DIY CO2 Bell Diffusor

[Trigger1985]

So, I was sitting staring at my DIY CO2 Bubble up and break on the surface despite using an airstone, and my spare limewood covered in mold, when I thought I'd give something a try, using all the left over parts from my DIY protein skimmer for a SW I never started.
What I did was took a 3/4" PVC cap, bored two holes in it, one in the top, the other in the side. The one in the side is just big enough to secure an extra suction cup I had around. The hole in the top I used to feed a piece of rigid airline through, using a small piece of silicon airline as a gasket. The CO2 bubbles out of the rigid line, floats up where it is collected in the PVC cap, and hopefully dissolves into the water. Any reason this wouldn't work? I'd love a reactor, or even to run it through my filter, but I'm broke, and my filter is an Eclipse 2 hood, with lots of surface area in the filter box to degas the CO2. My next project is going to be altering the outlet for the hood to decrease surface agitation.

 

[rsanz]

I would imagine that the entire bell would eventually overfill with water and it would just "overflow" over the sides. I'm pretty sure that the gas has to be agitated in some way before it begins to dissolve in any significant capacity into the water.

 

[Trigger1985]

Beat me too it I suppose I shoulda done some observation before posting. I had been hoping bubbling the mass would have aggiated things enough, but it's not, I'm seeing exactly what you had imagined- great big bubbling of CO2 forms, and then bubbles start rolling off the edge of it. Not everyone, so I Imagine I am getting a little bit of desolved CO2, but not near enough, shifting my efforts to altering the outlet for the filter enough to start feeding co2 into that instead, it would figure that the one size of PVC that I think I could use is just about the only size I don't have scrape of, but I've got a lot of scrap 1/8" acrlyic, so we'll see what I can Macgyer.. I sure wish I could afford a new filter, I HATE this hood, getting tired of having to juryrig around with it..

 

[peanutbowl]

i believe the old chuck gadd gatorade bottle co2 bell had a powerhead agitating things just below the water surface in the bell. he believed it worked. but i think eventually he upgraded to a bio ball type reactor. his site is truly a wealth of knowledge for the diyer. a little outdated, sure. but inspiring.:idea: