co2 bubbles....

[K_S_W_I_S_S]

i have small co2 bubbles all over my tank..... is there any way to stop them from going every where????

[Skittyfish]

Could they be oxygen bubbles instead of CO2? Or is your CO2 being dispersed by a pump and being blown all over?

[K_S_W_I_S_S]

it is being dispersed by a powerhead... and then it is being blwon everywhere... and the only way o2 bubbles could get in there would be pearling, and i dont think my plants are pearling... but i wouldnt be able to tell anyways...

[superjohnny]

You sir, have healthy plants :) Your power-head is diffusing the CO2 nicely and the bubbles are oxygen from your plants. Perfectly normal, perfectly healthy behavior.

[Sumpin'fishy]

I do not believe it is pearling. Pearling would be obviously coming from the plants themselves. I have the same issue as you do. I am piping DIY CO2 into a Duetto DJ-100 Internal Powerfilter. It is a very fin mist that comes out, but it is not FULLY dissolved. It is just blowing around the tank (and further dissolving:) )

We will both need to use a reactor to keep the bubbles contained until they are more fully dissolved to not have this problem. I don't really have a problem with it right now, though! It might be hard to tell when your plants are really pearling, though! eh?:rolleyes:

I have noticed that some of the bubbles have even lodged on the plants and make it look as though the plants are beginning to pearl!

[K_S_W_I_S_S]

its not pearling..... i can see that it is the bubbles from the co2 just getting thrown around the whole tank.... theres bubbles everywhere, not just coming from the plants...

[K_S_W_I_S_S]

i used a reactor made out of a soda bottle, but i still had that problem... i used it just like the gravel vac reactor, but bubbles still got out....

[Sumpin'fishy]

I have never used a reactor yet, so you need to hear from someone with experience. One thought that comes to mind is maybe you had too much flow going through your reactor, or maybe too coarse (large holes) of sponge on the bottom so small bubbles were being released. I don't know what other people do to get rid of that problem. Does it bother you too much to leave it be? I just added a second bottle of brew to my DIY system today, so I haven't really had time to get used to it yet. It may bother me later, too!

[K_S_W_I_S_S]

it kind of bothers me... i cant really tell if my plants are prealing and also, it looks like there is stuff floating in ther tank...

[Sumpin'fishy]

yep, you and I are in the same boat. Mine looks identical!

I just read a post by djlen that said his bubbles coming out of his reactor are almost imperceptable. He says he has to look hard to see them. I think maybe you should try a larger sponge and squeeze it in the end of the reactor to make each "hole" smaller. This should hold the bubbles in longer. This is just my theory. I have never put it to practice.

[K_S_W_I_S_S]

ive also tired something like that (to make a tighter hole) and it pretty much just filled up with air and the bottle just kind of floated to the surface...

[K_S_W_I_S_S]

i mean i have tried something like that... i wrote tired...

[Skittyfish]

I used the Duetto too, got tired of seeing nothing but bubbles and ended up buying a reactor. You can build one out of PVC and bioballs, I have seen it posted from Plantbrain in the last few days under inexpensive reactor, but can't find it just yet.

Anyway, I now have very very few escaping bubbles and my plants pearl like crazy, and I use fewer bubbles per second than I had to use with the Duetto.

[K_S_W_I_S_S]

well i put the bottle back on and put a small sponge in the end and it works better than w/o it so i guess ill just use that....

[cpr4cpu]

i snipped off the top half of a 16 ounce water bottle, affixed a pair of suction cups to it to stick to the back glass and used it as a collection bell for the bubbles of the DIY reactor. I then put the powerhead upside down and pointed the flow into the bell. The turbulence inside the bell was pretty cool, but it did a great job of dissolving the CO2 into the water. If you can hide the contraption behind a rock or driftwood it does work well, plus the intake on the top of the powerhead has confused the snails and they don't seem to be getting stuck on the intake anymore.

Just try to direct the powerhead flow into the bell as best you can so it creates a lot of water movement. Any extra CO2 is bubbled off, and if the bell fills up the excess CO2 it will just bubble out the bell and up to the surface.

It isn't pretty, but it's really inexpensive, and will help with the "tiny bubbles" troubles.

[aquatic-store]

Buy a reactor because a lot of the co2 is being wasted. They make membrane reactors, ones powered by powerheads or even a diy your own. If have have any questions feel free to email me

Marcus

Http://www.Aquatic-store.com
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