co2 diffuser bubbles not being absorbed

Q

QldRobbo

Learning
Jun 18, 2006
39
0
0
Brisbane, Australia
Hi,
I just set up a pressurised co2 system on my tank. I am using a glass diffuser with ceramic disc and it produced lots of micro bubbles, but these bubbles don't dissapear into the water as I expected them to... I have the diffuser under my filter outlet and it pushes the bubbles all through the tank but they just eventually end up at the surface and I would think therefore that not much co2 is diffusing into the water and its mostly just coming out of the water.

Is this normal or not right or what?

Any help appreciated.

Also, I am running a wet dry filter, and now I have co2 injection and trying to grow plants... am I just fighting an endless battle with the wet dry filter (lots of water disturbance/aeration)

Cheers,
Rob
 
The glass type diffusers aren't 100% efficient at diffusing the co2. They idea is they produce the micro bubbles, which creates a very large amount of surface area between the co2 and water. I can't say by how much, but even if you don't notice, I assure you the bubbles are getting smaller from the time they leave the glass diffuser to the time they reach the top of the tank.

I previously used a Hagen ladder to diffuse my co2. Even though bubbles still reached the surface, I was able to maintain a high level of co2(checked via drop checker). Now I diffuse into my cannister filter and let it process through the filter. Works great.

Point is, while not as efficient as some other type of diffusion, your diffuser is working.




Edit: Just saw the part about the wet/dry. To answer: Yes, endless battle. For injecting co2, ditch the wet/dry...fast. You really want to minimize surface area, and the way to do that is to minimize surface agitation. Wet/dry's rely on maximum exposure of the water to air.
 
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The water will never absorb all the CO2. It is normal. Just let it run, you are doing fine.
 
Your basicly misting your co2 like a mazzi injector. If you want to disolve the bubls you will want to build a forced venturi reactor or put the disc under your canister filter intake if you have one. misting is fine to do and so is the forced reactor they both have drawbacks and pro's. Misting you can have a little more co2 in the tank before the fish go to the top of the tank and start gasping.
 
the co2 never goes up with the wet/dry filter... obviously it is gassing off faster than I can inject it! I turned off the wet/dry for an hour yesterday and immediately the pH started to drop.

So, I have to work out if I want plants badly enough to spend some more money on a new filter...

I have a 100G tank, heavily stocked with fish (thats why I have a large wet/dry filter (1500+gph pump), I have a great filter setup at the moment and haven't had a single fish die or be sick in over a year), and I have three internal powerhead filters for mechanical filtration (I have two plecos, lots of poo). I don't want to buy something and then have issues with not enough filtration.

Will something like a rena filstar xp4 be sufficient for biological filtration?

Any help appreciated.
 
at drfostersmith an xp3 is $170 and an xp4 is $230

Would a xp3 be sufficient? It is "rated" to 175gal tanks, but I have always thought that manufacturers ratings are dubious at best, and prefer to get bigger to be sure. Keeping in mind that I do have 3 internal powerhead filters for mechanical filtration though.
 
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