I think that it's actually submersible, and just not CSA approved for it. I have a heater like this. Can someone verify that it is submersible? I don't have the manual for it. __ "Insert witty comment here." -John |
#4
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Aquaclear 201 Powerhead for DIY CO2 diffusion
In article , "Mentaloid" wrote:
Well - a powerhead thats not submergable would be pretty useless - however my "submergible" powerhead also has this sticker. I submerged it without a problem. On the route I would take .. I find that putting the tubing into the water intake side of the powerhead results in a lot finer bubbles - and a better PPM count - if I'm not carefull I can easily achieve 50 PPM in my 90 gallon with 2 2L bottles using this method. Yeah, it is pretty useless. If I go by what the sticker says, I would have about 1/4" to work with (1/4" between the min water line for the powerhead output to be below water and the max line stated on the sticker). Anyways, in Canada, I understand that completely submersible (submergable?) devices are much harder to get CSA approval, so many companies just put a max water line on thier products so they don't have difficulty selling them. __ "Insert witty comment here." -John |
#5
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Aquaclear 201 Powerhead for DIY CO2 diffusion
When I first built my reactor, I tried using an Aquaclear 301, but it wasn't
near strong enough and also required too much tubing in the tank. I now use an extra Magnum 350 I had as the pump. This works out great. This gives my Magnum new life. I can now run it all the time and use whatever media I want to filter with and then the filtered water is injected with CO2. The force of the water coming out of the filter is also slowed down some since it goes through the reactor and doesn't create any additional current in the tank. Here are pictures of my reactor, based in whole off of several designs I saw on the net. http://www.leetsauce.net/~liquid/DIY-CO2/reactor/ Before I built this reactor, I was using the venturi port on a Aquaclear 201. That seemed to work ok, but I ended up with a bunch of tiny CO2 bubbles all in the tank and a bunch of them collected on the surface and just rode the current. With the reactor, there are no more bubbles in the tank and my CO2 levels have risen to where they should be, as well as my PH falling from 7.5 to 7.0 over the course of about a week. jesse |
#6
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Aquaclear 201 Powerhead for DIY CO2 diffusion
The 301 wasn't enough? I was thinking that the 201 I just got might now be
enough. Oh well, I'll give it a try without a reactor first. In article W_qT9.499516$pN3.55158@sccrnsc03, "SlimFlem" wrote: When I first built my reactor, I tried using an Aquaclear 301, but it wasn't near strong enough and also required too much tubing in the tank. I now use an extra Magnum 350 I had as the pump. This works out great. This gives my Magnum new life. I can now run it all the time and use whatever media I want to filter with and then the filtered water is injected with CO2. The force of the water coming out of the filter is also slowed down some since it goes through the reactor and doesn't create any additional current in the tank. Here are pictures of my reactor, based in whole off of several designs I saw on the net. http://www.leetsauce.net/~liquid/DIY-CO2/reactor/ Before I built this reactor, I was using the venturi port on a Aquaclear 201. That seemed to work ok, but I ended up with a bunch of tiny CO2 bubbles all in the tank and a bunch of them collected on the surface and just rode the current. With the reactor, there are no more bubbles in the tank and my CO2 levels have risen to where they should be, as well as my PH falling from 7.5 to 7.0 over the course of about a week. jesse __ "Insert witty comment here." -John |
#7
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Aquaclear 201 Powerhead for DIY CO2 diffusion
I have found the gravel vac based reactor is working great.
The reason I say the 301 wasn't strong enough is because the force of water it could produce through the large gravel vac tube and through the sponge cap did not "tumble" the CO2 bubbles fast enough and burst them. What ended up happening was the CO2 bubbles start collecting on the inside top part of the sponge and just sitting there. When I hooked up the Magnum, these problems went away. Also, the link you pointed to uses a powehead that pushes WAY more gph than the 301 does. jesse "redled" wrote in message .. . The 301 wasn't enough? I was thinking that the 201 I just got might now be enough. Oh well, I'll give it a try without a reactor first. In article W_qT9.499516$pN3.55158@sccrnsc03, "SlimFlem" wrote: When I first built my reactor, I tried using an Aquaclear 301, but it wasn't near strong enough and also required too much tubing in the tank. I now use an extra Magnum 350 I had as the pump. This works out great. This gives my Magnum new life. I can now run it all the time and use whatever media I want to filter with and then the filtered water is injected with CO2. The force of the water coming out of the filter is also slowed down some since it goes through the reactor and doesn't create any additional current in the tank. Here are pictures of my reactor, based in whole off of several designs I saw on the net. http://www.leetsauce.net/~liquid/DIY-CO2/reactor/ Before I built this reactor, I was using the venturi port on a Aquaclear 201. That seemed to work ok, but I ended up with a bunch of tiny CO2 bubbles all in the tank and a bunch of them collected on the surface and just rode the current. With the reactor, there are no more bubbles in the tank and my CO2 levels have risen to where they should be, as well as my PH falling from 7.5 to 7.0 over the course of about a week. jesse __ "Insert witty comment here." -John |
#8
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Aquaclear 201 Powerhead for DIY CO2 diffusion
I used the small stones that I've collected on the ocean beach and put it in
the gravel based reactor with 301 powerhead. I didn't use any spounge. I observe complete dissolving of co2 with the bubble rate of 3 bubbles per second. This set up works nicely for me. I don't think that those expansive reactors would do much better than mine. Perhaps if I put some bioballs instead the stones, it will work a little better since there would be some more turbulence. Anton. "SlimFlem" wrote in message news:2eAT9.503764$pN3.55674@sccrnsc03... I have found the gravel vac based reactor is working great. The reason I say the 301 wasn't strong enough is because the force of water it could produce through the large gravel vac tube and through the sponge cap did not "tumble" the CO2 bubbles fast enough and burst them. What ended up happening was the CO2 bubbles start collecting on the inside top part of the sponge and just sitting there. When I hooked up the Magnum, these problems went away. Also, the link you pointed to uses a powehead that pushes WAY more gph than the 301 does. jesse "redled" wrote in message .. . The 301 wasn't enough? I was thinking that the 201 I just got might now be enough. Oh well, I'll give it a try without a reactor first. In article W_qT9.499516$pN3.55158@sccrnsc03, "SlimFlem" wrote: When I first built my reactor, I tried using an Aquaclear 301, but it wasn't near strong enough and also required too much tubing in the tank. I now use an extra Magnum 350 I had as the pump. This works out great. This gives my Magnum new life. I can now run it all the time and use whatever media I want to filter with and then the filtered water is injected with CO2. The force of the water coming out of the filter is also slowed down some since it goes through the reactor and doesn't create any additional current in the tank. Here are pictures of my reactor, based in whole off of several designs I saw on the net. http://www.leetsauce.net/~liquid/DIY-CO2/reactor/ Before I built this reactor, I was using the venturi port on a Aquaclear 201. That seemed to work ok, but I ended up with a bunch of tiny CO2 bubbles all in the tank and a bunch of them collected on the surface and just rode the current. With the reactor, there are no more bubbles in the tank and my CO2 levels have risen to where they should be, as well as my PH falling from 7.5 to 7.0 over the course of about a week. jesse __ "Insert witty comment here." -John |
#9
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Aquaclear 201 Powerhead for DIY CO2 diffusion
Perhaps if I put some bioballs instead the
stones, it will work a little better since there would be some more turbulence. That's just my point, the 301 didn't provide enough turbulence. I have an empty gravel vac, suction cup holding the hose in teh middle of the vac tube, a 2" sponge piece in the bottom and the Magnum providing water flow. The turbulence is so good I don't need anything in the tube to create more. |
#10
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Aquaclear 201 Powerhead for DIY CO2 diffusion
In article 5IHT9.12963$%n.3066@sccrnsc02, "SlimFlem" wrote:
Perhaps if I put some bioballs instead the stones, it will work a little better since there would be some more turbulence. That's just my point, the 301 didn't provide enough turbulence. I have an empty gravel vac, suction cup holding the hose in teh middle of the vac tube, a 2" sponge piece in the bottom and the Magnum providing water flow. The turbulence is so good I don't need anything in the tube to create more. Since I'm getting ALMOST enough CO2 diffused with just the cup method, I'm hoping I can get by with the 201. I got it cheap because the package was opened, and it came with 301 instructions. I will give it a try. I'm going to try using biomax rings in a tube. Might as well get some filtering action while we're at it right? It would be good to have a backup should my whisper power filter fail. Sometimes I'm not home for a weekend or something. __ "Insert witty comment here." -John |
#11
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Aquaclear 201 Powerhead for DIY CO2 diffusion
One other thing I noticed. When I had media in the tube with the 301, many
air bubbles formed around/in/on the media and never dissolved. I tried rock, ceramic tubes, and plastic balls...same on all of them. Maybe you will have better luck. "redled" wrote in message . .. In article 5IHT9.12963$%n.3066@sccrnsc02, "SlimFlem" wrote: Perhaps if I put some bioballs instead the stones, it will work a little better since there would be some more turbulence. That's just my point, the 301 didn't provide enough turbulence. I have an empty gravel vac, suction cup holding the hose in teh middle of the vac tube, a 2" sponge piece in the bottom and the Magnum providing water flow. The turbulence is so good I don't need anything in the tube to create more. Since I'm getting ALMOST enough CO2 diffused with just the cup method, I'm hoping I can get by with the 201. I got it cheap because the package was opened, and it came with 301 instructions. I will give it a try. I'm going to try using biomax rings in a tube. Might as well get some filtering action while we're at it right? It would be good to have a backup should my whisper power filter fail. Sometimes I'm not home for a weekend or something. __ "Insert witty comment here." -John |
#12
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Aquaclear 201 Powerhead for DIY CO2 diffusion
"SlimFlem" wrote in message news:QAIT9.3459$Dn.305@sccrnsc03... One other thing I noticed. When I had media in the tube with the 301, many air bubbles formed around/in/on the media and never dissolved. I tried rock, ceramic tubes, and plastic balls...same on all of them. Maybe you will have better luck. I have the same effect in my reactor. This happens because there might be collecting some other gas (other than CO2) that doesn't so readily dissolve in water as CO2. My guess is the effect is more drammatic if you use yeast produced CO2 since there might be some side metabolic products. |
#13
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Aquaclear 201 Powerhead for DIY CO2 diffusion
This problem no longer exists with the Magnum running it.
I have the same effect in my reactor. This happens because there might be collecting some other gas (other than CO2) that doesn't so readily dissolve in water as CO2. My guess is the effect is more drammatic if you use yeast produced CO2 since there might be some side metabolic products. |
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