DIY CO2 reactor problem

J

JPT

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Mar 17, 2003
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Just as a note, I tried searching the old threads but I couldn't find a topic on point.

I tried putting together a DIY CO2 reactor for my 10 gallon tank using the gravel vac tube method published on various Internet sites. I think however that the powerhead I am using (Rio 600) might be TOO strong for the since the water is overflowing into the CO2 line coming from my DIY CO2 generator. I was just wondering whether anyone else has had this problem, and if you all had any suggested solutions.


Thanks
 
Reactor

Welcome to our forum JPT!!
Where are you feeding the power head from? In other words, where is your tube going into the power head? If it's going in from the bottom, and your flow is set at forward, not backwash, I can't see any reason why it's acting like that. I use a Hagen 402 and it sucks the bubbles right up into the power head. If I reversed the flow it might do what you're experiencing.
Check it out.
Len
 
Thanks for the reply Len :-)

Actually, I had the CO2 line piped directly into the gravel vac tube instead of the powerhead intake. The designs that I saw on the Net showed this type of construction. I think that there is so much pressure buildup in the gravel vac tube that the water is looking for any hole to escape into i.e. the CO2 line.

Currently I have the CO2 line piped into the intake of the powerhead, but the problem is that the impeller is making a lot of noise (I guess from the CO2 bubbles disrupting the spin of the impeller). Did you have a similar problem?
 
There are two possible causes for the noise that I can think of. One, the end of the tube that comes out of the power head to go to your siphon tube is too far into the outflow of the power head and the impeller of the power head is hitting it. This can happen if you push it too far into the power head.
Two, I used to get noise when a large quantity of CO2 would go into the impeller of my AquaClears, but very, very little(almost imperceptible) noise going into the power head because the power head is submerged almost to the bottom of my tank. If that's what is causing the noise, you can put an air stone on the end of your CO2 line and a finer bubble will go into the power head. Two things to consider if you use and air stone. Don't buy a regular one, get a pack of disposable ones. The "stone" air stones crumble in reaction to CO2 after a month or so. And get the disposables that are marked "fine", not the coarse ones.
Len
 
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